Naadam 2020

July 11–15, 2020

Across Mongolia, Mongolians will celebrate Naadam, the Festival of the Three Manly Sports.

In Ulaanbaatar, as well as in towns across Mongolia, athletes will compete in wrestling, archery and horse racing.

Classic Trips

Nomadic Life and Naadam

Custom Travel

Opening Ceremony

On the morning of July 11, Mongolians gather at Ulaanbaatar's National Central Stadium for the Naadam Opening Ceremony, a grand celebration of Mongolian dance, music and culture.

Naadam commemorates the 99th anniversary of the Mongolian Revolution, the 814th anniversary of the Mongol Empire and the 2,229th anniversary of the Hunnu Empire.

Horse Racing

At the end of each horse race, the crowd rushes forward, surrounding the winning horse. Touching the sweat of the winning horse brings good luck for the rest of the year.

For Naadam, horses race long distance across the open steppe. Horses are categorized by age, while jockeys are children who ride bareback.

Wrestling

Zodog, Mongolian wrestler's frontless vests, are based on the legend of a princess whom no man could defeat in wrestling. Men now wrestle bare-chested to prevent a woman from entering a tournment and defeating them again.

Wrestling in the National Naadam Festival takes place in the National Central Stadium in Ulaanbaatar. The nation's top 512 wrestlers compete for two days in nine untimed, single-elimination rounds.

Archery

A Mongolian bow takes a full year to make using birch bark, mountain goat horns and other animal parts.

Monoglia's tradition of archery has shaped world history, allowing Genghis Khan to conquer the world. The National Naadam Festival features both men's and women's competitions at the National Archery Field next to Ulaanbaatar's Naadam Stadium.

Anklebone Shooting

Sheep anklebones, or shagai, are important objects, used by Mongolians for both games and fortune-telling. In the tradition-rich game of anklebone shooting, competitors fling a domino-like bullet, trying to knock down a row of sheep anklebones.

Privacy Policy

Last updated on January 22, 2020

Part I: Introduction

Blue Silk Travel, LLC, an Ohio limited liability company, is America's only tour operator specialized exclusively in Mongolia. Our partner on the ground in Mongolia is Blue Silk Travel, Ltd., a Mongolian limited liability company.

This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, contact us, book our tours, or travel with us. It explains how we use this information, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

This Policy does not cover information collected when your view our pages on social media sites. These sites collect information about you, and share some of that data with us. That data collection is governed by the privacy policies of those sites.

We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you're happy with any changes. By using our website, booking or traveling on our tours, or sharing information with us by phone, email, mail, in writing, or in person, you're agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

For questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices, please send us a message using our contact form, write to 16800 Van Aken Boulevard, Shaker Heights, OH 44120, or call 1-800-225-0560.

We collect for the purposes outlined below. We will not sell or rent your information to third parties, and we will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Part II: Information Collected for the Proper Functioning of Our Website

A. What Information We Collect

Functional Cookies

We collect cookie data from you. Cookies are small bits of data saved on your computer by our website. Some cookies, which we call functional cookies, are needed for the proper functioning of the website (we also collect analytics cookies as described in Part III). These indicate information such as whether we should provide you with the desktop or mobile version of the website.

Log Files

As with the vast majority of websites, Blue Silk Travel records log files, which list every request made to the server (loading a web page, loading picture, sending a form, etc.), the time of that request, the result of the request, the IP address that made the request, and the page from which the request came. Another file stores similar information for every error encountered when loading and processing website files.

B. How We Use This Information

Functional Cookies

Functional cookie data are stored on your computer and are sent to the website computer server to provide you with the proper version of the website. We do not retain these data.

Logging Files

We review the data from these files to investigate suspicious activity, maintain website security and troubleshoot technical issues with the website. The server automatically deletes these files after a period of time.

C. How to Limit our Information Collection

Functional Cookies

You can set your browser settings to block cookies from this website. However, the website may not work as well.

Logging Files

No, a user cannot turn off logging for this website or any other website that you visit. However, if you do not want your IP address logged, we suggest connecting through a VPN or using another anonymization technique.

D. How We Share This Information with Third Parties

This information is stored on a web server which is owned and operated by a major hosting company which has stated that it follows standard security procedures.

