in the south of the province. There is also a model ger open to visitors. The Children's Park, despite the name, is a nature park with scenic pathways and endemic trees and plants. The Tuil Gol (gol meaning river in Mongolian) running alongside the town makes for excellent picnic grounds, and Ikh Nomgun Mountain serves as a somewhat challenging day climb. There are also many protected areas in Bayankhongor (see above). Monasteries Although the famous monasteries of Bayankhongor were all destroyed during the Soviet purges, since Mongolia's independence in 1990, there has been a flurry of rebuilding and reconnecting with the area's Buddhist heritage. There are two monasteries in the aimag capital, Bayankhongor. The entire town surrounds a sacred hill on which it is forbidden to build. Atop the hill sits a giant stupa of some significance, and there is a small monastery with about ten resident monks at the base of the hill. The other, larger, monastery is called Lamyn Gegeenii Gon Gandan Dedlin Khiid, and was built in 1991. The original monastery of this name was located about 30 km outside of the city and was home to over 10,000 monks and lamas making it one of the largest and most prominent monasteries in the county. However, the buildings were demolished and the monks killed or forced to renounce their vows by the Communist government in 1937. The current monastery is home to about 50 monks, and features a giant statue of Sakyamuni Buddha and two Green and White Tara statues modeled after those in the History and Ethnographical Museum of Bayankhongor. Amarbuyant Khiid, located 50 km west of Shinejist, once housed the 13th Dalai Lama and over 1,000 monks. The 13th Dalai Lama stayed there for ten days in 1904 during a journey from Lhasa to Urga. While visiting, he built a small ovoo (rock cairn) which remains among the ruins of the monastery, which was destroyed along with Gegeen Monastery in 1937 during the Communist purges. The gradual restoration process of the complex began in the 1990s after the Communist regime fell. Protected areas There are two protected areas in Bayankhongor. The Gobi A: Strictly Protected Areas in the south borders China and Ömnögovi aimag. In it live many endangered species such as the Gobi bear and the Zam gecko. The second area is the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, which is known for its extensive fossil