Children playing outside a temple - Tsetserleg

Children playing outside a temple in Tsetserleg (Central Mongolia). Anyway, Mongolia is one BIG playground. One-third of Mongolians haven't reached their fourteenth birthday :). City childern start going to school proper aged six and stay in school until the age of eighteen. After school, Mongolians play in 'Children's Squares' in front of their apartments. A children's square often includes a basketball court, sandpit and a small park. But these days you're just as likely to find Mongolian children playing video games in the nearest Internet café. Nomadic children have no such 'luxuries' and instead enjoy the wide open vistas of the steppe. Some say Nomad kids learn to ride a horse before they can walk. For some Mongolian Children, life sucks. Street children live underground and venture up when they need to find food and money. You can see them at Ulan Bator's shopping streets, they live a hard life.