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Must-see attractions in Khabarovsk

Khabarovsk Regional Museum

Located in an evocative 1894 red-brick building, this museum contains an excellent overview of Russian and Soviet history, despite not having a single…

Sikachi-Alyan

The riverside Nanai village of Sikachi-Alyan is 77km northeast of Khabarovsk and makes for a good day trip. Here you can view the Sikachi-Alyan…

Assumption Cathedral

Built in 2002 this striking cathedral rose on the site of a far older church that was knocked down by Stalin during his antireligious campaigns.

Archaeology Museum

Undergoing a full renovation in 2017, this five-room museum displays tools and living essentials from early peoples. Pottery, animal-skin huts, dugout…

Transfiguration Cathedral

This highly impressive church's golden domes dazzle you from all over the city, with its prime location overlooking the Amur River. The cathedral was…

House of Pioneers

Now a 'palace of childhood creation’, the former House of Pioneers (the youngest youth group in the USSR, where children went before the Komsomol) was…

Far Eastern Art Museum

This smart and imposing building hosts a moderately interesting collection of local art, including religious icons, Japanese porcelain and 19th-century…

Tsentralny Gastronom

Style Moderne – the Russian take on art nouveau – defines this mint-green building dating from 1895; it's topped by a statue of Mercury.

Far Eastern State Research Library

This attractive library, the largest in the Far East, dates from 1894 and is one of the most striking pieces of architecture in Khabarovsk.

WWII Memorial

This impressive brutalist memorial to the Soviet Army's losses during WWII stands on a hillside overlooking the river.

Count Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky Monument

This striking monument to Count Nikolai Maravyov-Amursky, an early governor of the Russian Far East, stands overlooking the Amur River that he did so much…

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Khabarovsk, Russia

You are here, about khabarovsk.

Khabarovsk is one of the most significant and beautiful cities of Russia's Far East. It stands on the right bank of the Amur River along the scenic Trans-Siberian railway and almost touches the Chinese border.

The city of Khabarovsk played a crucial role in East - Russian history and is famous for its historic sights, monuments of architecture of different eras, religious buildings, lovely parks, gardens, and artificial lakes which surprise its visitors with impressive fountain shows.

Khabarovsk History

Founded in 1858, the city is now loved by Chinese travelers and those who are going on iconic train journeys along the world's longest railway from Siberia. After days of relentless taiga, people reach this vibrant city with multiple attractions, plenty of historical sights from the tsarist-era, and a number of places to try traditional Russian cuisine. Khabarovsk is indeed a charming city that deserved to be on your travel itinerary. Especially, if you are the legendary Trans-Siberian is on your travel radar.

We suggest beginning your Khabarovsk tour from the famous monument erected in honor of Nikolay Muravyov - Amursky, one of the best-known explorer of East Siberia, a general, and the founder of the city.

Continue your Khabarovsk trip with a riverside walk along the picturesque Nevelsky Embankment and pass through the third tallest church (35 feet) in all Russia - Spaso-Transfiguration Cathedral standing on top of a hill. Take in the spectacular location and view of this Cathedral and its classic golden domes, dominating the city skyline and being visible from a large distance.

Your Trans-Siberian itinerary would become even better if you include a visit to the famous Khabarovsk Bridge as well. The railway bridge goes over the Amur River and is considered to be the longest bridge on the Trans-Siberian route.

Best Things to Do in Khabarovsk

• Stop by the Nikolay Muravyov - Amursky monument
• Visit the gorgeous Spaso-Transfiguration Cathedral
• Take a picture by the renown Khabarovsk Bridge over the Amur River

Top Attractions in Khabarovsk

The Kamchatka peninsula is perhaps one of the most beautiful locations in the world. With about 300 volcanoes, 29 of which are still active, the mountains dazzle visitors.

All Attractions in Khabarovsk

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Khabarovsk is the industrial, transport, administrative and cultural centre of the Khabarovsk region. The city was founded in 1858 as a military outpost. It is located 8532km east of Moscow and 30km from the Chinese border. After passing through the isolated Siberian towns on the Trans-Siberian railway, tourists often find Khabarovsk an unexpected surprise with its numerous green parks, riverside paths and historic downtown area. If you do get to spend a day in Khabarovsk then a definite must is to visit the Far East Regional Museum, which is extremely well laid out and gives detailed historical examples. Also worth a visit if you have time, is the beautifully restored Fine Arts Museum overlooking the Amur River, which includes Russian masterpieces, early Slavic icons and a collection of Western European art.

If you happen to visit in summer then you may not want to spend any time inside and there are plenty of places to relax outside. One option is Dynamo Park, which is extremely popular with the locals. A 30 hectare park featuring several water ponds to dip your feet in when it gets too hot! Another outside spot to relax is the city ‘beach’. Although it’s over 300km from the nearest coastline, the river bank does give a feeling of relaxing on a beach somewhere in the Mediterranean.

The best way to get to Khabarovsk is on the Trans-Siberian railroad but there is also a well-served airport connecting to most of the major cities in Russia.

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Cities [ edit ]

• 48.483333 135.066667 1 Khabarovsk — the capital and major regional center (population 570,000)
• 50.55 137 3 Komsomolsk-on-Amur — a good sized city that is the steel center of Far Eastern Russia
• 59.383333 143.3 4 Okhotsk — First Russian settlement in the Far East (17th Century) and former headquarters of Vitus Bering, discoverer of the Bering Strait and Alaska; located in the region's far north
• 53.15 140.733333 5 Nikolaevsk-on-Amur
• 49.083333 140.266667 6 Vanino
• 48.966667 140.283333 7 Sovetskaya Gavan
• 48.748889 135.646111 8 Sikachi-Alyan — a small village of the Nanai people with a museum of local culture, opportunities for fine Nanai dining, and 13000 year old Nanai cliff drawings

Other destinations [ edit ]

• 57.104283 138.257106 4 Dzhugdzhursky Nature Reserve
• 48.204944 134.858911 5 Bolshekhekhtsirsky Nature Reserve
• 48.10582 135.136973 7 Vladimirovka , located miles and miles away from Komsomolsk, a native village of Negidals.

Understand [ edit ]

Geography [ edit ]

Khabarovsk Krai occupies a long swathe of Russia's Pacific coastline, a full 2000 kilometers of it, going as far south as Sakhalin and north to Magadan Oblast . At nearly 800.000 km², it's Russias fourth largest province. In the north, taiga and tundra prevail, deciduous forests in the south, and swampy forests in the central areas around Nikolaevsk-on-Amur . As a testament to its size there are more than 50 thousand lakes to fish in, more rivers and streams than you would care to count, and several mountain ranges intersect the region, including the northern reaches of the Sikhote-Alin mountains shared with Primorsky krai. The highest point is Mount Bery, towering nearly in fact, three quarters of the area is occupied by mountains and plateaus.

Biodiversity [ edit ]

The diversity of purely North animals like brown bear and sheer South representatives like Eastern softshell spiny turtle (Trionix) is backed by the legend that God would mix the rest of seeds and animals when somebody told him about missing spot on Earth.

One can encounter pine-tree and wild Far-Eastern grape which came definitely from the South. Its blue round berries with sour taste are cultivated in gardens to produce home wine.

Like Trionix many species are listed in the Red Book.

Culture [ edit ]

Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1975 film Dersu Uzala, based on a book by Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev, describes the friendship of a Russian explorer and his Nanai guide named Dersu Uzala. (Wikipedia)

Aboriginal culture within small enclaves across the krai are Nanai, Ulchi, Manchur, Orochi, Udege, Negidal, Nivkhi, Evenki and varies in each settlement.

Facts [ edit ]

Talk [ edit ].

See Russian phrasebook .

Get in [ edit ]

Khabarovsk is a major transportation hub for the entire Russian Far East and will likely be any visitor's first stop by either the Trans-Siberian Railway or via Khabarovsk's international airport ( KHV  IATA ).

From China there are two entrance routes: one begins on the border with the Heihe - Blagoveshchensk crossing point, the other from Fuyuan town on Amur river. Another possible way is one from Sakhalin, where international ferry operates between Russian Korsakov and Japan's Wakkanai . A one-night bus trip along the federal highway Vladivostok-Khabarovsk is an option for a traveller, if the train carriage by some odd reason is not preferable.

Do [ edit ]

Fishing and hunting in the wild are the major attractions for local villagers, town and city dwellers as well as trekking routes to taiga plains and mountains untouched by humans are favourite activities for all sorts of tourists. Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk mountain bike clubs are all at it. Taiga forest roads are always abuzz with mosquitos in summer and the best seasons for visiting are May and September when the air is not so stifling and the sun is just warm. Winter attracts regional skiers and snowboarders to the ski bases "Holdomi" and "Amut Snow Lake" near Komsomolsk and "Spartak" slopes near Khabarovsk.

Eat [ edit ]

Local food follows traditional Russian cuisine featured with salted bracken, mushrooms, Korean and Chinese and even European dishes served in theme restaurants of two big cities. Don't forget to taste pancakes with a spoonful of linden, wildflower, buckweat honey or a season caviar stuffing.

Stay safe [ edit ]

Snakes and bears are rare attackers in the wild, lest provoked. More dangerous are infectious ticks which are active most of all in spring. Use spray against ticks.

Go next [ edit ]

Khabarovsk is the hub for regional air travel with important flights to Russian destinations Anadyr , Irkutsk , Krasnoyarsk , Magadan , Moscow , Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky , Yakutsk , and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk , as well as international flights to Niigata , Japan and to Seoul , Korea . There are no direct flights to/from the US .

The next major stops to the east on the Trans-Siberian Railway are Ussuriysk and Vladivostok ; to the west, Birobidzhan .

There is a regular ferry from Vanino (the terminus of the Baikal-Amur Mainline ) to Kholmsk , Sakhalin .

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Khabarovsk: Keystone of the Russian Far East

Photographs by William Brumfield

By rail, the city of Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East is a six-day, 5,300 mile journey from Moscow. Given the distance, it’s unsurprising that most visitors prefer to make the trip by air. The nine-hour flight has the added advantage of giving travelers a dramatic overview of the Amur River on the approach.  

Indeed, Khabarovsk is a city of two great strategic rivers: the Amur, which flows eastward along the border with China; and the Ussuri, which flows northward some 560 miles from its origins in the southern Sikhote-Alin Mountains, not far from the Sea of Japan. The confluence of these two rivers near Khabarovsk, and the state boundaries they define have created one of the most important geopolitical zones in northern Asia.   

Russian explorers attempted to gain control of the north bank of the Amur as early as the 1640s, but Russia was compelled to abandon the area by the Treaty of Nerchinsk, signed in 1689.  Russian troops did not return to the region in substantial numbers until the mid-19 th century, under the leadership of Governor-General Nikolai Muravyov.

He was later given the title “Amursky” for his role in acquiring the territory for the Russian empire. In the Treaty of Aigun (1858), negotiated with the Qing Dynasty, China ceded to Russia territory north of the Amur and east of the Ussuri.

Khabarovsk arose as a consequence of the Treaty of Aigun. The first Russian settlement was established in May 1858 by a detachment of Siberian troops under the command of Captain Yakov Dyachenko. The post was initially named Khabarovka in homage to the renowned 17th-century Cossack leader Yerofei Khabarov, who explored the area.

