Exploring the waterfront
I woke to my alarm at 0715 in preparation for arrival at 0820 Blagoveshchensk time. My phone confirmed that it had switched to Blagoveshchensk time (one hour behind Birobidzhan) around 0100 this morning.
We took a taxi to the Na Naberezhnoj Mini-hotel where we left our bags while we explored the city’s waterfront, overlooking Heihe in China.
Some sights were military-oriented and didn’t interest me greatly. Like in Vladivostok, a Triumphal Arch was built to celebrate the future Tsar’s visit in 1891. He had arrived by boat from Khabarovsk on the Amur River.
The arch standing today is a 2005 rebuilt following damage in 1920s and demolition in 1936.
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- Triumphal Arch.
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- Building near the Triumphal Arch.
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- War memorial.
Looking over to the Chinese side, the contrast with huge. It was quiet and low-key here but there were plenty of high-rises over there, including a Gothic cathedral-like building (which I was quite sure would be fake). We could here music blaring from there too.
I learnt that Heihe was set up in modern times for cross-border trade whereas the historic city on the Chinese side of the river is Aihui (Aigun in Manchurian) about 30km away.
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- Looking across to Heihe.
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- Looking across to Heihe.
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- Looking across to Heihe. Is that a Cathedral or is it a fake modern building?
We took another great lunch at a canteen around 1045 before continuing our walk towards the cable car station. The cable car link between Blagoveshchensk and Heihe appears to be delayed yet again as it doesn’t look ready for opening later this year.
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- Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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- To my suyrprise, bactrian camels were used over here.
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- Fountain Square.
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- Looking towards the cable car line linking Russia to China.
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- Cable car station on the Russian side.
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- The city’s museum.
Researching our exit
We returned to the hotel around 1315 and managed to get our room. Unfortunately, it was up on Level 4 and D’s luggage had become heavier than before now.
While resting in the afternoon, I researched our exit from Russia which requires a seemingly simple river crossing from here to Heihe.
Information had been scant as many Russian sites are blocked from overseas and require a VPN. Combined with having to translate them into English over a VPN, it was all too difficult.
I was shocked to see on the online booking engine that it would be USD50 for the 15 min boat ride or about USD30 for a 2h20 bus ride.
We learnt next day that there was a significant Russian port tax component for both and in the case of the boat, an additional Chinese port tax upon arrival there. More about the complications of the crossing in tomorrow’s post.
Two matters of concern came up:
- There were no seats left for the bus and limited seats for the boat (but I concluded next day that it was probably an online sales allocation), and
- We didn’t have enough RUB for our tickets and would need to go to the bank early in the morning to have a chance to get on as many boats or buses as possible.
We took dinner back at the same canteen before taking a dry run (or walk rather) to the two banks that we had found, so that we could find it quickly in the morning.
Russian drivers
It is our last night in Russia and we reflected on the driving that we had observed on the roads here and the dashcam videos that circulate on Youtube or social media.
It had been to our surprise that drivers here are quite disciplined and always stop at zebra crossings. Those videos seem nothing like the reality. At least here in the Russian Far East anyway.