In the first half of this year, 833 thousand (double counting) citizens of Mongolia traveled abroad, of which 553.6 thousand (66.5 percent) journeyed on tourism. This number exceeds by 410.2 thousand or 3.9 times more compared to the same period of 2022.

In the meantime, 279.3 thousand (33.5 percent) people traveled for work, study, or permanent residence, which is an increase of 205.6 thousand or 3.8 times more compared to the same period of 2022, reports the National Statistics Office.

Among our citizens who traveled abroad, 567.8 thousand (68.2 percent) were men, and 265.2 thousand (31.8 percent) were women, and 49.1 thousand (5.9 percent) were children. As for the duration of overseas trips, 797.8 thousand (95.8 percent) of them went for up to 30 days, 10.7 thousand (1.3 percent) for 30 to 90 days, and 24.5 thousand (2.9 percent) for 90 or more days.

Pope Francis urged Chinese Catholics to be “good citizens” and “good Christians,” a rare instance of the Holy Father publicly addressing the issue of religion in China.

Francis’ seemingly off-the-cuff comments came during his Sunday Mass in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.

The trip has been scrutinized because of both its historic nature – it is the the first ever by a Pope to the sparsely populated Asian nation – but also because of its potential geopolitical reverberations. Mongolia is sandwiched between Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine Francis has publicly criticized, and China, an atheist state where religious practice is heavily curtailed by the government.

Officially there are about 6 million Catholics in China, but the number may be higher when counting those who practice at underground churches to avoid Beijing’s watchful eye.

At the end of Mass, Pope Francis took the hands of the current Bishop of Hong Kong, cardinal-designate Stephen Chow, and his predecessor, Cardinal John Tong, calling them “brother bishops” before addressing China’s Catholics

Francis said he wanted to take advantage of their presence at his Mass in Mongolia “to send a warm greeting to the noble Chinese people.” Hong Kong’s Catholic leaders play an important role in navigating Vatican-Beijing relations, as the territory allows its citizens greater freedom of religion than in mainland China.

“To the entire people I wish the best, go forward, always progress. And to the Chinese Catholics, I ask you to be good Christians and good citizens.”

China may be officially an atheist state, but religious practice is legal in the country – albeit under tight government supervision and surveillance.

Catholicism is one of five state-recognized faiths, but state-sanctioned Catholic churches were for decades by bishops chosen and ordained by Beijing, not the Holy See, until the two sides reached an agreement in 2018. Details of the accord have never been made public.

Francis landed in Mongolia Friday for a trip that has lacked the usual fanfare of a Papal visit.

There are only 1,500 Catholics in the entire country of 3.5 million, but that number has grown significantly in the decades following country’s transformation from communist one-party rule to multiparty democracy in the 1990s. According to Vatican News, there were only 14 Catholics in the country in 1995.

The 86-year-old Pontiff spent the first day of his trip resting. He met with Mongolian political leaders on Saturday and on Sunday attended an inter-religious meeting alongside representatives from various religious communities, including Buddhists, Shamans, Muslim, Jews, and evangelicals and Russian Orthodox Christians.

CNN’s Sophie Tanno contributed to this report

With China's crackdown on religious minorities as a backdrop, Pope Francis joined Mongolian shamans, Buddhist monks and a Russian Orthodox priest Sunday to highlight the role that religions can play in forging world peace, as he presided over an interfaith meeting highlighting Mongolia's tradition o

Francis listened intently as a dozen faith leaders - Jewish, Muslim, Bahai, Hindu, Shinto and evangelical Christian among them - described their beliefs and their relationship with heaven. Several said the traditional Mongolian ger, or round-shaped yurt, was a potent symbol of harmony with the divine - a warm place of family unity, open to the heavens, where strangers are welcome.

The interfaith event, held at a theatre in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, came midway through Francis’ four-day visit to Mongolia, the first by a pope. He is in Mongolia to minister to one of the world’s smallest and newest Catholic communities and highlight Mongolia’s tradition of tolerance in a region where the Holy See's relations with neighbouring China and Russia are often strained.

According to statistics by the Catholic nonprofit group Aid to the Church in Need, Mongolia is 53 per cent Buddhist, 39 per cent atheist, three per cent Muslim, three per cent Shaman and two per cent Christian.

Later Sunday, Francis was to preside over a Mass in the capital's sports stadium that the Vatican had said would also be attended by pilgrims from China. One small group of Chinese faithful from Xinjiang attended his meeting at the city's cathedral Saturday. They held up a Chinese flag and chanted “All Chinese love you” as his car drove by.

The Vatican's difficult relations with China and Beijing's crackdown on religious minorities have been a constant backdrop to the trip, even as the Vatican hopes to focus attention instead on Mongolia and its 1,450 Catholics. No mainland Chinese bishops are believed to have been allowed to travel to Mongolia, whereas at least two dozen bishops from other countries across Asia have accompanied pilgrims for the events.