The settlement rapidly expanded, and by 1864 it already had a formal plan for development on hilly terrain along the left bank of the Amur. A telegraph line to Vladivostok began operating in 1868, and a proper river port was completed in 1874. By the end of 1880, Khabarovsk had gained over 4,000 inhabitants and an official status as a town.  

How to get there

To get to Khabarovsk from Moscow of St. Petersburg take a regular flight. The trip takes approximately 7,5 hours.

Entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on the development of river trading routes were quick to settle in the young town, which offered considerable potential for commerce with China. Progress in transportation also led to increased government authority. In 1884, Khabarovsk became the administrative center of a vast area stretching from the Amur River to the Pacific.  

The town’s status was further enhanced in late May 1891 when the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich (subsequently Nicholas II) included Khabarovka on the itinerary of his nine-month-long world tour.

At the time of his visit, the town unveiled a heroic monument to Muravyov-Amursky by the noted sculptor Alexander Opekushin. Dismantled during the Soviet period, the monument has since been restored to a prominent position overlooking the river. In 1893, the town’s name was changed from Khabarovka to the more formal Khabarovsk.

Perhaps the greatest catalyst for the town’s early growth was the completion of a rail line from Vladivostok in 1897. Khabarovsk now had a direct link to a growing international port, even as it controlled interior river traffic over the extensive territory of the Amur River basin.  

The town’s strategic location was not lost on military planners, who developed local machine factories to equip the armed forces of the Far East. At the same time, Khabarovsk, like the rest of Russia, experienced severe labor and military unrest in 1905-06 following the country’s defeat in the Russo-Japanese War.

With the return to stability under Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin (1862-1911), Khabarovsk continued its rapid growth. During the three decades from 1884 to the beginning of World War I, the population increased more than 10-fold. And in 1908, Khabarovsk became the headquarters of the Amur River Flotilla, with responsibility for patrolling the long frontier with Manchuria.  

In 1914, connections were improved with the Trans-Siberian Railway, which gave Khabarovsk access to distant Moscow and St. Petersburg. At that time, however, the rail route to the Russian Far East still went through Manchuria along the Chinese Eastern Railway.

The town was linked directly to eastern Siberia only in 1916, with the completion of a bridge across the Amur just to the northwest of Khabarovsk. Built in difficult conditions within three years, the bridge was one of the major achievements of Russian engineering.  

To this day the attractive, often imposing architecture of central Khabarovsk reflects the prosperity of the town at the turn of the 20 th century. Using an eclectic mixture of neoclassicism and medieval Russian elements, architects designed enduring, well-built structures for housing, commerce and administration. A peculiar local feature was the use of high quality, unstuccoed red brick for the structure, with gray brick for decorative trim.  

The most visible indicator of prosperity and rising consumer demand was the large department store. Firms such as Kunst and Albers, which had stores in several towns, and the Pyankov Brothers used architecture to create an impressive display for retail trade. The large Plyusnin building, subsequently converted to the Regional Library, contained one of the town’s many banks. The best of these buildings are on the main street, which is named after Muravyov-Amursky.  

Other historic buildings display the style moderne that was fashionable at the beginning of the 20 th century, with traces of traditional Russian decoration. The best example is the former building of the city council, now carefully restored.  

The Shrines of Kargopol: Preserving the art of the Russian North

The devastation of World War I occurred far from Khabarovsk, and the city actually grew with expanding military production. But the civil war following the Bolshevik Revolution caused major damage and disruption.

The last major battles of the Civil War occurred near Khabarovsk. Red partisan forces recaptured the town in early 1920, but they were suddenly attacked by the Japanese in April. Fierce fighting led to significant destruction in the central district. Instability continued until December 1921, when the city was retaken by a White army led by Viktorin Molchanov.

At the battle of Volochaevka in February 1922, Molchanov’s defenses were breached and Khabarovsk was retaken by Red forces, but not without further damage to the area, including partial demolition of the magnificent Amur River Bridge. Authority was vested in the Far Eastern Republic, a Communist ally that formally merged with the new Soviet state in November 1922.  

During the Soviet period, the expansion of Khabarovsk accelerated thanks to its strategic military, industrial and administrative position. The pace of growth is reflected in modernist buildings designed by prominent Constructivist architects such as Ilya Golosov, who built the large complex for the House of Soviets in 1929-30.

In the 1930s the Gulag concentration camp empire expanded and prison labor was used in construction. A number of building projects in Khabarovsk were undertaken by the NKVD, which preferred a pompous neoclassical style. Relics of that time include the GlavDalStroi Building and the Commune House, all on Muravyov-Amursky Street.

World War II, like the first, occurred far from Khabarovsk, but the city played a major role in defending the Far East from a Japanese attack. And it served as headquarters during the brief Soviet-Japanese War in August 1945

Liavlia and Zaostrovye: Enduring traditions in the Arkhangelsk Region

Greatly expanded after the war, Khabarovsk maintained its momentum into the post-Soviet period. The city’s vitality is reflected in the improved appearance of Muravyov-Amursky Street, from a renovated Lenin Square to Cathedral Square, with its new Dormition Cathedral visible from the Amur. In 2004 the Transfiguration Cathedral was consecrated on Glory Square near the river.

With a population of just over 600,000, Khabarovsk has witnessed a building spree of contemporary apartment houses in colorful post-modernist forms. And the city’s good management was acknowledged in 2000 when it was chosen as the headquarters of the Far Eastern Federal District.

In the late summer of 2013 the Khabarovsk area experienced a record-setting flood of the Amur, but the main part of the city — on high ground — avoided the worst of the destruction. Among the city's promising economic developments is its pivotal role in the massive "Strength of Siberia" gas pipeline project, which will link the gas fields of Yakutia to the rapidly expanding Chinese market. With its well-maintained central district, Khabarovsk preserves its heritage as it looks to the future.

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Khabarovsk Krai, Russia

The capital city of Khabarovsk krai: Khabarovsk .

Khabarovsk Krai - Overview

Khabarovsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia located in the center of the Russian Far East, part of the Far Eastern Federal District. Khabarovsk is the capital city of the region.

The population of Khabarovsk Krai is about 1,299,000 (2022), the area - 787,633 sq. km.

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History of Khabarovsk Krai

In the Middle Ages, the territory of today’s Khabarovsk Krai was inhabited mainly by the peoples of the Tungus-Manchu language group, as well as Nivkhs. In China they were known collectively as “wild Jurchen”. In the 13th-14th centuries, the Mongol rulers of China repeatedly organized expeditions to the lower Amur.

Russians began the development of the Far East in the 17th century. In 1639, a Cossack troop headed by Ivan Moskvitin reached the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. The first stockade town was built in the mouth of the Ulya River. Later, Vasily Danilovich Poyarkov and Yerofei Pavlovich Khabarov were the first who started joining the Amur lands to Russia. Before Russians came here, the tribes of Daurs, Evenks, Natks, Gilyaks and others lived in this area (only about 30 thousand people).

The area was quickly populated by Russian settlers; new stockade towns were founded. But the process was interrupted due to a conflict with the Qing Dynasty. From the 1680s, Manchus started to fight against the Russian state.

More Historical Facts…

Russia could not move significant military forces to the Amur region and had to sign the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689). According to it, Russians had to leave the left bank of the Amur River but managed to uphold its rights for the area behind Lake Baikal and the Sea of Okhotsk coast.

In the 18th century, Okhotsk became the main Pacific port of the Russian Empire. Development of the northern coast of the Pacific, exploration of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin prepared the basis for the return of the Amur region.

In 1847, Nikolai Nikolayevich Muravyov was appointed a governor-general of Eastern Siberia. He did his best to return the Amur area to the Russian Empire. The number of Russians in the region began to grow. In 1858, the town of Khabarovsk was founded.

As a result of the weakening of China during the Opium Wars, two agreements were signed - the Aigun Treaty in 1858 and the Beijing Treaty in 1860. The Russian-Chinese border was established on the Amur and Ussuri rivers.

In 1884, Zabaikalskaya, Amurskaya and Primorskaya regions were united into Priamurskoye region with the center in Khabarovsk. Until the late 19th century, the Amur area was settled slowly. The situation changed in the early 20th century. In 1900, the Trans-Baikal Railway was opened, in 1902 - the Chinese Eastern Railway.

As a result, the number of settlers grew rapidly. In 1900-1913, about 300,000 peasants from other regions of the Russian Empire came to the Amur area. There were three towns (Khabarovsk, Nikolayevsk-on-Amur and Okhotsk) on the territory, which makes Khabarovsk krai today. By 1915, there were more than six thousand settlements with a total population of 316,300 people in Primorskaya oblast.

The Civil War lead to a great number of deaths and economic collapse in Russia. The restoration of pre-war level of economy was achieved by 1926. New cities were built in the region - Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Birobidzhan. October 20, 1938, Dalnevostochny region was divided into Khabarovsky and Primorsky regions.

In 1947-1948, Sakhalin and Amur regions were separated from Dalnevostochny region. In 1953, Magadan region was formed and separated from Dalnevostochny region. In 1956, Kamchatka region became independent too. In 1991, the Jewish autonomous region was separated from Dalnevostochny region.

Nature of Khabarovsk Krai

Khabarovsk Krai scenery

Author: Alexander Semyonov

Khabarovsk Krai landscape

Author: Alexander Makharov

Lake in Khabarovsk Krai

Author: Ezerskiy Feliks

Khabarovsk Krai - Features

Khabarovsk Krai is one of the largest administrative-territorial units of the Russian Federation. The territory of the region stretches for about 1,800 kilometers from north to south, and for 125-750 km from west to east. The distance from Khabarovsk to Moscow is 8,533 km by rail, 8,385 by roads and 6,075 km by air.

Part of the southern boundary of the Khabarovsk region is the state border of Russia with China. The province is washed by the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan. The coastline extension is 3,390 km, including islands, the largest of them are Shantarsky Islands. The highest point is Berill Mountain (2,933 meters).

The climate of the region changes from north to south. Winters are long and snowy. The average temperature in January is in the range of minus 22-40 degrees Celsius, on the coast - minus 18-24 degrees Celsius. Summers are hot and humid. The average temperature in July is about plus 15-20 degrees Celsius.

In general, Khabarovsk Krai is one of the most sparsely populated regions of Russia, which is due, firstly, the general economic decline of the post-Soviet time, and secondly - the severity of the local climate, comparable with the regions of the Far North.

The largest cities and towns are Khabarovsk (613,500), Komsomolsk-on-Amur (239,400) Amursk (38,200), Sovetskaya Gavan (22,900), Nikolaevsk-on-Amur (17,400), Bikin (15,900).

Khabarovsk Krai - Economy and Transport

The main branches of the local economy are mechanical engineering and metalworking, ferrous metallurgy, mining, fishing, food, light and timber industries. The mineral resources of the region include gold, tin, aluminum, iron, coal and lignite, graphite.

The main highways of Khabarovsk Krai are M60 “Ussuri” (Khabarovsk - Ussuriysk - Vladivostok) and M58 “Amur” (Chita - Never - Svobodny - Arkhara - Birobidzhan - Khabarovsk). The railway station “Khabarovsk-2” is a large railway hub. The directions are as follows: to the south (to Vladivostok and Port Vostochny), to the west (to Moscow) and to the north (to Komsomolsk-on-Amur).

The river port in Khabarovsk is the largest on the Amur River. The other river ports of the region are located in Komsomolsk and Nikolayevsk. The sea ports of the region are Okhotsk, Ayan, Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Vanino, Sovetskaya Gavan.

