North East Asia learns about market economy. Market economy at its lowest
level. Chinese T-shirts for Russian fur caps. Views from a rolling department
store.
The Transmongolian railroad linking Beijing and Moscow is getting even
more popular than it already used to be. But most of the travellers aren´t
tourists but businessmen. Sort of. Tickets are usually sold out months
ahead. But various travel agents are keen to sell you one for amazing prices.
Scalping operations are going on at an enormous amount. Westerners are
offered package tours in order to calm down their fears after vicious rumours
were heard about the train and the occasional knifing aboard. In general
package tours for mutual protection against theft, etc. are a good idea
unless you´re the only one who booked it. And that´s exactly
what happened to me. Anyway this gave me an excellent opportunity to experience
a national economy´s period of primitive accumulation according to
Marx.
Maximum security prevails within the railway station in Beijing. It´s
early in the morning. Most of the city is still asleep. After passing several
gates passengers queue up in front of a big weighing-machine watched by
guards in uniforms. Although baggage has been limited to 35 kg per passenger,
some cash to one of the inspectors for weights and measure or other people
who know there responsibilities for economic development turns almost every
booth into a Chinese textile warehouse. Sneakers still sell as well in
Russia. To avoid punishment for pirating brand names Chinese manufacturers
invented brand names like „Poma“, etc. Portable Karaoke-sets are stockpiled
up to the ceilings of the compartments. The space between the ceiling and
the roof of the waggon is also used for storage purposes. Should there
be any problems with the border guards ownership questions will be impossible
to solve.
There´s hectic activity all over the train. Nobody wastes a second
to look at the impressive leftovers of the Great Wall outside. There´s
business to do. The traders know and help each other. Many of them take
the trip once a week, many of them travel with family members or former
co-workers. Upon arrival at the border station late at night there will
be a mix of various goods in every compartment, usually the legal limits
for leather jackets, cheap electronics, etc. are respected. Usually everything
finds the way back to its owner. Although especially the Mongol traders
travel in ganglike family groups there is nothing like organised crime.
Most of these people try quite hard to make a living. Nevertheless this
trip is a dangerous one for residents of the world´s prosperity zones.
Loudspeakers give instructions as we arrive in the border town. The
shops are already closed, otherwise there would be lots of opportunities
to spend the rest of the people´s money here. We´re late. It´s
dark everywhere. The cheering English version finishes with the remarkable
words „This is the end. Good bye.“ While the bogies are changed - the Mongol
railways are somewhat wider - lots of bugs seize the train. The amateur
photographers documenting their trip outside are hassled by clouds of mosquitos.
The Mongols hand out Chinese/Mongolian customs declarations. The arrival
card is in Mongolian only. At least other nationalities are allowed to
enter the country. Fortunately all these forms are well documented and
translated in a Japanese travel guide owned by some Japanese aboard. And
most amazing: a female Mongolian border guard at this end of the world
speaks fluent German.
While the traders use the Samovar in every waggon to prepare their
instant noodles, the tourists assemble in the dining car. Anyway this is
no reason to avoid the dining car, especially not the Mongolian one. The
food in the Mongolian car is described as awfully bad in almost every guide,
but there seem to have been significant changes after black market economy
was introduced. As long as you know what your money is worth you will not
be cheated and the food seemed good to me. But you shouldn´t go there
for the food. The best thing about the Mongolian dining car are its pop
art interieurs and ist athmosphere. „Cherry cherry Lady“ by Modern Talking
- one of the most horrible German bands ever to exist - and other 80ies
classics I never wanted to hear again blare out of the mini stereo. It´s
a strange place to have breakfast while travelling through a landscape
which reminds of a neverending golf course. The menu doesn´t mention
the price of the food so everything depends on your negotiating skills.
Most of the goods will be cleared in Ulan Bataar, the Mongolian capital
with the amazing name „Red Hero.“ Most of them are sold on the big black
market right outside the city. Almost everything is available here.
German cigarettes „fallen from the back of a lorry“ are sold for 25 Yen
a box, batteries for about the same price. If you look able to pay for
it you might even be offered the lorry. Of course the currency is US$.
There´s a market within the city where local currency is still valid
but people will approach you there in order to buy from you. Don´t
expect anything useful to be on sale.
Ulan Bataar looks like any other Russian city but its inhabitants dress
more colourful, they don´t walk as if they had to carry an immense
but invisible burden and they even smile sometimes. This way their grinding
poverty remains hidden to the bulk of tourists invading the country after
the Mongolian version of Peresnost - il tod - was proclaimed. Nothing ever
works in this city of 600,000 inhabitants. During the last winter even
the heating system for the modern Russian-style housing units designed
to put up the homemade proletariat broke down. As a result most inhabitants
returned to their relatives on the countryside and lived with them in the
traditional tents called ger. Even within the city these tents are to be
seen.
The guesthouse I live in is run by a small tourist agency founded after
the state monopoly on tourism was abolished. It used to be a multi-storey
apartment block and has been turned into a chaep guesthouse for budget
travellers. The agency had to import everything - wallpaper, toilet paper,
food, etc.- from China. Anyway it seems to be doing a lot of business now.
