While I didn’t think of it in the few days I spent in Erlian (in a clean, cheap hotel a few blocks north of the town square), I suppose it makes sense that it is where Mongolian women are trafficked through. They crop up in stories about human trafficking from all over Asia – in Singapore brothels, according to Paul Theroux’s latest, and on the American-controlled sweatshop island of Saipan. During the time I spent in Ulan Baatar I found that most Mongolians I met – this ranged from adults to the teenagers I briefly taught in the countryside when I ran out of money – were repulsed by China and terrified of cultural assimilation, but it was far too economically enticing, and geographically convenient, to ignore. Given that the overland options in the other direction are the somewhat stagnant Russian cities of Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude, this is understandable. The hundreds of trucks daily making the rough trip up from the border packed with Chinese goods to be sold at the capital’s ‘black market’ were a testament to China’s lure. That women are lured to Erlian en route to sexual slavery in other Asian cities is no surprise, and is reflective of human trafficking patterns in areas outlying more dynamic, successful economies the world over.

Excellent post, Mitch. Makes me wish I’d done something more productive in Erlian than wander around, get sick from streetcorner shashlik and argue with a restrateur over the price of some godawful bottle of spirits. I look forward to reading further entries.