Tourism in Khabarovsk Krai

The rich natural potential of the region provides endless opportunities for the development of ecological tourism. You can see reindeer, brown and Himalayan bears, bighorn sheep and even the Siberian tigers on the territory of Khabarovsk krai.

The Amur River is the main attraction of the region. Most of natural, cultural and historical tourist sites are concentrated in the valley of this river.

Shantarsky Islands, one of the most beautiful and unique places of unspoiled nature, are another natural attraction of this region. The inaccessibility of the islands allowed to preserve pristine nature. Shantarsky Islands are a habitat of whales, seals, killer whales. It is a great place for fishing.

If you prefer ethnographic tourism, you may be interested in cave paintings located near the Nanai village of Sikachi-Alyan and Lake Bolon, which is a large bird sanctuary. In the past, there were a Buddhist temple and ancient settlements in the vicinity of the lake.

Lovers of adventure tourism may be interested in rafting, fishing tours, caving and winter recreation.

The best time for tourism in Khabarovsk krai: “late spring - early summer”, “end of summer - early fall.”

The largest international airport in the region is located in Khabarovsk. The flights to Moscow, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Novosibirsk, Yakutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Bangkok, Seoul, Harbin are available.

Khabarovsk krai of Russia photos

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Cross-Border Tourism on the Russian–Chinese Border in 2014–2019: Customization of the Service Sectors of Border Cities for Chinese Tourists

• GEOGRAPHICAL SPACE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
• Published: 04 October 2021
• Volume 11 , pages 349–360, ( 2021 )

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• E. V. Mikhailova 1  

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The article examines cross-border tourism and changes in the tourism industry that occurred at the Russian–Chinese borderland since 2014. Using two city pairs—Blagoveshchensk/Heihe and Khabarovsk/Fuyuan—as case studies, the article reveals that owing to the altered structure of tourist flows after the 2014 devaluation of the ruble, Russian and Chinese border cities have customized their services for Chinese tourists. Fieldwork data and data collected from the media analysis allowed mapping the service sector openness of border cities and demonstrating that central districts of border cities concentrate the majority of businesses catering to clients from the neighboring state. This finding confirms the role of central districts of border cities as thermometers of cross-border dynamics as they react first to fluctuations in exchange rates and tourist flows. Based on an assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cross-border flows and the tourism industry at the Russian–Chinese borderland, it was concluded that an earlier reorientation towards domestic tourists (after 2014) allowed Heihe and Fuyuan to be more prepared for the next external shock. The tourism industry in Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk suffered significant losses and found itself in a situation of high uncertainty, in which it was impossible to predict the timing of resumed arrivals of Chinese tourists.

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INTRODUCTION

Exchange rate fluctuations are commonly seen as a macroeconomic indicator that affects the attractiveness of territories as tourist destinations. Strengthening of the currency of the destination country can lead to both a reduced stay and amount of expenses for travelers, as well as refusal to visit it in favor of more affordable recreational destinations. Tour operators specializing in accompanying travelers from regions where the purchasing power has significantly decreased with respect to the currency of the destination country are faced with a choice: to adapt the package of services, change their specialization, or leave the market.

Devaluation of the national currency usually has dual consequences for the tourism industry. On the one hand, residents of the state whose currency has been devalued find themselves limited in the possibilities of overseas recreation and are forced to revise their usual consumption patterns, which creates the need to reorganize business specializing in outbound tourism. On the other hand, the cheapening of goods and services caused by devaluation contributes to the growth of inbound tourist flows and the creation of new service jobs catering to them. Hence tourism industry becomes a significant way to attract stronger currencies into the country and a vehicle of the economic recovery.

Publications considering the relationship between the exchange rate and international tourist flow in the context of currency appreciation of the destination country, usually aim at identifying the countries most susceptible to changes. For example, based on the analysis of international tourist flows to Hong Kong, Cheng (2012) names Japan as the country most susceptible to the strengthening of the Hong Kong dollar. Consequently, tour operators working with Japan are the first who have to adapt their service package offered in the event of another increase in the exchange rate.

Studies dealing with countries whose national currency is depreciating interpret the scope of international tourist arrivals as an indicator of economic recovery, since the tourism industry is becoming a significant means of attracting foreign currency to the country. A number of articles focus on strategies for attracting tourist flows from a specific region. An example is (Higham, 2000), which lists the key methods of attracting tourists from Europe used by Thailand after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

The 2014-ruble depreciation brought in a significant shift in Russia’s place in international tourist flows. While outbound flows dropped, the inbound tourism increased with the most pronounced growth associated with Asian and particularly Chinese tourist arrivals. Russian realities in the context of the depreciation of the ruble in 2014–2018 and the growth of inbound tourist flow were considered in a small number of works. Among them, one should highlight (Aleksandrova, 2017; Aleksandrova and Maikova, 2017). From 1995 to 2015, the share of tourists from Asia in the inbound segment of the Russian tourist market increased about five times, from 9.3 to 42% (Aleksandrova, 2017). Since 2016, China has played a leading role in shaping the inbound flow of tourists from non-CIS countries to Russia. One of the determining factors for the increase in the arrivals of Chinese tourists to Russia was devaluation of the ruble in 2014 (Zaklyaz’minskaya, 2018).

The increase in the share of tourists from Asia in the international inbound tourist flow is a global trend associated primarily with the growth of international tourist departures from China, which in turn is due to the growth in the share of the middle class, the continuing rise in household incomes, and the expansion of consumer lending in China (Zaklyaz’minskaya, 2018). For 2009–2017, the number of Chinese tourists departing abroad tripled to 139.5 mln trips. Footnote 1 According to the tourism association “World without Borders,” Footnote 2 the number of tourist arrivals from China to Russia over the same period increased 12.8 times and amounted to about 1.5 mln trips in 2017. Although this number of trips corresponds to only 1% of the total number of international departures from China in 2017, in Russia tourists from China accounted for 20% of tourist arrivals from non-CIS countries.

Cross-border tourism was heavily affected with the 2014 currency fluctuations, too. Publications addressing the specifics of Russian−Chinese cross-border tourism after 2014 are few. Some authors explore the shadow turnover in the tourism industry on the Russian−Chinese border (Glazyrina and Peshkov 2018, Zuenko 2018), others discuss the redistribution of roles in cross-border shopping (Ryzhova and Zhuravskaja 2015). However, a study of border cities as main platforms of cross-border tourism activities and adaptation they have undergone has been missing. This article aspires to fill this gap by examining cross-border tourism through the lens of urban studies. More specifically, the study attempts to identify directions and tools of adaptation used by Russian and Chinese border cities in response to the 2014 currency fluctuations and consequent changes in the structure of tourist flows. Blagoveshchensk and Heihe and Khabarovsk and Fuyuan, two city pairs with a high cooperation potential (Larin 2005; Ryzhova 2009; Xiuting 2020), were chosen as a testing ground for the study.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The article uses case study analysis to examine Blagoveshchensk and Heihe and Khabarovsk and Fuyuan. The selected cities have a number of significant similarities:

(1) they are located in the middle reaches of the Amur River, along which the Russian–Chinese border runs in this section;

(2) the primary transport links between them are by river, which are most intensive during the summer navigation season;

(3) the cities in pairs have a similar administrative status: the Russian side is represented by regional capitals (Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk), the Chinese side is represented by the administrative centers of urban districts (Heihe and Fuyuan);

(4) both city pairs face similar challenges: asynchronous urbanization on the Russian and Chinese sides of the border (Chinese neighboring cities are much younger than the Russian ones) and different benefits from existing cross-border flows (until 2014, the development momentum was felt more strongly in Chinese border cities).

Alongside with these similarities, the cities under consideration have a number of important differences, including proximity to each other, demographic potential, as well as the duration, intensity, and significance of cross-border interactions for their development in recent decades. Blagoveshchensk and Heihe, separated by 600 m of water surface and in direct contact over the past 30 years, have formed a solid framework of professional ties in business, culture, education, and healthcare. Khabarovsk and Fuyuan are 65 km apart. Due to remoteness and the strong ruble, until recently, cross-border contacts developed around Russian citizens visiting Fuyuan. According to the 2014–2016 reports of the Khabarovsk city administration’s international office, since 2014 inter-city cooperation has expanded, but it has not yet yielded concrete results. For more populated Khabarovsk, which was the center of the Far Eastern Federal District in 2000–2018, the border position is not decisive in the identity of the local population. Footnote 3 At the same time, the continuous building layout of Blagoveshchensk and Heihe, became the basis for their self-perception and tourist positioning (Billé, 2014; Ryzhova, 2008; Mikhailova and Wu, 2018).

The study relies on statistical, sociological and cartographic methods. During field trips to Blagoveshchensk–Heihe (April 2017) and Khabarovsk–Fuyuan (August 2017), the marketing tools used to attract customers from the neighboring state as well as the location and economic profile of enterprises catering to them were recorded. Foreign language marketing materials targeting tourists from a neighboring state were used as additional sources of identifying changes in the service sector. One-time field trips, undoubtedly, are a limitation of the study. To minimize the effect of one-off urban observations, local and regional media materials for 2012–2020 were used in the course of the study.

The paper follows the tradition of studying cross-border tourism in border cities and particularly relies on Dolzblasz and Raczyk (2012) and Lara-Valencia and Dolzblasz (2019)—two publications using cross-border twin cities as case studies. Dolzblasz and Raczyk (2012) classify 836 service establishments in twin cities on the German-Polish border based on observations and map the level of business openness towards cross-border customers using this data. Lara-Valencia and Dolzblasz (2019) compare the German–Polish and American–Mexican border twin cities in terms of their orientation towards cross-border customers and conclude that prices of similar goods and services and the difference in incomes of the cross-border residents determine the retail trade specialization. Both publications assess the openness of service enterprises to cross-border clients. Businesses were defined “open” if (1) they had a signage and (2) information materials (price tags, handouts, business cards, menus) in the language of a neighbouring country; (3) they accepted payments in the currency of a neighbouring country; (4) their staff had a basic knowledge of a neighbouring country’s language. This provision was used for collecting and analyzing the empirical data for this study.

CROSS-BORDER FLOWS AND MOTIVATIONS TO CROSS THE RUSSIAN–CHINESE BORDER: AN OVERVIEW

Until recently, the study of cross-border flows on the Russian–Chinese border was more concerned with shuttle trade and illegal labor migration than with tourism. The opening of the Russian–Chinese border in the late 1980s gave rise to barter trade. As old-timers note, the first contacts between residents of the border areas of the USSR and China were dictated by an acute shortage of goods, not by curiosity.

The location of border checkpoints and establishment of transport links laid the foundation for shuttle trade—informal trade of goods imported by Russian citizens from China as if for personal use, but in practice sold in small wholesale markets. For many borderlanders involved in “gray” import, the border became a source of income and primary capital accumulation. Ryzhova and Simutina (2007), in addition to shuttle trade, distinguish four more variations of business practices that use the Russian–Chinese border as a resource: “ kirpichestvo ,” “ realization ,” “ mediation ,” and “ frontman. ” The first and the second practices arose in the process of optimizing cross-border trade. The third and the fourth practices were a response to the restrictive actions of Russian authorities. Gradually, the competition of large import companies and wholesalers as well as restrictive actions of Russian authorities transformed the shuttle trade into well-established ternary networks composed of “a goods owner,” “a cargo organizer,” and “frontmen transporting goods” (Zhuravskaya, 2011). The proliferation of online commerce in China and the development of the leading e-commerce platforms Taobao and AliExpress have contributed to the emergence of a new business practice in the Russian−Chinese border area: an online trade mediation, which consists of assistance in purchasing online goods and delivering them across the border (Ryzhova, 2018).

