When S.Ulziitogtork, 42, returned home to Mongolia after spending several years working as a construction laborer in South Korea, the first thing that caught his attention was the lack of parks and public spaces in his home country.

“In Korea, there are many parks and children play in safe, clean, beautiful areas,” Ulziitogtork, who is locally known by the nickname “Ulzii,” said. “I came back to Ulaanbaatar and saw that children didn’t have parks. Instead, they were playing around rubbish. It broke my heart.”

There was a former granite mine in his neighborhood, which according to S.Ulziitogtork the Mongolian government used to build modern Ulaanbaatar in the 1940s, exploiting the labour of Japanese prisoners of war.

“It wasn’t an officially designated landfill,” S.Ulziitogtork said. “But people didn’t have anywhere else to dispose of their waste. So [the former granite mine] was full of rubbish and children were playing there.”

He decided to clean the unofficial landfill, and then turn it into a beautiful park — like the ones he had seen in South Korea. He would use his own savings to do this and consider it a gift to the children of his community.

Feeling energized by this plan, S.Ulziitogtork immediately got to work. He first cleared out 300 bags of trash, each of which, he estimates, weighed around 60 to 70 kilograms (132 to 154 pounds). Once all the rubbish was cleared out, he found a nice surprise from nature: Rainwater had collected in the bottom of the ditch that was dug by the miners. This meant there was a small artificial lake which had remained hidden for decades under the rubbish.

It took S.Ulziitogtork two years to clear the landfill and construct a children’s park surrounding the small lake. Nowadays, the small lake that he discovered harbors small boats in summers and functions as an ice skating rink in winters. It’s still a work-in-progress: he keeps tweaking the park with new ideas and plans.

The park also acts as a community and learning center for children. There, they can participate in ice skating activities, watch open-air cinema over the small lake in summers, and learn about Mongolian culture. The park currently serves 6,000 children in the area. The children keep coming back for various activities, as S.Ulziitogtork keeps working on transforming his park into a better community and cultural center every year.

After S.Ulziitogtork’s efforts, the local government not only gifted him the permanent rights to use the former granite mine, but they also honoured him with an award for his services to the community.