Vladivostok, Russia

[arkhitektor]

A few shots from one of the world's most unique cities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladivostok





Vladivostok is the eastern terminus of the Trans-Siberian railroad. It will host the APEC summit in 2012, and the Russians are sprucing the place up to the tune of 146 billion rubles ($5.6 billion) in preparation for the summit.

http://vn.vladnews.ru/issue571/Busin...12_APEC_summit

Please share your comments and feel free to add more photos fi you have them

[olga]

I'd love to go there some day. By train.

[anm]

Natural setting is great, I wish we could build a city with great architechture there... eventually.

[LouisianaRush]

Is the city growing fast? I would guess it is doing quite well (like Vancouver) since it is Russia's window to the Pacific.

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by anm

Natural setting is great, I wish we could build a city with great architechture there... eventually.

I couldn't agree more. Vladivostok has amazing untapped potential. Unfortunately it also has a number of liabilities. The city's infrastructure is extremely delapidated, the climate is miserable, and many parts of the city are so polluted that they have been declared 'ecological disaster zones'

Originally Posted by LouisianaRush

Is the city growing fast? I would guess it is doing quite well (like Vancouver) since it is Russia's window to the Pacific.

The city has actually lost a chunk of its population in last decade.
The population is down to 594,701 (2002) from 633,838 (in 1989).
Like I said earlier, Vlad has great potential that is only slowly being realized. The city center has a great stock of historic buildings that are being revitalized (My favorite is the Train Station pictured below that was recently restored)

Here are some aerial shots of the city I found on the website of the airline 'Vladivostok Avia' - http://www.vladavia.ru/ru/press-cent...ank/aerophoto/

These were unfortunately taken during the ugliest time of the year when the trees are bare. Winter in Vladivostok is especially awful because everything is dead and despite the frigid cold, it rarely snows, and little that does fall, quickly turns black from coal smoke that is thick in the air. When the trees are green, they tend to hide a lot of the city's imperfections so summer is the best time of year in Vladivostok.















And a few more from Flikr member 'rapsak' - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rapsak/

Beginning with the train station and marker of the end of the Trans-Sib. railroad, and ending with the Triumph Arch:

[wrendog]

awesome.. I've always been intrigued by Vladivostok.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Kewl.

[muppet]

amazing, it looks just like the end stop of the world should look. I need to go.

[staff]

I took the Trans-Siberian (actually, the Trans-Mongolian) last year but didn't end up in the Vlad. Would love to go though.
Do natives there look typically east Asian, or European?

[Greco Roman]

Originally Posted by staff

I took the Trans-Siberian (actually, the Trans-Mongolian) last year but didn't end up in the Vlad. Would love to go though.
Do natives there look typically east Asian, or European?

Haha. I was about to post the same thing!

[rockyi]

Thanks. Ive always been curious about Vladivostok.

[ChiSoxRox]

Fascinating photos of Владивосток, a city closer to Washington, D.C. than to Moscow.

I'd imagine that the native people look East Asian, seeing as Владивосток is just a few hundred miles from Korea and parts of Manchuria.

(Владивосток is the Cyrillic spelling. I got it from a Russian online translator.)

[anm]

I would guess (even not having been there) that the majority of the people look European. This is what Wikipedia says:

The city's population was 594,701 as of the 2002 Census; down from 633,838 recorded in the 1989 Census).

From 1958 to 1991, only Soviet citizens were allowed to live in or even visit Vladivostok (and even Soviet citizens had to obtain official permission in order to enter the city). Before this closure, the city had large Korean[1] and Chinese populations.[2] Some Koreans who were deported during Stalin's rule from the Russian Far East have since come back, particularly to Vladivostok.[3] In recent times, North Korean refugees have also begun settling in the city.[4]

Recently many Chinese illegal immigrants have moved to this city. They tend work in the retail trading, catering and farming industries. This is a considered such a serious social and economic problem to some that the government is actively legislating against them.[5]

Vladivostok has one of the largest Armenian communities in eastern Russia. There are a number of Armenian bakeries and restaurants in the city.

And here is a picture from Wikipedia, same page, the only picture where one can see faces well



Looks ordinary Russian to me.

[-AX-]

One of my dream trip is to cross Russia from Moscow to Vlad by train... Can't wait to see that city! Thanks for the photos!

[arkhitektor]

The great majority of those who live in Vladivostok are European. There are probably more asians than you would find in a western Russian city, but I never noticed a huge difference. That said, Primorsky has a problem with illegal chinese immigrants, and there are a number of chinese markets in the area.

Nearby Sakhalin has a sizeable Korean population, and from my observation while there, probably at least 20% are asian; leftover from when Sakhalin Island was part of Japan and Korea was a Japanese colony. The Japanese brought the Koreans as laborers and when the Russians took control, they kicked out the Japanese and kept the Koreans. Sadly, most all of the Japanese architecture was destroyed as well.

[204]

Originally Posted by Dralcoffin

Fascinating photos of Владивосток, a city closer to Washington, D.C. than to Moscow.

I love how people make up their own realities on the internet

Distance between Vladivostok, Russia and Washington, District of Columbia, United States, as the crow flies:
6507 miles (10471 km) (5654 nautical miles)

Distance between Vladivostok, Russia and Moscow, Russia, as the crow flies:
3995 miles (6430 km) (3472 nautical miles)

[Surrealplaces]

Cool pictures.

[anm]

a few more pics

Vladivostok (Russian: Владивосто́к) is Russia's largest port city on the Pacific Ocean and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai. It is situated at the head of the Golden Horn Bay not far from the Russo-Chinese border and North Korea. It is the home port of the Russian Pacific Fleet.

from photosight.ru by man in black


from photofile.ru by sen-sey










from fotoplenka.ru by yuji








from fotki.yandex.ru
by mezikusha


from photosight.ru by gorynych


from flickr.com by vitusik7

[anm]

from photofile.ru by matinyant





from fotki.yandex.ru by AlMaz







from photofile.ru by katerinuwka





Pics found by Benediktus























SCROLL >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[anm]

pis found by Major Deegan with his comments



Vladivostok Pacific University of Economics
by RIVAER



Oceanskaya (Pacific) street scape
by RIVAER




Ploshad' Bortsov za Revolutsiu(Revolutionaries Square)
by RIVAER



The Revolutionaries Square. View from the docks.
by Kurephoto



Friday farmers' market on the square
by mimilove



Farmers' market panorama
by Glk63



Russian architecture and a Chinese merchant's van on Svetlanskaya street
by Oleg Krivolapov




A street scape in the old town
by Kurephoto



GUM Department Store. The building features an interesting combination of elements of Russian medieval ecclesiastical architecture and the steel framework typical of the Western architectural tradition.
by Glk63



The whole of Russian Pacific Fleet is stationed in Vladivostok.
by Max Palchevsky



A piece of marine military history.
by kokakola



Sapphire Princess arrives to Port-Vladivostok
by Beer Keeper