Along with the intensification of trade exchange, opening of the border created opportunities for Chinese labor migration to Russia. Following that development, some Russian politicians at the federal and regional levels started alarming the electorate with the threat of the “Chinese demographic expansion.” That rhetoric despite its unfoundedness was an easy and powerful tool to win popularity among voters (Zayonchkovskaya, 2005). The academic community posits that as of 1999, the number of Chinese more or less permanently residing in Russia ranged from 200 000 to 450 000 people (Gelbras, 2001). In the Russian Far East, the key form of Chinese migration was pendulum migration, implying a periodic return to the place of departure. A more “sedentary” Chinese community has formed in Moscow (Gelbras, 2001). Three main categories of Chinese migrants to Russia in 1991–2009 were (1) merchants; (2) workers employed in agriculture, construction and logging; and (3) students and knowledge workers (Repnikova and Balzer, 2009). Repnikova and Balzer suggest that Chinese labor migration is a missed opportunity for Russia’s development (2009). This thesis, put forward during the economic crisis of 2008–2009, has partially confirmed: due to complication of the country’s economic situation and the ruble depreciation, Chinese migrants almost ceased arriving to Russia and started moving out since 2010 (Larin 2017, p. 68).

Leisure motivation became an independent driving force for crossing the Russian−Chinese border much later than economic motivation, which resulted in Russian shuttle trade in Chinese goods and Chinese labor migration to Russia (Ilyina and Mikhailova, 2015). Signing the inter-governmental agreement on visa-free tourist group travel in 2000 was an important step forward in developing bilateral, including cross-border, tourism. Chinese border areas, in particular, Manzhouli, Suifenhe, Tongjiang, and Heihe, endowed with the status of “open trade cities,” gradually developed infrastructure catering to Russian tourists. Russian border cities became interested in increasing their tourist appeal to Chinese tourists in the early 2010s (Mikhailova, 2015).

INFLUENCE OF CURRENCY FLUCTUATIONS ON TOURIST FLOWS ON THE RUSSIAN–CHINESE BORDER

The drop in oil prices in 2014 amid financial sanctions by the United States and Europe against Russia led to long-term devaluation of the ruble. The longest upward trends in the yuan against the ruble were observed from July 2014 to January 2015, when the exchange rate almost doubled from 5.8 to 11.2 rubles per yuan, then from April 2015 to January 2016, when the Chinese currency strengthened again against the ruble.

The average annual rate in 2015−2016 was 9.9 rubles per yuan, which when compared with the recent exchange rate of 4.9−5.2 rubles per yuan in 2012–2013 became a significant shock for the economic relations of the Russian Far East and China’s Northeast. Significant changes in exchange rates have disrupted two countries’ purchasing power parity. As a result, Chinese citizens began to visit Russian cities (in particular, border cities) much more often to purchase imported goods.

According to the statistics for visa-free travel of tourist groups for 2008–2016, in Amur Oblast, the inbound flow from China began to exceed the outbound flow since 2013. Over the past decade, tourist flows to China from Amur Oblast and from China to Amur Oblast have reversed: whereas in 2008, 88.5% of visa-free tourist groups crossings the border between Blagoveshchensk and Heihe accounted for the outbound flow to China, in 2017, 88.5% of crossings were tourist groups from China ( Fig. 1 ). Although the growth in the inbound flow from China to Blagoveshchensk occurred almost continuously since 2008 (with the exception of a slight decrease in 2013), it has accelerated in recent years. In 2016, the number of Chinese tourists who entered Blagoveshchensk via the visa-free program was about 80 000, more than twice the number of tourists recorded in 2012. At the same time, the total number of crossings of the Russian–Chinese border via the visa-free corridor through the Blagoveshchensk customs for 2008−2016 decreased by almost 10 000 trips.

Dynamics of inbound and outbound visa-free tourist travel registered at the Blagoveshchensk Customs in 2008–2016, in absolute values and in percentage. Compiled from data provided by the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Tourism and Entrepreneurship of Amur Oblast.

According to the tourist portal of Khabarovsk Krai, for 2011–2018, the inbound flow of foreign tourists to the region increased 3.5 times, reaching 55 400 people in 2018 ( Fig. 2 ). Every second foreign tourist in the region was a Chinese citizen. The number of Chinese tourists increased 3.4 times over the same period. The highest growth rates of the inbound flow from China were recorded in 2015, when the number of Chinese tourists reached 18 700 people (178% of the 2014 level). The most significant changes in the departure of residents of Khabarovsk Krai to China took place in 2015: the number of people leaving the country decreased by more than five times versus 2011 and amounted to only 44 500 people.

Dynamics of tourist flows in Khabarovsk Krai in 2011−2018. Compiled from annual final reports of Tourism Department of Ministry of Culture of Khabarovsk Krai. http://www.travel.khv.ru/sections/11 . Accessed September 20, 2020.

As comparison of the chronology of currency fluctuations and changes in the dynamics of tourist flows on the Russian–Chinese border in 2011−2018 has shown, following the twofold strengthening of the yuan against the ruble in 2014, there was a sharp decline in the departure of Russian tourists to China: compared to 2014, the number of Russians who visited China for tourist purposes in 2015 decreased by 64% at the Khabarovsk customs and 70% at the Blagoveshchensk customs. The number of arrivals of Chinese tourists continued to increase: after stagnation in 2013, when the increase in arrivals from China amounted to −1% at the Blagoveshchensk customs and 0.2% at the Khabarovsk customs, 2014 and 2015 were marked by a high growth rate: 40 and 33% at the Blagoveshchensk customs and 28 and 78% at the Khabarovsk customs.

CHANGES IN THE SERVICES SECTOR OF BORDER CITIES OF THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST AND NORTHEAST CHINA AFTER 2014

The redistribution of the roles of buyers and sellers between residents of the Russian and Chinese shores of the Amur River in fall 2014 was accompanied by reluctance of the Russian borderlanders to accept the new reality, in which the “Chinese “younger brother,” commonly perceived as poor and with limited needs, suddenly began to buy elite goods that became inaccessible for the Russian “elder brother” (Ryzhova and Zhuravskaya, 2015, p. 213). However, amid the falling solvency of the local population, business representatives quickly reacted to the growing demand from Chinese tourists.

Next three subsections present directions and tools for adapting Blagoveshchensk/Heihe and Khabarovsk/Fuyuan to the new economic realities, notably the new structure of tourist flows, after 2014.

Adaptation of Blagoveshchensk and Heihe

Since 2014, service providers in Blagoveshchensk have rapidly begun customization for Chinese clients. Many shopping malls, brand stores, and catering establishments in the downtown of Blagoveshchensk have put up signs, provided price information, and published brochures in Chinese. The speed and the scale of the change was impressive given that during author’s first fieldtrip to Blagoveshchensk in 2013 only four signs in Chinese were documented in the entire city.

Based on studying eight Footnote 4 Chinese-language brochures collected in April 2017 in Blagoveshchensk hotels, shopping malls and museums, the following marketing techniques were identified in the marketing materials targeting Chinese customers:

• advertising from the position of welcoming neighbors (the brochures referred to potential Chinese customers as “guests” and “friends from China”);

• using information channels (QR codes, WeChat messenger) and promotion techniques (discounts and coupons) familiar to Chinese customers;

• in the case of a company’s specialization in the sale of Russian goods, emphasizing their quality, health benefits, durability and prestige of a purchase;

• using red and golden colors in advertisement design;

• using photographs of an advertised product and store (both the retail space and entrance), use of schematic maps, listing of brands.

The above list of successful marketing techniques applied by Blagoveshchensk enterprises targeting Chinese clients can be used by enterprises interested in attracting Chinese clients in other Russian cities, including non-border ones.

Among the Chinese-language advertising materials collected in 2017, the most thoughtful and informative were: (1) a gastronomic map of Blagoveshchensk, made in 2015 by the Amur Guild of Culinary Experts and Restaurateurs, and (2) an advertising magazine printed by a regional Russian publishing house. The gastronomic map included advertisements for restaurants, cafés and coffee houses, indicating their interior features, entertainment and souvenir sales. The advertising magazine included ads both to attract customers and to find Chinese and Russian partners. The most frequently advertised items were such Russian products as amber, gold, jewelry, furs, shoes, honey, wine, natural cosmetics and medicines.

The need to serve Chinese customers and create the visual and marketing image of Blagoveshchensk in Chinese has boosted the demand for specialists proficient in Chinese. According to the Russian online recruitment company HeadHunter, since 2014, the number of vacancies for Chinese-speaking candidates has quadrupled in Amur Oblast over two years since 2014. Footnote 5

Due to the increase in the flow of Chinese tourists after the 2014 ruble devaluation, two shopping malls were opened or significantly expanded in Blagoveshchensk. Both of them are located outside the city center, but surpass other shopping malls in Blagoveshchensk in terms of assortment and design. One of these shopping centers is a branch of a federal supermarket chain. Opened in 2017, it was originally equipped with signs in Chinese across the entire 7000 m 2 sales area. It is highly probable that the opening of a supermarket of this size in Blagoveshchensk, with a population of 220 000, already saturated with shopping centers during a period of declining purchasing power of the local population was based primarily on the increase in the number of arriving Chinese tourist groups.

The second shopping center has traditionally served as a shopping destination for Chinese tourists. In 2016, after the opening of its third section, the area of the shopping center increased from 80 000 to 110 000 m 2 . A Chinese-language brochure describes this newly expanded shopping area, stylized as 19th century architecture, as “wide squares and cozy streets that combine elements of old Blagoveshchensk, Venice, Odessa, and Santa Barbara”; i.e., the interior design is used as an additional incentive to visit a remote shopping center.

In response to strong currency fluctuations and changes in the structure of tourist flows, Heihe had to reorient itself to serve domestic tourists. A sharp decline in the flow of Russian tourists and a decrease in their purchasing power brought significant losses to the city’s companies. A number of them went bankrupt and closed, while others refocussed to sell Russian goods to locals and Chinese tourists from elsewhere.

A new source of economic recovery in Heihe after 2014 was e-commerce, concentrated in the 100 000 m 2 Cross-Border E-Commerce Park, created in 2012. The park gained momentum in 2014–2015, when the fall in ruble’s purchasing power, coupled with the virtual absence of import duties in Russia, contributed to the rapid growth of retail Internet deliveries from China to Russia (Pickover, 2020). By 2015, Heihe Cross-Border E-Commerce Park hosted 120 e-commerce companies. By 2016, the Park and the Alibaba Group Internet Corporation entered into a strategic cooperation agreement leading to the opening of Taobao and AliExpress universities at the Park premises. Fostering city’s new specialisation, Heihe officials encouraged Amur Oblast business community to join the new type of trade. The Heihe City Administration organised visits to the Park and arranged express courses in Russian about the basics of e-commerce and its features in China Footnote 6 for Amur Oblast entrepreneurs.

