Visiting Russia from Harbin

[atitarev]

мой китайский почти на нуле хотя живу в Гонгонге уже полтора года (а может быть, поэтому). пытаюсь изучать путонхуа самостоятельно, поскольку для работы и жизни не требуется, поэтому медленно.

Я уверен, вы выучите его быстрее, чем я, так как я не в Китае. Знание кантонского должно помочь (в любом случае у вас кантонский хоть какой-то должен быть), и наверное у вас есть возможность смотреть телевидение с материка. Потом кантонский - это тоже китайский!

У вас профиль без всякой информации. Я думал, вы в России.

[gougou]

Sorry to spoil the fun, but please take conversation not understandable to large parts of the members into PM. Thanks!

[atitarev]

OK

This should be in the chat section and since Xuechengfeng wished to practice Russian, it's sort of fits in and the topic is about visiting Russia. Gougou, you shouldn't be too irritated by a foreign language you don't know in a language forum!

[gougou]

Gougou, you shouldn't be too irritated by a foreign language you don't know in a language forum!

In fact I still understand parts of it, I spent a year in Moscow. But these are Chinese forums, not general language forums, so I guess there are many people who don't read Russian. So try not to exclude these!

PS: From what I do understand, what you were talking about would belong in a PM even if it was in English or Chinese

[xuechengfeng]

Pravit, I finally returned.

The way I got there was a flight from Qingdao to Yanji ($145), taxi from Yanji to Hunchun ($25), a bus from Hunchun to Slavianka ($20), and then my friend had a friend who picked us up, but I believe a bus from Slavianka to Vladivostok is relatively cheap.

I got back by taking a plane from Vladivostok to Beijing, and boy was it misery. The ticket wasn't too terrible, around $250. It only flies Wed/Sat. There is a Tues/Fri plane from Vladivostok to Harbin, but I tried to take it and for some reason they cancelled those flights because of a new airplane purchase or something. My flight was delayed 3 hours, flew over Beijing because of fog there, sat in some random city for 5 hours on the plane with rude flight attendants and no food, and finally flew into Beijing as I missed my international flight.

All-in-all though, Vladivostok is a great city and was a lot of fun.

[terran261]

This thread hasn't done much in awhile, but I thought I would throw a little information in regarding visas. I recently got a tourist visa here in the states, and at least at the outposts here it is a far less daunting task than it is made out to be.

The visa invitation can be bought online for $30, which they will then fax or e-mail to you. Although the Russian websites say you need the original, in reality they accept faxed or printed copies.

Next you simply fill out the forms, and show up at a Russian consulate. They take your passport and $100, and in a week you go pick up the visa.

I assume the process is similar in China, although I don't know for sure. I have heard however that it is cheaper to do at Russian consulates elsewhere, because they charge as much for Americans as Americans charge for Russians, or some similar thing. That is, I haven't read anything about obtaining a Russian visa in China, but in Paris for example it is considerably cheaper.

Hope that information is helpful for the next person who decides to visit Russian.

[atitarev]

I found this interesting. Suifenhe (绥芬河) looks almost like a Russian city, not really but there are a lot of signs in Russian.

Suifenhe

There is a bus service to Ussuriysk (Уссурийск), Russia in Promorsky Krai.

Ussuriysk (in Chinese: 乌苏里斯克) is one a few cities in the Far East of Russia that has an alternative Chinese name - 双城子.

The bus service uses the Russian version 乌苏里斯克.

Other cities with both original Russian and Chinese names are:

Khabarovsk (Хабаровск) - 哈巴罗夫斯克 or 伯力

Vladivostok (Владивосток) - 符拉迪沃斯托克 or 海参崴

Blagoveshchensk (Благовещенск) - 布拉戈维申斯克 or 海兰泡

[atitarev]

I'd like to post the list of Chinese-Russian (also Mongolian and Kazakh) border crossings with some names in Chinese and Russian (Mongolian, Kazakh).

Russia-China

1. Russia (Zabaykalsk - Забайкальск- 外贝加尔斯克 - China (Manzhouli - 满洲里) - train and road

2. Russia (Blagoveshchensk - Благовещенск- 布拉戈维申斯克/海兰泡 - China (Heihe) 黑河 - Amur river crossing by hovercraft.

3. Russia (Khabarovsk) Хабаровск 哈巴罗夫斯克 - China (Fuyuan) 抚远 - Amur river hyperfoil service

4. Russia (Ussuriysk / Pogranichny) Уссурийск / Пограничный 乌苏里斯克 or 双城子 (Pogranichny in Chinese?) - China (Suifenhe) 绥芬河市 - train and road

5. Russia (Zarubino - Зарубино) - China (Hunchun - 珲春) - road

Mongolia-China

Mongolia (Zamyn-Üüd- 扎门乌德 - Замын-Үүд) - China (Erenhot - 二连浩特)

Russia-Mongolia

1. Russia (Tashanta, Altay) Ташанта - Mongolia.

2. Russia (Kyzyl, Tuva) Кызыл - Mongolia.

3. Russia (Kyakhta, Buryatia) Кяхта - Mongolia (Sühbaatar - Сүхбаатар - 苏赫巴托尔.)

Kazahstan-China

1. Kazakhstan (Druzhba (Дружба (Rus.)) / Dostyk Достық (Kaz.) - 德鲁斯巴/多斯特克) - Xinjiang, China Alashankou - 阿拉山口 - Алашанькоу

2. Kazakhstan Khorgos -Хоргос - China Khorgas - 霍尔果斯