Erh-lien

The new situation was recognized by the signing of a treaty of peace and friendship between China and Mongolia in 1952, and recently more tangible evidence of the new situation is to be seen in the completion of a new section of railway between Ulan Batur and Chamu Ut and the opening at the beginning of this year of a new and shorter through traffic line between Moscow and Peking via Ulan Batur, Chamu Ut, Erh Lien and Tsining.

1956, C. R. Bawden, “Review of Mongolia”, in Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, volume 43, page 149

The area southwest of Erh-lien, where the border conflict was unfolding, was seen in the photographs covering the two-hundred-square-kilometer area. The analysts noted the nearly six hundred tanks of all sizes, the automatic recoilless guns, as well as the armored trucks and transport vehicles, deployed in combat-ready positions. A large-scale offensive maneuver was indicated.

1978, Hsia Chih-yen, translated by Liang-lao Dee, The Coldest Winter in Peking, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 249

Mr Ho also told us that Erh-lien had a population of 10,000. A fertilizer factory lay a mile to the south. The town’s water supply was pumped underground from thirty miles away, vegetables were, at least in summer, of local origin; in this arid region, with the limitless semi-desert bearing only isolated and scrawny scrub, it seemed implausible. In reply to my question, he said that Chinese only, not Mongol, was taught in the schools of Inner Mongolia.

1991, John Colvin, “Journeys to China”, in Twice Around the World: Some memoirs of diplomatic life in North Vietnam and Outer Mongolia, London: Leo Cooper, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 187