Places

Heihe (黑河) is a booming city in Heilongjiang Province, China, opposite the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk (Благовещенск). The Free Trade Zone established on a small river island next to Heihe is one of the most active site of exchange between the two countries. While it is lively, Sino-Russian...

Hulun Lake, the Hailar River, and the Ergune River are upper reaches of the Amur/Heilongjiang River, that constitutes the border between China and Russia for over 3,000 km, making it one of the world’s longest border rivers. The border river not only demarcates the two countries geographically but...

Khabarovsk and Vladivostok were founded in 1858 and 1860 respectively in the newly acquired Russian Far East. These dates correspond to the Treaty of Aigun and Convention of Peking which transferred these vast Northeast Asian territories from the Qing Empire to the Russian Empire and shaped the new...

Manzhouli and Zabaikalsk are border railway cities located right on the Russia-China border along the Transsiberian railway. Former military stronghold and nowadays a smuggler’s paradise, Manzhouli became China’s busiest ‘land port of entry’ (口岸), accounting for nearly 65% of all continental...

The Nanai (Нанай), who number around 12,000 in the Russian Far East, and the Hezhe (赫哲), which have population of approximately 4,600 in northeastern China, are peoples long identified as belonging to a single Tungusic group, but who for decades have inhabited very different political and economic...

The Republic of Buryatia is situated in Eastern Siberia, in the Russian Federation. Buryatia borders Mongolia in the south, and is sandwiched between Irkutsk Oblast in the west and Zabaikalsky Krai in the east. The region has a strong Siberian identity, which at times differs starkly from the...

The Sino-Russian-Mongolian border triangle is located in the upper basin of the Argun River. The Argun, a wide headwater tributary of the Amur, marks the oldest boundary section between Russia and China. Although the line of delimitation has not shifted significantly since 1689, it has nevertheless...