Tourism is one of the future growth industries in Mongolia, at least the
government hopes so. It might be a good idea to recall the most recent
developments first:
Mongolia has become a democracy but nothing like an economic tiger as
promised by the democrats. Actually the first free election in 1992 was
won by the Mongolian People´s Revolutionary Party after ruling the
country for 75 years. The non-communist parties just managed to win six
seats. Anyway a post-Soviet constitution and economic reforms were introduced
the same year. But the government failed to prevent the economy from shrinking
about one third in the early 1990s due to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
94% of the Mongolian exports went to countries of the Eastern block, 97%
of all imports came from these countries. Moscow was the centre of advanced
education for Mongolian students and graduates. There has been some growth
(about 6% in 1995) and the MPRP government managed to curb inflation from
a record 325% in 1992 to 35%. The economy was privatized through the distribution
of vouchers in a similar scheme as the Czech economy. A similar level of
cheating and betrayal must have occured. Even unemployment has been falling,
but too late for the MPRP. On June 30th, 1996 the Democratic Union Coalition
won the second free elections winning 50 of the 76 seats in the Mongolian
parliament. Reducing the business tax by 20% is one of the ideas the democrats
have voiced on how to lure in foreign investment. However more than 22%
of the population live below the poverty line nowadays and the average
wage is about 30 US$ a month.
Lily, a 20-year-old student of economics I met, is rather sceptical
as far as the outcome of recent reforms is concerned. She studies in Beijing
and has a job as a tourist guide during the summer break. Up to now all
doors were open wide for the daughter of a top-ranking Mongolian diplomat.
Rupert Murdoch´s Star TV from Hong Kong determined the aspirations
of the small but wealthy elite. Now the wheel rotates again and others
take their turn. Lily thinks the situation will get worse. Anyway her English
is excellent, she knows how to communicate with Westerners and there will
always be a job for her. The official unemployment rate is 9%. Nobody knows
how many people are still working in the legal economy. The informal
sector is growing rapidly. Everybody tries to do „business“ and the international
trains are one of the best ways to profit from price differences in North
East Asia. Generally products of the Chinese light industry are exchanged
for Russian machinery or - most of the time - for Russian cash. Nothing
Mongolian is sold abroad, nothing is especially produced for this kind
of border traffic.
Genghis is 18 years old. I met him on the train acting as a „bodyguard“
for his sister, nieces and other family members trafficking textiles. As
an acrobat of the Mongolian state circus he has the looks to keep trouble
away. Other circus members are all over the train. „If i stay in Mongolia,
I`ll earn arround 20 US$ a week. Doing business here I`ll get ten times
as much. Of course I`m still working out, but one of the members of our
ensemble broke both arms during our exercising, so I don`t know whether
we`ll be able to go to Portugal this year:“
„Byebye!“ The Mongol traders wave towards a big Lenin portrait on a
mountain on the Russian side of the border. 200 up to 500% is the profit
margin of the traders. Sometimes a rich Westerner`s wallet will offer another
opportunity for primitive accumulation. A large amount of my money was
„found“ by a fellow traveller which means I wasn`t mugged. It took the
Russian militia boy two minutes to explain the difference between a loss
and a theft case. Cramping his fingers arround the barrel of an AK47 he
and his colleague seemed more interested in harassing the girl trying to
do the translation for me. Of course it is impossible to stop the train
and as long as I can´t offer a significant bribe there is no whatsoever
kind of action to be expected from the local security organs. They will
not even confirm that the money is gone.
There are also Russian traders. They meet in the Russian dining car
added to the train after passing the border. The Transmongolian is no longer
the showwindow of Soviet economic superiority. There is still chanpagne
and kaviar available in the dining car but the athmosphere has deteriorated
to that of a rather cheap drinking bar in one of the sleazier parts of
the city. The staff has better things to do than offer the food listed
on the menu. They mainly deliver hamburgers and fried potatoes on order,
or they try to sell cheap orange squash and beer in the train. Russians
and Mongols don´t talk to each other. There are exceptions but basically
there is no sympathy between the two. Russians try to extort money from
the traders in exchange for „protection.“ Of course they have to bribe
the personnel on the train and customs officials as well. On the other
hand Russians risk being beaten up in Mongolia just for being Russians.
The former friends are no longer wanted there.
Officially this kind of trade is illegal and the Mongols aren´t allowed to leave the train. However you can´t stop this kind of market forces. For many Siberians this rolling department store is the only chance to shop. If there´s no other way the goods are sold through the windows. Hundreds of people are waiting in every city for the latest Chinese fashion, for a new portable stereo and wads of cash are handed arround. Militiamen try to disperse the crowd at the station of Taiga city which seems to be one of the last strongholds of law and order. Anyway they fail. Usually local leaders try to grab their share by extortion.
Most of the traders leave the train in Novosibirsk. Conditions get worse
the closer the capital gets. Local goods are available there. The difference
between Moscow and Ulan Bataar is that ist inhabitants dress less colourful.
The world´s capital of corruption already enjoys the anarchy of a
market economy freed of all restrictions. By the way, the German embassy
refused to buy me a train ticket back to Germany. They said some German
gets robbed every day and there´s not enough money to send them all
home. Half of their car-park has been stolen as well. Looks like Mongolia´s
future. Lenin´s revenge. Sort of.