Onon-Balj National Park

Onon-Balj National Park covers a broad stretch of boreal forest, river valley, and wetland in the northeastern corner of Khentii province, straddling the Onon and Balj rivers near the Russian border. The landscape is a sharp contrast to central Mongolia: instead of open steppe, you get birch and larch forest, boggy river flats thick with birdlife, and the feeling of being much farther north than you are.

The birdwatching is exceptional — white-naped cranes, black storks, Siberian cranes, and Eurasian cranes all use the river floodplains as staging grounds during migration. The rivers hold strong populations of lenok trout and taimen, one of the world's largest salmonids, making this one of Mongolia's premier fishing destinations. Access is extremely limited; most visitors arrive on organised expedition tours from Ulaanbaatar. Independent travel requires good maps, a satellite phone, and local knowledge.

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The Onon River flows from this national park all the way to the Shilka River in Russia and eventually into the Amur. It is one of Mongolia's few rivers that drains eastward toward the Pacific rather than south to China — a fact that makes the watershed ecologically unusual and helps explain the Manchurian forest character of the vegetation here.

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