Google Earth: Identify the city

[KukriKhan]

Ulan Bator (Ulaanbaatar Mongolia)

is correct! Good job.

Take it away barocca.

Wrestlers at the Naalamm festival there

[barocca]

Hint #1: This city, established thousands of years ago, has changed names, changed hands, and been utterly destroyed many times in its history.
It's current name is not based on the name of a national hero, a statue of whom is the center of focus for the road network.

B.

[barocca]

Hint #2: Surprising because of it's location, the city has a decent Korean minority.

[KukriKhan]

Hmmm... Korean expat communities.

Vancouver BC, Canada vegetation looks similar, but can't find that street pattern.

Munich, Bavaria, Germany, not enough trees to match the image.

Bangkok, Thailand, also not enough trees, and more heavily populated than the image.

Paris, France, can't match the street pattern.

Los Angeles, US; not enough freeways :) and not 'thousands years old'.

Mexico City, Mexico; can't match street pattern.

OK, I'm not getting it with the hints. What do I see?

Tree-lined streets that radiate out from a central point eastward (ala the ancient 'mound' fort/city design), but grid-style westward. Near the center, a blue-roofed dome (orthodox christian? or mosque?); also some long and tallish buildings, suggesting gov't offices.

Alright then; I'm off to eastern Europe on a hunch.

[barocca]

Hint #3: When Genghis Kahn arrived to sack the city he was most upset to find someone else had done so but a few years earlier and the city had not yet recovered (ie - not much loot).
In a tiff Genghis destroyed the city.

[KukriKhan]

Ahh... the old Genghis neighborhood. One of the 'stans' likely.

edit: Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A surprisingly nice looking city, judging from the photographs.

LoL; what I ID'd as a possible religious site was the Amir Timur Museum.
.

[KukriKhan]

No Yellow taxi's in this town. Here, they're either red (regular) or white (limo's).