 The Gandan Monastery flourished as a center of philosophical studies.Following the Treaty of Kyakhta in 1727, Urga (Ulaanbaatar) was a major point of the Kyakhta trade between Russia and China – mostly Siberian furs for Chinese cloth and later tea.The route ran south to Urga, southeast across the Gobi Desert to Kalgan, and southeast over the mountains to Peking.