In addition to companies serving Russian shoppers, the Heihe Park started to establish companies supplying organic products from Russia to China. Epinduo, founded in 2016, became the flagship in this field. For the four years of its existence, the company reached a daily sales level of RUB 4 mln, created a network of retail stores of Russian products in China, and entered China’s largest electronic trading platforms—Tmall, JD, 1688, Pinduoduo, etc. In 2019, Heihe’s Epinduo has been recognized as the best store selling imported food products on the JD.com platform. Footnote 7

An important result in the new economic and geopolitical conditions was the signing of an agreement on the construction of a cross-border bridge across the Amur River near Blagoveshchensk, bilateral negotiations on the construction of which had been underway since 1988. Construction work was completed at the end of 2019. In May 2020, permission from the Ministry of Construction of Russia was obtained to put the bridge into operation. The opening of the bridge is planned after the lifting of the COVID-19 epidemiological restrictions.

Adaptation of Khabarovsk and Fuyuan

Similar to Blagoveshchensk, service enterprises in Khabarovsk since 2014 started customising their services and marketing for Chinese clients: they created signs and information materials in Chinese. However, as the 2017 fieldwork revealed, the number of such organizations was relatively small, mainly concentrated in the Central District of the city.

According to the city administration, banners in Chinese were placed on the central streets of Khabarovsk in 2016. Footnote 8 In 2017, a Chinese-language city guide was published for the first time. Footnote 9 A mobile travel guide app with a Chinese version was launched in 2019. Footnote 10 Curiously, passenger transport companies attempted to cater to Chinese tourists too: in 2017 one of Khabarovsk’s bus routes covering city’s central streets and, therefore, the majority of organizations providing services to Chinese tourists, was dubbed into Chinese. Footnote 11

Fuyuan’s reorientation towards the Chinese domestic tourist flow was easier than in Heihe due to the smaller size of the city and obvious seasonality of tourists from Russia. Prior to the commissioning of charter flights between Khabarovsk and Fuyuan in 2016, the use of geographic proximity and visitation of the neighboring city was possible only from May to October during the river navigation period.

In addition, orientation towards tourists from other regions of China had already existed in Fuyuan. After completion of the demarcation of the eastern section of the Russian–Chinese border in 2008, China funded the recreational development of the country’s easternmost point–the Chinese part of Bolshoi Ussuriysky (Heixiazi in Chinese) Island, which belongs to the Fuyuan county. In 2011, the first two tourist sites were commissioned: Sun Square, in the center of which there is a 49-meter high monument in the form of the hieroglyph for East, and a wetland park. In 2014, an 81-meter pagoda, the easternmost in China, was erected in close proximity to the state border. In 2015 the internal flow of tourists visiting this recreational complex was 1000 people per day. Footnote 12 According to the Heilongjiang Provincial People’s Government Committee on Construction and Management of the Chinese Part of Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island, in 2016 260 000 domestic tourists visited China’s easternmost point. During the same year, the tourism department of Khabarovsk Krai reported that 20 650 tourists from China (that is, every 12th tourist) took the opportunity to visit neighboring Khabarovsk and entered the city through the river port. Footnote 13

Assessment of Business Openness of Cities on the Russian–Chinese Border with Respect to Clients from a Neighboring State

Based on Dołzbłasz and Raczyk’s methodology (2012), schematic maps of the level of business openness with respect to clients from a neighboring state were compiled for each of the four cities under consideration. Figure 3 was compiled on the basis of data from http://vheihe.ru/ (the website targeting Russian tourists visiting Heihe), media materials (on organizations with regular active cross-border contacts with the neighboring city), and print advertising materials collected during the field trip. Information about the Chinese side is presented on the schematic map to a lesser extent than the Russian side, which is due to the peculiarities of the organization of Heihe service sector enterprises. Business oriented towards Russians in Heihe forms several clusters: large shopping centers and long shopping streets housing hundreds of small retail outlets and hotels; some are on the second floor, making it difficult to analyze and map urban space at the organizational level.

Service enterprises in Blagoveshchensk and Heihe targeting clients from a neighboring state. Compiled from advertising brochures in Chinese distributed in Blagoveshchensk in April 2017, materials from the website http://vheihe.ru/ and data obtained during fieldwork.

Figure 3 confirms the conclusion of (Dołzbłasz and Raczyk, 2012) that service establishments targeting clients from a neighboring state are concentrated in the centers of border cities and along major transport routes. In Blagoveshchensk and Heihe, the places of concentration of such organizations are embankments and areas near passenger ports (in Blagoveshchensk, two main streets: 50th Anniversary of October Street and Lenin Street). Nevertheless, in Blagoveshchensk, service enterprises oriented towards clients from the neighboring state are gradually moving beyond these areas. Two of the eight shopping malls that group businesses targeting Chinese customers are located at a significant distance from the port and city center.

Figure 4 , which is dedicated to Fuyuan, shows that there are significantly fewer service enterprises in the city, whose main clients in recent years have been Russian tourists, than in Heihe. We can talk about their compact localization in the city center between the pedestrian shopping street, Xiangjianlu and Zhengyanlu Street, which leads to the bus station. Most of the mini-clusters providing services to Russian tourists include a shopping center, a hotel, and a restaurant. Four hotels that for several years have been advertised in the Russian-language travel guide to Fuyuan, are located at a relative distance from the center and the rest of Russian-oriented service establishments. It can be assumed that earlier there were other service enterprises specializing in Russian-language service nearby, which either closed or changed their profile of activities due to a decrease in Russian tourist flow.

Fuyuan service enterprises targeting Russian customers, compiled from Russian-language guides to Fuyuan for 2011–2017 and field notes.

Figure 5 shows the Central District of Khabarovsk—the business, leisure, and scientific center of the city. This area is home to establishments that specialize in catering to Chinese clients. Most of these enterprises are located on the main transport routes: Muravyov-Amursky Street, Karl Marx Street, and Amur Boulevard. Travel agencies specializing in selling Fuyuan tours to Khabarovsk residents are located near the river port.

Khabarovsk service enterprises oriented towards clients from China. Compiled from interviews and field notes.

Comparison of the schematic maps leads to the following conclusions:

• the greatest focus on clients from the neighboring state, according to data for 2017, was revealed in Blagoveshchensk, the capital of Amur Oblast;

• the business segment oriented towards attracting clients from a neighboring state is localized in the central districts of border cities, which are “thermometers” of the cross-border dynamics (Arreola and Curtis, 1993), which means that they react faster than other parts of the urban space to fluctuations in exchange rates and tourist flows.

Cartographic materials produced in this study can be used by local governments of border municipalities (both on the Russian−Chinese border and on other Russia’s borders) to develop measures transforming the urban environment. Knowing the allocation patterns of the service enterprises catering to clients from a neighboring state, border municipalities could both improve the comfort of urban areas already frequented by tourists from a neighboring state and expand these areas at the expense of nearby territories by duplicating street names and putting up information kiosks about cultural monuments and pointers to tourist attractions in foreign languages. Such cartographic materials can also be used by local governments and entrepreneurs of border cities as a guide for preparing a map of their own city for tourists from a neighboring state.

INFLUENCE OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ON CROSS-BORDER FLOWS AND TOURISM INDUSTRY ON THE RUSSIAN–CHINESE BORDER

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global health crisis, the return of border controls to previously transparent state borders, and a global recession. One of the heavily affected industries in the world and the study region is the tourism industry.

On January 31, 2020, by the Order of the Government of the Russian Federation, traffic through checkpoints on the Russian–Chinese border was restricted. Footnote 14 Regular passenger traffic through border checkpoints in Amur Oblast and Khabarovsk Krai was suspended on the eve of the Chinese New Year. From that moment to the present (February 2021), tourist passenger traffic across the Russian–Chinese border has not been resumed.

According to the World Tourism Organization, Footnote 15 in the first eight months of 2020, the world recorded 700 mln (i.e., 70%) fewer foreign arrivals versus the same period in 2019. This led to losses from the export of tourism services of over RUB 56 trln, which is eight times higher than for the global tourism industry in 2009 crisis. According to the Federal Tourism Agency and the Russian Travel Industry Union, in 2020, the domestic tourism industry will lose about RUB 600 bln, i.e. more than 70% of the export of tourism services in 2019, due to the lack of foreign tourists and, above all, tourists from China. Footnote 16 According to the Amur Oblast Government, Footnote 17 in the first five months of 2020, the revenue of companies working with Chinese tourists decreased by 90%. In Khabarovsk, where the flow of Chinese tourists is noticeably smaller than in Blagoveshchensk and mainly falls on the summer navigation season, the main losses were incurred by travel agencies, hotels, and restaurants catering to Chinese tourists, souvenir and jewelry stores.

In the pandemic, tour operators around the world, including in Russia and China, are reorienting towards domestic tourism. Heihe and Fuyuan, which intensified their orientation towards the domestic market after 2014, turned out to be more prepared for the next external shock. Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk suffered significant losses and found themselves in a situation of high uncertainty, where it was impossible to predict when and to what extent Chinese tourists will return.

Restrictions on the movement of citizens, reduction in trade traffic, suspension of production, and temporary closure of service establishments led to a drop in oil prices and new currency fluctuations. According to data for nine months of 2020, the average monthly exchange rate of the yuan against the ruble was 10.12 rubles per yuan, which exceeds the indicators of 2015–2019. As the study shows, strengthening of the yuan against the ruble increases the tourist attractiveness of the Russian borderland. After stabilization of the epidemiological situation, it will be possible to assess the role of this factor in the restoration of Chinese tourist flows to Russia.

CONCLUSIONS

Regions along the Russian−Chinese border, a large part of whose economies have been outwardly oriented since the opening of the border and liberalisation of foreign trade, have been the quickest to feel the changes in the exchange rate and the structure of tourist flows between Russia and China since 2014.

Russian and Chinese border cities, due to currency volatility observed since 2014, gradually began to reorient themselves to domestic Chinese tourists. At the same time, the Chinese border cities, previously oriented exclusively towards tourists from Russia, incurred significant costs. Service establishments in Russian border cities needed to invest in hiring Chinese-speaking professionals and change marketing strategies. At the same time, service sector establishments of Blagoveshchensk customized themselves for Chinese tourists faster and on a larger scale than similar institutions in Khabarovsk. Fuyuan’s service sector has suffered less losses than the one in Heihe due to the city’s smaller size, its parallel orientation towards domestic Chinese tourists, which preceded the ruble devaluation in 2014, and the clearly pronounced seasonality of tourists from Russia. A case study of Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk has shown that (1) the number of enterprises oriented towards catering to Chinese clients has increased and the list of marketing techniques has been expanded; (2) with the increase in the number of signs in Chinese, the cities have changed in appearance; (3) with the expansion of the segment of Chinese tourists in the total volume of the tourist market of Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk, the labor market of these cities saw a new demand for Chinese-speaking staff to work in the tourism industry.

Theoretical studies on the service sector transformation under currency fluctuations distinguish two parallel models of tourism industry adaptation: reorientation of a country whose currency has been devalued towards foreign tourists and the reorientation of a country whose currency has strengthened to new markets and/or for domestic tourists. The new target audience of service enterprises in the Russian and Chinese border cities coincided: both of them reoriented towards Chinese tourists from other regions.

Due to the growth in the purchasing power of the Chinese population and the volume of this market, specialization on Chinese tourists is becoming one of the most popular strategies of tour operators around the world. Reorientation towards Chinese tourists revealed in the Russian and Chinese border cities is a new reality which residents of the Russian−Chinese borderlands need to adjust to.

