In 2015, the construction of a paved road connecting Khatgal, a village located on the shores of Lake Khövsgöl in northern Mongolia, with Mörön and Ulaanbaatar led to a flood of tourists and, concomitantly, a depletion of groceries and cash. Since then, Khatgal has become a promising seasonal destination for thousands of Mongolian and international tourists, as well as numerous business people and NGOs.

This paper seeks to examine the intertwining of local and regional infrastructure and the multiple directions of their (dis)function. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Khatgal, the extent to which the construction of paved roads, as elements of the built environment, offers further insight into the interconnection and fragilities of other domains, such as dairy pastoralism, tourism and development across space and time will be examined.

Ultimately, the aim is to challenge the bias/dichotomy inherent in grand narratives of infrastructures and its involvement in the promotion of sustainable tourism, development, and nation building processes in order to demonstrate to what extent economic and transportation infrastructures bring forth stability, as well as fragility and disintegration.