Part III: Information Collected for Analysis of Website Usage

A. What Information We Collect

In addition to placing functional cookies (described in Part II above), we also place analytical cookies. These cookies record your estimated geographic location, each page on the site you've visited and what time you visited it, and how you arrived on our site.

B. How We Use This Information

We use this information to examine overall trends about how many people visit our website, when they visit, how they interact with the site, and how this has changed over time. Our website sends this data to Google. Google's computers aggregate the data from all visitors to our site, and shares it with us through the Google Analytics service.

We have taken steps to protect your privacy and gather data relevant only to overall statistical analysis of our site. For example, we do not send Google complete IP addresses, and have not enabled certain features of Google Analytics that track user demographics.

C. How to Limit our Information Collection

If you do not want us to send information to Google Analytics, you could block all cookies from this website, but that would also block functional cookies. Instead, you can install the Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on, which is designed by Google to block Google Analytics not only on this site, but on every website you visit.

D. How We Share this Information with Third Parties

Google stores this data on its servers.

Part IV: Information Collected to Send You Information on Our Tours

A. What Information We Collect

When you fill out a form on our website, we receive the following data: the information you submitted on the form (name, email, message), the web page (including mobile vs. desktop) from which you submitted the data, and the time and date that you submitted the request. We also collect similar information if you call us or email us asking for information, along with any details you provide to help us plan your trip.

B. How We Use This Information

We use this information to send you the information that you requested, and then to respond to any further questions and messages you send. We don't like mailing lists, spam, etc., so we won't be put on a mailing list and we won't send this information to anyone else.

If you have requested, we may use your information to design personalized travel proposals, and may make use of additional information about you when it is available from external sources to help us do this effectively.

We may use your personal information to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk. We also use this information to analyze overall trends, such as how many people request what type of information via which source and when.

C. How to Limit our Information Collection

You do not need to provide this information, but without it we will not be able to send you the information you have requested.

D. How We Share this Information with Third Parties

We don't share this information with third parties.

Part V: Information Collected To Book and Run Tours

A. What Information We Collect

When you book a tour, we collect a variety of information in order for us to carry out the tour. This includes your name, address, passport information, trip and booking details, flight schedules, emergency contact information, allergies, and other information relevant to your booking. We also collect payment information when you pay by credit card.

B. How We Use this Information

We use all of this information to provide you with our core business purpose of providing tours to Mongolia. We do not sell this information or use it for future marketing.

C. How to Limit our Information Collection

Most of this information is required to participate on our tours, because we or our partners need it to make travel arrangements. You can choose not to give us some information, such as dietary needs, but it will impact your tour (for example, if we don't know that you're a vegetarian, we won't be able to order vegetarian food for you.)

D. How We Share this Information with Third Parties

Third Party Service Providers

We share information with our business partners when it is necessary for completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example, to book reservations for your tour). These partners include airlines, hotels, ger camps, restaurants, and insurance companies. We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors, and other associated organizations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to book reservations for your tour). When we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties for them to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so.

Mongolian Government Agencies

For obtaining travel permits, requesting visas and for other purposes necessary to conduct tours, we sometimes have to disclose traveler information to Mongolian government agencies, as required by Mongolian laws and regulations.

Credit Card Processor

If you pay by credit card, your card information is not held by us. It is collected by our third party payment processors, who specialize in the secure capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. If you have any questions regarding secure transactions, please contact us.

Fellow Travelers

We share a list of fellow travelers with travelers on a group tour. However, we will only include you on this list if you have chosen to be on it.

Part VI: Information Collected To Improve Our Tours and For Marketing

A. What Information We Collect

Evaluations

We ask travelers to provide written feedback for us on evaluation forms. Some travelers also provide us with additional written and verbal feedback. Finally, our staff sometimes makes notes of issues that arise on tours in order to improve future trips.

Photos and Videos: We sometimes take videos and photos of our travelers on our trips.

B. How We Use this Information

Evaluations

We use this information to improve our future tours. We analyze what aspects of our tours travelers liked and disliked and seek to uncover trends and systematic issues. We also use this data to contact travelers to resolve issues. If a traveler decides to opt in by checking the appropriate choices on the evaluation form, we sometimes use this information for marketing efforts, including by publishing travelers' comments on our website and in marketing materials.

Photos and Videos

If pictured tourists choose to opt in, we use some videos and photos in print, online, and in-person marketing efforts

C. How to Limit our Information Collection

You are not required to provide any feedback on our tour; travelers provide this feedback voluntarily. You may also provide feedback, but choose not to participate in our marketing, by selecting the appropriate choice on the evaluation form.

