Mongolian President U.Khurelsukh issued a decree to rebuild the country’s ancient capital of Kharkhorum.

New Kharkhorum city planning is based on the concept of being the center of Mongolia’s government, administration, culture, tourism, health services, international relations, and high-tech industry. Kharkhorum city will cover Uvurkhangai and Arkhangai provinces, having a population of approximately 500,000 people and 50 percent of the residential area will be green space, while 70 percent will be areas for walking, cycling, and public transportation.

According to the city development concept, the new city will be an economically independent, modern smart city with developed infrastructure, which uses surface water, recycles waste, reuses gray water, and uses various types of renewable energy.

Kharkhorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260 and of the Northern Yuan dynasty in the 14–15th centuries. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Uvurkhangai Province of modern-day Mongolia, near today’s town of Kharkhorin and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu Monastery, the probably earliest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. They are part of the upper part of the World Heritage Site Orkhon Valley.

Kharkhorum is located in the territory of the central province of Uvurkhangai, more than 300 km west of the country’s current capital of Ulaanbaatar.

Ulaanbaatar, home to over half of the country’s 3.4 million population, has been facing such issues as traffic jam, air pollution and housing.