Primorsky Krai.

History

In the Middle Ages most of the krai belonged to the provinces of the Bohai kingdom and later to the Jurchen Jin empire. Under the Convention of Peking in 1860 Qing China ceded the land to Russia, and on 2 July that year the military post of Vladivostok, "Ruler of the East", was founded. Around the turn of the 20th century large Chinese, Korean and Japanese communities grew up in the city, and the Chinese quarter of Millionka housed up to 50,000 people. The Trans-Siberian arrived in 1905, and from 1952 to 1992 Vladivostok was closed to foreigners.

Culture & traditions

The krai is home to the Udege, whose ancestral lands lie along the Bikin River, as well as the Nanai, Orochi and other indigenous peoples. In Vladivostok the Arseniev Museum of Far Eastern History has been open since 1890, and the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre brings opera and ballet to the Pacific. On Admiralsky Square the Soviet submarine S-56 is now a museum. For the 2012 APEC summit the city gained two cable-stayed bridges, the Golden Horn and the Russky, and the new Far Eastern Federal University campus opened on Russky Island.

Nature

Almost 80 percent of the Sikhote-Alin is forested, and the krai's flora counts more than two thousand species of higher plants; the highest point is Mount Anik (1,933 m). The Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve, founded in 1935 to protect the sable, now safeguards the Amur tiger. Southwest of Vladivostok, Land of the Leopard National Park, created in 2012 and covering almost 2,800 km², protects the Amur leopard: numbers once fell to perhaps 30, while 84 adults and 14 cubs were counted in the park in 2017. In the west lies Khanka, the largest lake in the Russian Far East.

Sport

Vladivostok is home to the Admiral ice hockey club and the football club Dynamo Vladivostok. As a seaside city it also loves sailing and regularly hosts regattas.

Food & drink

The sea feeds Primorye: fishing accounts for almost four fifths of Vladivostok's commercial output, so fish and seafood are the basis of the local table. The Chinese, Korean and Japanese communities that lived here from the late 19th century left their mark on the city's history and tastes.

Practical information

Visitors fly into Vladivostok International Airport, and the Trans-Siberian Railway ends here. Local time is Moscow plus 7 hours (UTC+10). The climate is monsoonal: Vladivostok averages about −12 °C in January, the warmest month is August at around +20 °C, and most rain falls in summer. Late summer and early autumn are the best time to visit.

What to see

• Russky Bridge — one of the world's longest cable-stayed bridges
• Land of the Leopard National Park — photo hides and a visitor centre in Barabash
• Arseniev Museum — Far Eastern history since 1890
• Submarine S-56 — a museum on Admiralsky Square
• Lake Khanka — the largest lake in the Russian Far East
• Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve — forest home of the Amur tiger

Cities on the map

• Vladivostok 600,378