Tourists who do not wish to be videotaped or photographed should indicate opt out, either by choosing this option when given the choice on a form, or by telling the photographer or videographer.

D. How We Share this Information with Third Parties

Evaluations

If our analysis identifies systematic issues, we may transmit non-personalized, overall feedback to a third-party partner, such as a hotel. In addition, upon the request or with the consent of a traveler, we may transmit information on a traveler's complaint to the relevant third party partner. We publish feedback publicly only if travelers have agreed to participate in our marketing efforts.

Photos and Videos

We only publish photos and videos of travelers who choose to opt in to this sort of marketing effort.

Part VII: Additional Conditions Under Which We May Share Data

We disclose information as we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

Part VIII: Security

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are transmitted normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems.

Part IX: Your Rights and Responsibilities

A. Learn What Personal Data We Have Stored About You

If you would like to know what personal data we have about you, please contact us.

Note: The information collected by our website is anonymous. Therefore, in order for us to know if data collected by our website was your data, we would need your IP address and/or Google Analytics clientID. This would then tie data to you that we otherwise may not have known was yours.

B. Ask That Your Data Be Deleted

We generally determine what data to retain or destroy in accordance with our data retention policies. However, if you are a resident of certain jurisdictions, you may have the right to require us to delete certain data. If you would like this data deleted, please contact us.

C. Withdraw Consent

You have the right to withdraw any consent that you have provided for us to use our data, and also to lodge a complaint regarding how we have used your data. We will not contact you for marketing purposes unless you have given your prior consent. You can withdraw consent that you have previously given, lodge a complaint, or change your marketing preferences at any time by calling us at 1-800-225-0560 or contacting us on our contact page.

D. Informed Consent

By submitting a form or otherwise requesting information, you acknowledge that you have reached the age of informed consent for your home country/jurisdiction.

We may use your information to process a payment that you have made, process bookings and reservations for your selected tour, carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by you and us, notify you of changes to our services and send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you.

Part X: Data Retention

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us, and as necessary to satisfy current and potential legal and regulatory obligations.

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Coronavirus FAQ

Last updated on March 28, 2020

A trip to Mongolia should be the journey of a lifetime — meaningful, fun, safe, and responsible. Responsibility includes protecting the health of our travelers, the communities they visit, and the communities to which they return. Below, please find details on coronavirus, Mongolia, and the 2020 travel season.

Is coronavirus in Mongolia?

Mongolia has had no community transmission of coronavirus. The country's twelve cases (one foreigner and eleven Mongolians returning home on government-chartered flights) were infected before arriving in Mongolia, and are currently receiving treatment in quarantine. Public health officials have identified numerous individuals with whom the patients came into contact, but all have tested negative for the disease.

How has Mongolia controlled the coronavirus?

Since January, Mongolia has taken swift and proactive actions to safeguard the country. Current measures include a suspension of international flights through the end of April and a 21-day quarantine of international arrivals.

Once the global pandemic is under control, Mongolia will reopen as a safe, healthy, and welcoming destination for international travelers, and your visit will make an important contribution to Mongolia's continuing economic development.

Will I be able to travel to Mongolia this spring?

April and May

Blue Silk Travel has canceled all trips (small group journeys and custom trips) through the end of May.

June

We are not accepting new bookings for tours in June. Travelers already registered for June trips have the option of maintaining their current reservations or rebooking for a future date. We have provided details to affected travelers.

Will I be able to fly to Mongolia this summer or fall?

We are actively monitoring the trajectory of the global pandemic, and are planning to run our summer and fall trips as scheduled.

Mongolia expects the Naadam Festival, Altai Kazakh Eagle Festival, and Golden Eagle Festival to run as scheduled.

Is visiting Mongolia safe?

Although crimes and accidents occur everywhere in the world, Mongolia is generally a safe country.

Consult the U.S. CDC's Mongolia travel health notice on staying healthy in Mongolia, and the U.S. State Department's Mongolia travel advisory on staying safe.

The CDC and State Department's recommendations address the current situation in March 2020, and do not address the summer travel season, which is still several months away.

How can I find out more?

CDC's COVID-19 Information for Travel

Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Map

Blue Silk Travel's Health and Safety FAQ

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