Given the increase in the flow of Chinese tourists in the Russian−Chinese borderlands and their growing socioeconomic differentiation, a study of their leisure motivation seems to be a promising area of research.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is grateful to Dr. I. Chubarov, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and to K. Mironenko, Research Fellow at the Department of Geography of the World Economy, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, for their help with the Chinese-language materials.

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Mikhailova, E.V. Cross-Border Tourism on the Russian–Chinese Border in 2014–2019: Customization of the Service Sectors of Border Cities for Chinese Tourists. Reg. Res. Russ. 11 , 349–360 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970521030096

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Received : 03 June 2020

Revised : 26 February 2021

Accepted : 21 April 2021

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Issue Date : July 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970521030096

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Cross-Border Tourism on the Russian–Chinese Border in 2014–2019: Customization of the Service Sectors of Border Cities for Chinese Tourists

E. v. mikhailova.

University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

The article examines cross-border tourism and changes in the tourism industry that occurred at the Russian–Chinese borderland since 2014. Using two city pairs—Blagoveshchensk/Heihe and Khabarovsk/Fuyuan—as case studies, the article reveals that owing to the altered structure of tourist flows after the 2014 devaluation of the ruble, Russian and Chinese border cities have customized their services for Chinese tourists. Fieldwork data and data collected from the media analysis allowed mapping the service sector openness of border cities and demonstrating that central districts of border cities concentrate the majority of businesses catering to clients from the neighboring state. This finding confirms the role of central districts of border cities as thermometers of cross-border dynamics as they react first to fluctuations in exchange rates and tourist flows. Based on an assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cross-border flows and the tourism industry at the Russian–Chinese borderland, it was concluded that an earlier reorientation towards domestic tourists (after 2014) allowed Heihe and Fuyuan to be more prepared for the next external shock. The tourism industry in Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk suffered significant losses and found itself in a situation of high uncertainty, in which it was impossible to predict the timing of resumed arrivals of Chinese tourists.

INTRODUCTION

Exchange rate fluctuations are commonly seen as a macroeconomic indicator that affects the attractiveness of territories as tourist destinations. Strengthening of the currency of the destination country can lead to both a reduced stay and amount of expenses for travelers, as well as refusal to visit it in favor of more affordable recreational destinations. Tour operators specializing in accompanying travelers from regions where the purchasing power has significantly decreased with respect to the currency of the destination country are faced with a choice: to adapt the package of services, change their specialization, or leave the market.

Devaluation of the national currency usually has dual consequences for the tourism industry. On the one hand, residents of the state whose currency has been devalued find themselves limited in the possibilities of overseas recreation and are forced to revise their usual consumption patterns, which creates the need to reorganize business specializing in outbound tourism. On the other hand, the cheapening of goods and services caused by devaluation contributes to the growth of inbound tourist flows and the creation of new service jobs catering to them. Hence tourism industry becomes a significant way to attract stronger currencies into the country and a vehicle of the economic recovery.

Publications considering the relationship between the exchange rate and international tourist flow in the context of currency appreciation of the destination country, usually aim at identifying the countries most susceptible to changes. For example, based on the analysis of international tourist flows to Hong Kong, Cheng (2012) names Japan as the country most susceptible to the strengthening of the Hong Kong dollar. Consequently, tour operators working with Japan are the first who have to adapt their service package offered in the event of another increase in the exchange rate.

Studies dealing with countries whose national currency is depreciating interpret the scope of international tourist arrivals as an indicator of economic recovery, since the tourism industry is becoming a significant means of attracting foreign currency to the country. A number of articles focus on strategies for attracting tourist flows from a specific region. An example is (Higham, 2000), which lists the key methods of attracting tourists from Europe used by Thailand after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

The 2014-ruble depreciation brought in a significant shift in Russia’s place in international tourist flows. While outbound flows dropped, the inbound tourism increased with the most pronounced growth associated with Asian and particularly Chinese tourist arrivals. Russian realities in the context of the depreciation of the ruble in 2014–2018 and the growth of inbound tourist flow were considered in a small number of works. Among them, one should highlight (Aleksandrova, 2017; Aleksandrova and Maikova, 2017). From 1995 to 2015, the share of tourists from Asia in the inbound segment of the Russian tourist market increased about five times, from 9.3 to 42% (Aleksandrova, 2017). Since 2016, China has played a leading role in shaping the inbound flow of tourists from non-CIS countries to Russia. One of the determining factors for the increase in the arrivals of Chinese tourists to Russia was devaluation of the ruble in 2014 (Zaklyaz’minskaya, 2018).

The increase in the share of tourists from Asia in the international inbound tourist flow is a global trend associated primarily with the growth of international tourist departures from China, which in turn is due to the growth in the share of the middle class, the continuing rise in household incomes, and the expansion of consumer lending in China (Zaklyaz’minskaya, 2018). For 2009–2017, the number of Chinese tourists departing abroad tripled to 139.5 mln trips. 1 According to the tourism association “World without Borders,” 2 the number of tourist arrivals from China to Russia over the same period increased 12.8 times and amounted to about 1.5 mln trips in 2017. Although this number of trips corresponds to only 1% of the total number of international departures from China in 2017, in Russia tourists from China accounted for 20% of tourist arrivals from non-CIS countries.

Cross-border tourism was heavily affected with the 2014 currency fluctuations, too. Publications addressing the specifics of Russian−Chinese cross-border tourism after 2014 are few. Some authors explore the shadow turnover in the tourism industry on the Russian−Chinese border (Glazyrina and Peshkov 2018, Zuenko 2018), others discuss the redistribution of roles in cross-border shopping (Ryzhova and Zhuravskaja 2015). However, a study of border cities as main platforms of cross-border tourism activities and adaptation they have undergone has been missing. This article aspires to fill this gap by examining cross-border tourism through the lens of urban studies. More specifically, the study attempts to identify directions and tools of adaptation used by Russian and Chinese border cities in response to the 2014 currency fluctuations and consequent changes in the structure of tourist flows. Blagoveshchensk and Heihe and Khabarovsk and Fuyuan, two city pairs with a high cooperation potential (Larin 2005; Ryzhova 2009; Xiuting 2020), were chosen as a testing ground for the study.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The article uses case study analysis to examine Blagoveshchensk and Heihe and Khabarovsk and Fuyuan. The selected cities have a number of significant similarities:

(1) they are located in the middle reaches of the Amur River, along which the Russian–Chinese border runs in this section;

(2) the primary transport links between them are by river, which are most intensive during the summer navigation season;

(3) the cities in pairs have a similar administrative status: the Russian side is represented by regional capitals (Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk), the Chinese side is represented by the administrative centers of urban districts (Heihe and Fuyuan);

(4) both city pairs face similar challenges: asynchronous urbanization on the Russian and Chinese sides of the border (Chinese neighboring cities are much younger than the Russian ones) and different benefits from existing cross-border flows (until 2014, the development momentum was felt more strongly in Chinese border cities).

Alongside with these similarities, the cities under consideration have a number of important differences, including proximity to each other, demographic potential, as well as the duration, intensity, and significance of cross-border interactions for their development in recent decades. Blagoveshchensk and Heihe, separated by 600 m of water surface and in direct contact over the past 30 years, have formed a solid framework of professional ties in business, culture, education, and healthcare. Khabarovsk and Fuyuan are 65 km apart. Due to remoteness and the strong ruble, until recently, cross-border contacts developed around Russian citizens visiting Fuyuan. According to the 2014–2016 reports of the Khabarovsk city administration’s international office, since 2014 inter-city cooperation has expanded, but it has not yet yielded concrete results. For more populated Khabarovsk, which was the center of the Far Eastern Federal District in 2000–2018, the border position is not decisive in the identity of the local population. 3 At the same time, the continuous building layout of Blagoveshchensk and Heihe, became the basis for their self-perception and tourist positioning (Billé, 2014; Ryzhova, 2008; Mikhailova and Wu, 2018).

The study relies on statistical, sociological and cartographic methods. During field trips to Blagoveshchensk–Heihe (April 2017) and Khabarovsk–Fuyuan (August 2017), the marketing tools used to attract customers from the neighboring state as well as the location and economic profile of enterprises catering to them were recorded. Foreign language marketing materials targeting tourists from a neighboring state were used as additional sources of identifying changes in the service sector. One-time field trips, undoubtedly, are a limitation of the study. To minimize the effect of one-off urban observations, local and regional media materials for 2012–2020 were used in the course of the study.

The paper follows the tradition of studying cross-border tourism in border cities and particularly relies on Dolzblasz and Raczyk (2012) and Lara-Valencia and Dolzblasz (2019)—two publications using cross-border twin cities as case studies. Dolzblasz and Raczyk (2012) classify 836 service establishments in twin cities on the German-Polish border based on observations and map the level of business openness towards cross-border customers using this data. Lara-Valencia and Dolzblasz (2019) compare the German–Polish and American–Mexican border twin cities in terms of their orientation towards cross-border customers and conclude that prices of similar goods and services and the difference in incomes of the cross-border residents determine the retail trade specialization. Both publications assess the openness of service enterprises to cross-border clients. Businesses were defined “open” if (1) they had a signage and (2) information materials (price tags, handouts, business cards, menus) in the language of a neighbouring country; (3) they accepted payments in the currency of a neighbouring country; (4) their staff had a basic knowledge of a neighbouring country’s language. This provision was used for collecting and analyzing the empirical data for this study.

CROSS-BORDER FLOWS AND MOTIVATIONS TO CROSS THE RUSSIAN–CHINESE BORDER: AN OVERVIEW

Until recently, the study of cross-border flows on the Russian–Chinese border was more concerned with shuttle trade and illegal labor migration than with tourism. The opening of the Russian–Chinese border in the late 1980s gave rise to barter trade. As old-timers note, the first contacts between residents of the border areas of the USSR and China were dictated by an acute shortage of goods, not by curiosity.

The location of border checkpoints and establishment of transport links laid the foundation for shuttle trade—informal trade of goods imported by Russian citizens from China as if for personal use, but in practice sold in small wholesale markets. For many borderlanders involved in “gray” import, the border became a source of income and primary capital accumulation. Ryzhova and Simutina (2007), in addition to shuttle trade, distinguish four more variations of business practices that use the Russian–Chinese border as a resource: “ kirpichestvo ,” “ realization ,” “ mediation ,” and “ frontman. ” The first and the second practices arose in the process of optimizing cross-border trade. The third and the fourth practices were a response to the restrictive actions of Russian authorities. Gradually, the competition of large import companies and wholesalers as well as restrictive actions of Russian authorities transformed the shuttle trade into well-established ternary networks composed of “a goods owner,” “a cargo organizer,” and “frontmen transporting goods” (Zhuravskaya, 2011). The proliferation of online commerce in China and the development of the leading e-commerce platforms Taobao and AliExpress have contributed to the emergence of a new business practice in the Russian−Chinese border area: an online trade mediation, which consists of assistance in purchasing online goods and delivering them across the border (Ryzhova, 2018).