Hong Kong Cardinal-elect Stephen Chow was on hand and accompanied 40 pilgrims to Mongolia, saying it was an event highlighting the reach of the universal church. He declined to discuss the absence of his mainland Chinese counterparts, focusing instead on Francis and the importance of his visit to Mongolia for the Asian church.

“I think the Asian church is also a growing church. Not as fast as Africa - Africa is growing fast - but the Asian church also has a very important role to play now in the universal church,” he told reporters.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded that Catholicism and all other religions adhere strictly to party directives and undergo “Sinicization.” In the vast Xinjiang region, that has led to the demolition of an unknown number of mosques, but in most cases it has meant the removal of domes, minarets and exterior crosses from churches.

The Vatican and China did sign an accord in 2018 over the thorny issue of Catholic bishop nominations, but Beijing has violated it.

The Head of State of the Holy See Pope Francis, who is on a State Visit in Mongolia, presented to the President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa an official copy of the letter of Guyug Khaan of the Great Mongol State, which is kept in the secret library of the Vatican. The official copy of the letter was made up to the highest quality requirements through use of advanced technology.

In his speech to the public, His Holiness Pope Francis said, that 777 years ago, at the end of August and beginning of September 1246, Pope's envoy priest John of Plano Carpini visited Guyug Khaan, the third Khaan of the Great Mongol State, and handed over the official letter of Pope Innocent IV. Soon after, the Great Khaan sent a reply letter with a seal engraved in Mongolian script, translated into many languages, which is now kept in the Vatican Library. “Today, I am respectfully presenting as a gift an official copy of this letter, made in the highest quality using advanced technology. This gift should become a symbol of the ancient friendship relations that are expanding nowadays.”

Clarification:

The Pope's emissary, Monk Plano Carpini, was one of the observers who witnessed the enthronement ceremony of the third Khaan of the Great Mongol State, Guyug, which took place in the Yellow Palace near Kharkhorin. In the fall of 1246, he presented a letter from the Pope to Guyug Khaan, demanding that the Mongols convert to the Crusader religion and confess their guilt for invading the Crusader countries such as Magyar. Consequently, Guyug Khaan not only rejected the Pope's demands and refused to convert to the Crusader religion, but the messenger returned with a letter warning the Pope to come and submit in person. Plano Carpini wrote about this in his travelogue "History of the Mongols". It is believed that Guyug Khaan's letter to the Pope had versions written in Mongolian, Persian, and Latin. In 1920, the Polish priest Krill Karalewski found a Persian letter from the Vatican archives and gave it to the researcher Masse. Masse made the first translation of the letter. Subsequently, a famous French Mongolist P. Pelliot researched and translated this letter. He published it with the Persian original, translation, and commentary and put it into research circulation.

The letter of Guyug Khaan, one meter twelve cm long, 20 meters wide, written in Persian on tarmac paper is stored in the secret archives of the Vatican, This letter, confirmed by double-stamping with the seal of Guyug Khaan of the Great Mongol State at the junction of the paper and at the end of the inscription, is a witness of 777-year history of relations between Mongolia and the Holy See, and a unique valuable heritage.

During his visit to the Vatican City in 2011, the President of Mongolia Elbegdorj Tsakhia got acquainted with valuable heritage related to the history of Mongolia, such as the letter of Guyug Khaan.

Vietnamese Catholics who flew thousands of miles to see Pope Francis in Mongolia had one message for the pontiff: They want him to visit their communist-run country too.

"Visit Vietnam, Papa," some in the group shouted as the pope was driven in a golf cart past a crowd of about 2,000 people of various nationalities on the grounds of the Catholic cathedral in Ulaanbaatar on Saturday.

Vietnam broke off relations with the Vatican after the communists took over the reunited country at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The authorities then viewed the Catholic Church in Vietnam as having been too close to the former colonial power, France.

"I see that he's very near, very near distance. So I really want to cry when I see him," said Cindy Pham from Ho Chi Minh City. "Even when I saw him, the first time at the gate, I ran, ran a lot to see him again."

The prospect of a papal visit to Vietnam, once seemingly impossible, became more realistic last month when the Vatican and Hanoi agreed to have a Resident Papal Representative in Hanoi.

It was a step years in the making which could lead to full diplomatic ties. It was announced on July 27 when the pope received Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong at the Vatican.

"I really hope that he will visit Vietnam in the short term," Pham said, mentioning the hope spawned by president's visit to the Vatican.

Maria Vo, a Vietnamese-born tour guide who now lives in the Philippines, could not contain her excitement as Francis waved from the moving golf cart.

"I cannot tell (you) my feelings right now, because I'm so happy," said Vo, seeing the pope for the first time. "Vietnamese people, we love him and are waiting for him to visit us in Vietnam."

Writing by Joseph Campbell and Philip Pullella Editing by Ros Russell