Ulaanbaatar sells what the steppe produces: goat cashmere, camel wool, pressed felt and silver. Three days take you from container markets on the western edge to designer studios off Peace Avenue and the souvenir floors above Sukhbaatar Square.
Sprawling container market on the western edge of the city where Mongolians actually buy their deels, felt boots, saddles and hand-tooled bridles. Hundreds of stalls under corrugated roofs, open 09:00–18:00, closed Tuesdays. Cash only.
Fair-trade shop just off Peace Avenue stocking work from more than 60 rural artisan groups: felt slippers, camel-wool blankets, embroidered wall hangings and yak-down scarves. Prices are fixed and each tag names the maker's aimag.
Family luthier workshop that has been carving morin khuur horsehead fiddles since 1993. You can watch the scroll being cut and the horsehair strung, then buy a playable instrument, a lacquered miniature, a tsuur flute or a jaw harp.
Women's felting cooperative that presses raw sheep wool into slippers, toy camels, laptop sleeves and floor rugs in the same room where it sells them. The wet-felting table at the back runs most weekday afternoons.
The flagship of Mongolia's largest cashmere producer, spinning goat down from the Gobi into knitwear on two retail floors. Grades run from 2-ply everyday knits to baby-cashmere coats; staff will show you the fibre-micron card on request.
Mongolia's best-known contemporary label, cutting deel silhouettes, shoulder lines and knot fastenings into modern coats and eveningwear. The Central Tower boutique sits among the city's luxury units on the south side of the main square.
The city's glossiest mall, with international labels, a large supermarket in the basement and several Mongolian cashmere counters on the ground floor. Useful as a warm indoor stretch on a cold afternoon; open daily 10:00–22:00.
Mongolia's biggest bookshop chain, with a strong English-language shelf of Mongolian history, Chinggis-era scholarship, photography books and translated poetry, plus stationery, maps and a café at the front.
The 1921-founded socialist-era department store, six floors on Peace Avenue. Floor five is the souvenir and cashmere floor: silver-mounted drinking bowls, snuff bottles, felt art and every major Mongolian knitwear brand under one roof.
Small commercial gallery selling contemporary Mongolian painting, thangka-influenced work and prints directly from living artists, with certificates for export. Staff can explain which works need a culture-ministry stamp to leave the country.
Social enterprise east of the centre where women from the ger districts stitch quilts, cushion covers and bags in appliqué patterns drawn from Buddhist and nomadic motifs. You buy from the makers in the workroom itself.
Large mall on the airport road, built around a Hunnu-empire theme, with a local-brands floor, a leather and boot section and a food court of Mongolian chains. Locals shop here at weekends rather than in the centre.