Along with the intensification of trade exchange, opening of the border created opportunities for Chinese labor migration to Russia. Following that development, some Russian politicians at the federal and regional levels started alarming the electorate with the threat of the “Chinese demographic expansion.” That rhetoric despite its unfoundedness was an easy and powerful tool to win popularity among voters (Zayonchkovskaya, 2005). The academic community posits that as of 1999, the number of Chinese more or less permanently residing in Russia ranged from 200 000 to 450 000 people (Gelbras, 2001). In the Russian Far East, the key form of Chinese migration was pendulum migration, implying a periodic return to the place of departure. A more “sedentary” Chinese community has formed in Moscow (Gelbras, 2001). Three main categories of Chinese migrants to Russia in 1991–2009 were (1) merchants; (2) workers employed in agriculture, construction and logging; and (3) students and knowledge workers (Repnikova and Balzer, 2009). Repnikova and Balzer suggest that Chinese labor migration is a missed opportunity for Russia’s development (2009). This thesis, put forward during the economic crisis of 2008–2009, has partially confirmed: due to complication of the country’s economic situation and the ruble depreciation, Chinese migrants almost ceased arriving to Russia and started moving out since 2010 (Larin 2017, p. 68).

Leisure motivation became an independent driving force for crossing the Russian−Chinese border much later than economic motivation, which resulted in Russian shuttle trade in Chinese goods and Chinese labor migration to Russia (Ilyina and Mikhailova, 2015). Signing the inter-governmental agreement on visa-free tourist group travel in 2000 was an important step forward in developing bilateral, including cross-border, tourism. Chinese border areas, in particular, Manzhouli, Suifenhe, Tongjiang, and Heihe, endowed with the status of “open trade cities,” gradually developed infrastructure catering to Russian tourists. Russian border cities became interested in increasing their tourist appeal to Chinese tourists in the early 2010s (Mikhailova, 2015).

INFLUENCE OF CURRENCY FLUCTUATIONS ON TOURIST FLOWS ON THE RUSSIAN–CHINESE BORDER

The drop in oil prices in 2014 amid financial sanctions by the United States and Europe against Russia led to long-term devaluation of the ruble. The longest upward trends in the yuan against the ruble were observed from July 2014 to January 2015, when the exchange rate almost doubled from 5.8 to 11.2 rubles per yuan, then from April 2015 to January 2016, when the Chinese currency strengthened again against the ruble.

The average annual rate in 2015−2016 was 9.9 rubles per yuan, which when compared with the recent exchange rate of 4.9−5.2 rubles per yuan in 2012–2013 became a significant shock for the economic relations of the Russian Far East and China’s Northeast. Significant changes in exchange rates have disrupted two countries’ purchasing power parity. As a result, Chinese citizens began to visit Russian cities (in particular, border cities) much more often to purchase imported goods.

According to the statistics for visa-free travel of tourist groups for 2008–2016, in Amur Oblast, the inbound flow from China began to exceed the outbound flow since 2013. Over the past decade, tourist flows to China from Amur Oblast and from China to Amur Oblast have reversed: whereas in 2008, 88.5% of visa-free tourist groups crossings the border between Blagoveshchensk and Heihe accounted for the outbound flow to China, in 2017, 88.5% of crossings were tourist groups from China ( Fig. 1 ). Although the growth in the inbound flow from China to Blagoveshchensk occurred almost continuously since 2008 (with the exception of a slight decrease in 2013), it has accelerated in recent years. In 2016, the number of Chinese tourists who entered Blagoveshchensk via the visa-free program was about 80 000, more than twice the number of tourists recorded in 2012. At the same time, the total number of crossings of the Russian–Chinese border via the visa-free corridor through the Blagoveshchensk customs for 2008−2016 decreased by almost 10 000 trips.

Dynamics of inbound and outbound visa-free tourist travel registered at the Blagoveshchensk Customs in 2008–2016, in absolute values and in percentage. Compiled from data provided by the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Tourism and Entrepreneurship of Amur Oblast.

According to the tourist portal of Khabarovsk Krai, for 2011–2018, the inbound flow of foreign tourists to the region increased 3.5 times, reaching 55 400 people in 2018 ( Fig. 2 ). Every second foreign tourist in the region was a Chinese citizen. The number of Chinese tourists increased 3.4 times over the same period. The highest growth rates of the inbound flow from China were recorded in 2015, when the number of Chinese tourists reached 18 700 people (178% of the 2014 level). The most significant changes in the departure of residents of Khabarovsk Krai to China took place in 2015: the number of people leaving the country decreased by more than five times versus 2011 and amounted to only 44 500 people.

Dynamics of tourist flows in Khabarovsk Krai in 2011−2018. Compiled from annual final reports of Tourism Department of Ministry of Culture of Khabarovsk Krai. http://www.travel.khv.ru/sections/11 . Accessed September 20, 2020.

As comparison of the chronology of currency fluctuations and changes in the dynamics of tourist flows on the Russian–Chinese border in 2011−2018 has shown, following the twofold strengthening of the yuan against the ruble in 2014, there was a sharp decline in the departure of Russian tourists to China: compared to 2014, the number of Russians who visited China for tourist purposes in 2015 decreased by 64% at the Khabarovsk customs and 70% at the Blagoveshchensk customs. The number of arrivals of Chinese tourists continued to increase: after stagnation in 2013, when the increase in arrivals from China amounted to −1% at the Blagoveshchensk customs and 0.2% at the Khabarovsk customs, 2014 and 2015 were marked by a high growth rate: 40 and 33% at the Blagoveshchensk customs and 28 and 78% at the Khabarovsk customs.

CHANGES IN THE SERVICES SECTOR OF BORDER CITIES OF THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST AND NORTHEAST CHINA AFTER 2014

The redistribution of the roles of buyers and sellers between residents of the Russian and Chinese shores of the Amur River in fall 2014 was accompanied by reluctance of the Russian borderlanders to accept the new reality, in which the “Chinese “younger brother,” commonly perceived as poor and with limited needs, suddenly began to buy elite goods that became inaccessible for the Russian “elder brother” (Ryzhova and Zhuravskaya, 2015, p. 213). However, amid the falling solvency of the local population, business representatives quickly reacted to the growing demand from Chinese tourists.

Next three subsections present directions and tools for adapting Blagoveshchensk/Heihe and Khabarovsk/Fuyuan to the new economic realities, notably the new structure of tourist flows, after 2014.

Adaptation of Blagoveshchensk and Heihe

Since 2014, service providers in Blagoveshchensk have rapidly begun customization for Chinese clients. Many shopping malls, brand stores, and catering establishments in the downtown of Blagoveshchensk have put up signs, provided price information, and published brochures in Chinese. The speed and the scale of the change was impressive given that during author’s first fieldtrip to Blagoveshchensk in 2013 only four signs in Chinese were documented in the entire city.

Based on studying eight 4 Chinese-language brochures collected in April 2017 in Blagoveshchensk hotels, shopping malls and museums, the following marketing techniques were identified in the marketing materials targeting Chinese customers:

• advertising from the position of welcoming neighbors (the brochures referred to potential Chinese customers as “guests” and “friends from China”);

• using information channels (QR codes, WeChat messenger) and promotion techniques (discounts and coupons) familiar to Chinese customers;

• in the case of a company’s specialization in the sale of Russian goods, emphasizing their quality, health benefits, durability and prestige of a purchase;

• using red and golden colors in advertisement design;

• using photographs of an advertised product and store (both the retail space and entrance), use of schematic maps, listing of brands.

The above list of successful marketing techniques applied by Blagoveshchensk enterprises targeting Chinese clients can be used by enterprises interested in attracting Chinese clients in other Russian cities, including non-border ones.

Among the Chinese-language advertising materials collected in 2017, the most thoughtful and informative were: (1) a gastronomic map of Blagoveshchensk, made in 2015 by the Amur Guild of Culinary Experts and Restaurateurs, and (2) an advertising magazine printed by a regional Russian publishing house. The gastronomic map included advertisements for restaurants, cafés and coffee houses, indicating their interior features, entertainment and souvenir sales. The advertising magazine included ads both to attract customers and to find Chinese and Russian partners. The most frequently advertised items were such Russian products as amber, gold, jewelry, furs, shoes, honey, wine, natural cosmetics and medicines.

The need to serve Chinese customers and create the visual and marketing image of Blagoveshchensk in Chinese has boosted the demand for specialists proficient in Chinese. According to the Russian online recruitment company HeadHunter, since 2014, the number of vacancies for Chinese-speaking candidates has quadrupled in Amur Oblast over two years since 2014. 5

Due to the increase in the flow of Chinese tourists after the 2014 ruble devaluation, two shopping malls were opened or significantly expanded in Blagoveshchensk. Both of them are located outside the city center, but surpass other shopping malls in Blagoveshchensk in terms of assortment and design. One of these shopping centers is a branch of a federal supermarket chain. Opened in 2017, it was originally equipped with signs in Chinese across the entire 7000 m 2 sales area. It is highly probable that the opening of a supermarket of this size in Blagoveshchensk, with a population of 220 000, already saturated with shopping centers during a period of declining purchasing power of the local population was based primarily on the increase in the number of arriving Chinese tourist groups.

The second shopping center has traditionally served as a shopping destination for Chinese tourists. In 2016, after the opening of its third section, the area of the shopping center increased from 80 000 to 110 000 m 2 . A Chinese-language brochure describes this newly expanded shopping area, stylized as 19th century architecture, as “wide squares and cozy streets that combine elements of old Blagoveshchensk, Venice, Odessa, and Santa Barbara”; i.e., the interior design is used as an additional incentive to visit a remote shopping center.

In response to strong currency fluctuations and changes in the structure of tourist flows, Heihe had to reorient itself to serve domestic tourists. A sharp decline in the flow of Russian tourists and a decrease in their purchasing power brought significant losses to the city’s companies. A number of them went bankrupt and closed, while others refocussed to sell Russian goods to locals and Chinese tourists from elsewhere.

A new source of economic recovery in Heihe after 2014 was e-commerce, concentrated in the 100 000 m 2 Cross-Border E-Commerce Park, created in 2012. The park gained momentum in 2014–2015, when the fall in ruble’s purchasing power, coupled with the virtual absence of import duties in Russia, contributed to the rapid growth of retail Internet deliveries from China to Russia (Pickover, 2020). By 2015, Heihe Cross-Border E-Commerce Park hosted 120 e-commerce companies. By 2016, the Park and the Alibaba Group Internet Corporation entered into a strategic cooperation agreement leading to the opening of Taobao and AliExpress universities at the Park premises. Fostering city’s new specialisation, Heihe officials encouraged Amur Oblast business community to join the new type of trade. The Heihe City Administration organised visits to the Park and arranged express courses in Russian about the basics of e-commerce and its features in China 6 for Amur Oblast entrepreneurs.

In addition to companies serving Russian shoppers, the Heihe Park started to establish companies supplying organic products from Russia to China. Epinduo, founded in 2016, became the flagship in this field. For the four years of its existence, the company reached a daily sales level of RUB 4 mln, created a network of retail stores of Russian products in China, and entered China’s largest electronic trading platforms—Tmall, JD, 1688, Pinduoduo, etc. In 2019, Heihe’s Epinduo has been recognized as the best store selling imported food products on the JD.com platform. 7

An important result in the new economic and geopolitical conditions was the signing of an agreement on the construction of a cross-border bridge across the Amur River near Blagoveshchensk, bilateral negotiations on the construction of which had been underway since 1988. Construction work was completed at the end of 2019. In May 2020, permission from the Ministry of Construction of Russia was obtained to put the bridge into operation. The opening of the bridge is planned after the lifting of the COVID-19 epidemiological restrictions.

