Buir Lake

Buir Nuur lies on the far eastern steppe and is the largest lake in that part of the country, shallow and productive, with sandy shores and reedbeds and a fishery that supports the settlements around it. Fish include pike, perch and carp species, and fishing is the main activity for both locals and the few visitors who come. Birds use the lake heavily, with cranes, geese, gulls and waders on the shores and in the surrounding wetlands. The setting is the eastern Mongolian grassland, one of the largest intact temperate grasslands remaining anywhere, so the drive out is hours of unbroken steppe with gazelle herds and almost no settlement. The lake is shared with China, and the Mongolian side has a village, a few ger camps and little else.

The landscape

• The shallow lake - open water with sandy shores and reedbeds.
• Fishing - pike and perch taken by locals and visitors.
• Waterbirds - cranes, geese and waders on the shore and wetlands.
• Eastern steppe - vast grassland with gazelle on the approach.

When to go

June to September; the lake freezes in winter and the roads are hard. Summer brings warm water and mosquitoes. Migration periods bring the most birds. Wind on the open steppe is constant.

Before you go

This is a very long way from anywhere, with hours of rough steppe driving from Choibalsan and no services en route. Facilities are minimal. Mosquitoes are severe near the water in summer. The lake is scenically plain; the appeal is the emptiness and the birds.

Nearby

Menen steppe lies north; Choibalsan is the provincial base.

Key facts