From Hovd Travel in Mongolia
Black Market
What's Inside:
Once inside the open-air market browse through the stalls of over 300 vendors, with sections devoted to housewares, electronics, hardware, furniture (including hand-painted ger furniture made by the award-winning Hovd Suvagt company), and endless aisles of general merchandise. An enormous section to the right(ish) of the main entrance is entirely devoted to clothing, where you can find street clothes, formal wear, Mongolian deels, traditional boots and belts, camel wool apparel, and felt products.
Where to Buy Hovd's Famous Fruits and Vegetables:
If you were to keep walking straight after entering the market you would eventually find yourself at the market's rear entrance and pass another set of ladies in sunglasses and surgical masks on your way out. Out the back entrance there are additional sections of vendors. Go right and you will soon find yourself in a long corridor where much of Hovd aimag's famous fruits and vegetables are sold, including the legendary Hovd Watermelon in late summer; there are also meat and dairy vendors down this corridor on your right-hand side. If after exiting the market's rear entrance you were to turn left and then right when it dead-ends, through a very narrow walkway you will find the Billiards Square, with over 50 outdoor pool tables. All in all, the Black Market covers over 10 hectares of land.
TIP: To get to the vendors behind the Black Market you do not need to pay the 50T entry fee. Keep walking past the Black Market's front entrance and make an immediate right turn down a wide corridor of guanzes and second hand-clothing stores (if you're looking for a Mongolian army-surplus jacket, this is your place). At the end of the corridor turn right and you will pass the rear entrance to the Black Market on your right and eventually come to the long walkway where the fruits and vegetables are sold.