Adaptation of Khabarovsk and Fuyuan

Similar to Blagoveshchensk, service enterprises in Khabarovsk since 2014 started customising their services and marketing for Chinese clients: they created signs and information materials in Chinese. However, as the 2017 fieldwork revealed, the number of such organizations was relatively small, mainly concentrated in the Central District of the city.

According to the city administration, banners in Chinese were placed on the central streets of Khabarovsk in 2016. 8 In 2017, a Chinese-language city guide was published for the first time. 9 A mobile travel guide app with a Chinese version was launched in 2019. 10 Curiously, passenger transport companies attempted to cater to Chinese tourists too: in 2017 one of Khabarovsk’s bus routes covering city’s central streets and, therefore, the majority of organizations providing services to Chinese tourists, was dubbed into Chinese. 11

Fuyuan’s reorientation towards the Chinese domestic tourist flow was easier than in Heihe due to the smaller size of the city and obvious seasonality of tourists from Russia. Prior to the commissioning of charter flights between Khabarovsk and Fuyuan in 2016, the use of geographic proximity and visitation of the neighboring city was possible only from May to October during the river navigation period.

In addition, orientation towards tourists from other regions of China had already existed in Fuyuan. After completion of the demarcation of the eastern section of the Russian–Chinese border in 2008, China funded the recreational development of the country’s easternmost point–the Chinese part of Bolshoi Ussuriysky (Heixiazi in Chinese) Island, which belongs to the Fuyuan county. In 2011, the first two tourist sites were commissioned: Sun Square, in the center of which there is a 49-meter high monument in the form of the hieroglyph for East, and a wetland park. In 2014, an 81-meter pagoda, the easternmost in China, was erected in close proximity to the state border. In 2015 the internal flow of tourists visiting this recreational complex was 1000 people per day. 12 According to the Heilongjiang Provincial People’s Government Committee on Construction and Management of the Chinese Part of Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island, in 2016 260 000 domestic tourists visited China’s easternmost point. During the same year, the tourism department of Khabarovsk Krai reported that 20 650 tourists from China (that is, every 12th tourist) took the opportunity to visit neighboring Khabarovsk and entered the city through the river port. 13

Assessment of Business Openness of Cities on the Russian–Chinese Border with Respect to Clients from a Neighboring State

Based on Dołzbłasz and Raczyk’s methodology (2012), schematic maps of the level of business openness with respect to clients from a neighboring state were compiled for each of the four cities under consideration. Figure 3 was compiled on the basis of data from http://vheihe.ru/ (the website targeting Russian tourists visiting Heihe), media materials (on organizations with regular active cross-border contacts with the neighboring city), and print advertising materials collected during the field trip. Information about the Chinese side is presented on the schematic map to a lesser extent than the Russian side, which is due to the peculiarities of the organization of Heihe service sector enterprises. Business oriented towards Russians in Heihe forms several clusters: large shopping centers and long shopping streets housing hundreds of small retail outlets and hotels; some are on the second floor, making it difficult to analyze and map urban space at the organizational level.

Service enterprises in Blagoveshchensk and Heihe targeting clients from a neighboring state. Compiled from advertising brochures in Chinese distributed in Blagoveshchensk in April 2017, materials from the website http://vheihe.ru/ and data obtained during fieldwork.

Figure 3 confirms the conclusion of (Dołzbłasz and Raczyk, 2012) that service establishments targeting clients from a neighboring state are concentrated in the centers of border cities and along major transport routes. In Blagoveshchensk and Heihe, the places of concentration of such organizations are embankments and areas near passenger ports (in Blagoveshchensk, two main streets: 50th Anniversary of October Street and Lenin Street). Nevertheless, in Blagoveshchensk, service enterprises oriented towards clients from the neighboring state are gradually moving beyond these areas. Two of the eight shopping malls that group businesses targeting Chinese customers are located at a significant distance from the port and city center.

Figure 4 , which is dedicated to Fuyuan, shows that there are significantly fewer service enterprises in the city, whose main clients in recent years have been Russian tourists, than in Heihe. We can talk about their compact localization in the city center between the pedestrian shopping street, Xiangjianlu and Zhengyanlu Street, which leads to the bus station. Most of the mini-clusters providing services to Russian tourists include a shopping center, a hotel, and a restaurant. Four hotels that for several years have been advertised in the Russian-language travel guide to Fuyuan, are located at a relative distance from the center and the rest of Russian-oriented service establishments. It can be assumed that earlier there were other service enterprises specializing in Russian-language service nearby, which either closed or changed their profile of activities due to a decrease in Russian tourist flow.

Fuyuan service enterprises targeting Russian customers, compiled from Russian-language guides to Fuyuan for 2011–2017 and field notes.

Figure 5 shows the Central District of Khabarovsk—the business, leisure, and scientific center of the city. This area is home to establishments that specialize in catering to Chinese clients. Most of these enterprises are located on the main transport routes: Muravyov-Amursky Street, Karl Marx Street, and Amur Boulevard. Travel agencies specializing in selling Fuyuan tours to Khabarovsk residents are located near the river port.

Khabarovsk service enterprises oriented towards clients from China. Compiled from interviews and field notes.

Comparison of the schematic maps leads to the following conclusions:

• the greatest focus on clients from the neighboring state, according to data for 2017, was revealed in Blagoveshchensk, the capital of Amur Oblast;

• the business segment oriented towards attracting clients from a neighboring state is localized in the central districts of border cities, which are “thermometers” of the cross-border dynamics (Arreola and Curtis, 1993), which means that they react faster than other parts of the urban space to fluctuations in exchange rates and tourist flows.

Cartographic materials produced in this study can be used by local governments of border municipalities (both on the Russian−Chinese border and on other Russia’s borders) to develop measures transforming the urban environment. Knowing the allocation patterns of the service enterprises catering to clients from a neighboring state, border municipalities could both improve the comfort of urban areas already frequented by tourists from a neighboring state and expand these areas at the expense of nearby territories by duplicating street names and putting up information kiosks about cultural monuments and pointers to tourist attractions in foreign languages. Such cartographic materials can also be used by local governments and entrepreneurs of border cities as a guide for preparing a map of their own city for tourists from a neighboring state.

INFLUENCE OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ON CROSS-BORDER FLOWS AND TOURISM INDUSTRY ON THE RUSSIAN–CHINESE BORDER

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global health crisis, the return of border controls to previously transparent state borders, and a global recession. One of the heavily affected industries in the world and the study region is the tourism industry.

On January 31, 2020, by the Order of the Government of the Russian Federation, traffic through checkpoints on the Russian–Chinese border was restricted. 14 Regular passenger traffic through border checkpoints in Amur Oblast and Khabarovsk Krai was suspended on the eve of the Chinese New Year. From that moment to the present (February 2021), tourist passenger traffic across the Russian–Chinese border has not been resumed.

According to the World Tourism Organization, 15 in the first eight months of 2020, the world recorded 700 mln (i.e., 70%) fewer foreign arrivals versus the same period in 2019. This led to losses from the export of tourism services of over RUB 56 trln, which is eight times higher than for the global tourism industry in 2009 crisis. According to the Federal Tourism Agency and the Russian Travel Industry Union, in 2020, the domestic tourism industry will lose about RUB 600 bln, i.e. more than 70% of the export of tourism services in 2019, due to the lack of foreign tourists and, above all, tourists from China. 16 According to the Amur Oblast Government, 17 in the first five months of 2020, the revenue of companies working with Chinese tourists decreased by 90%. In Khabarovsk, where the flow of Chinese tourists is noticeably smaller than in Blagoveshchensk and mainly falls on the summer navigation season, the main losses were incurred by travel agencies, hotels, and restaurants catering to Chinese tourists, souvenir and jewelry stores.

In the pandemic, tour operators around the world, including in Russia and China, are reorienting towards domestic tourism. Heihe and Fuyuan, which intensified their orientation towards the domestic market after 2014, turned out to be more prepared for the next external shock. Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk suffered significant losses and found themselves in a situation of high uncertainty, where it was impossible to predict when and to what extent Chinese tourists will return.

Restrictions on the movement of citizens, reduction in trade traffic, suspension of production, and temporary closure of service establishments led to a drop in oil prices and new currency fluctuations. According to data for nine months of 2020, the average monthly exchange rate of the yuan against the ruble was 10.12 rubles per yuan, which exceeds the indicators of 2015–2019. As the study shows, strengthening of the yuan against the ruble increases the tourist attractiveness of the Russian borderland. After stabilization of the epidemiological situation, it will be possible to assess the role of this factor in the restoration of Chinese tourist flows to Russia.

CONCLUSIONS

Regions along the Russian−Chinese border, a large part of whose economies have been outwardly oriented since the opening of the border and liberalisation of foreign trade, have been the quickest to feel the changes in the exchange rate and the structure of tourist flows between Russia and China since 2014.

Russian and Chinese border cities, due to currency volatility observed since 2014, gradually began to reorient themselves to domestic Chinese tourists. At the same time, the Chinese border cities, previously oriented exclusively towards tourists from Russia, incurred significant costs. Service establishments in Russian border cities needed to invest in hiring Chinese-speaking professionals and change marketing strategies. At the same time, service sector establishments of Blagoveshchensk customized themselves for Chinese tourists faster and on a larger scale than similar institutions in Khabarovsk. Fuyuan’s service sector has suffered less losses than the one in Heihe due to the city’s smaller size, its parallel orientation towards domestic Chinese tourists, which preceded the ruble devaluation in 2014, and the clearly pronounced seasonality of tourists from Russia. A case study of Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk has shown that (1) the number of enterprises oriented towards catering to Chinese clients has increased and the list of marketing techniques has been expanded; (2) with the increase in the number of signs in Chinese, the cities have changed in appearance; (3) with the expansion of the segment of Chinese tourists in the total volume of the tourist market of Blagoveshchensk and Khabarovsk, the labor market of these cities saw a new demand for Chinese-speaking staff to work in the tourism industry.

Theoretical studies on the service sector transformation under currency fluctuations distinguish two parallel models of tourism industry adaptation: reorientation of a country whose currency has been devalued towards foreign tourists and the reorientation of a country whose currency has strengthened to new markets and/or for domestic tourists. The new target audience of service enterprises in the Russian and Chinese border cities coincided: both of them reoriented towards Chinese tourists from other regions.

Due to the growth in the purchasing power of the Chinese population and the volume of this market, specialization on Chinese tourists is becoming one of the most popular strategies of tour operators around the world. Reorientation towards Chinese tourists revealed in the Russian and Chinese border cities is a new reality which residents of the Russian−Chinese borderlands need to adjust to.

Given the increase in the flow of Chinese tourists in the Russian−Chinese borderlands and their growing socioeconomic differentiation, a study of their leisure motivation seems to be a promising area of research.

The study has tested the methodology for assessing the business openness with respect to clients from a neighboring country, proposed in (Dołzbłasz and Raczyk, 2012; Lara-Valencia and Dołzbłasz, 2019), based on materials from Russian–Chinese borderlands. The different cultural context made it difficult to map the service establishments of Chinese border cities at the organizational level, since businesses catering to Russians form clusters: large shopping centers and long shopping streets, where hundreds of small outlets and hotels are located. On the Russian side of the border, the methodology did not need to be adapted.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is grateful to Dr. I. Chubarov, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and to K. Mironenko, Research Fellow at the Department of Geography of the World Economy, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, for their help with the Chinese-language materials.

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