“One would ask: what to write about Kalgan. This place is familiar to so many people. Merchants, fur traders, and those of various meat products, wool and liver, well know this locality. But for us there were three things in Kalgan that we always want to note.

When you cross the Great Wall of China, no matter how many times you have seen it, – there is always a special feeling of something great, mysterious in its scope. Just think that three centuries before our era, this great wall has already started to be built, with all its uncountable towers, battlements, picturesque turns – like the ridge of a huge dragon through all the mountain peaks. It is impossible to understand the complex system of these walls with their branches and unexplained turns, but the great scope of this wall will amaze every traveler, every time.

And the second thing is unforgettable for us. After all, Kalgan, even by the meaning of this word, is a gate. It is a gateway to our dear Central Asia. All the mountains and hills surrounding Kalgan are really those of Central Asia. The very air of this plateau is already the same that reaches to great heights. A caravan, leaving the Kalgan walls, is the very Central Asian caravan”.

(N.K. Roerich. Kalgan // The Gateway to the Future.)