Giant dolls, an empty theme park and semi-trailers: The tourist trap that's now a lifeline for Russia
Manzhouli: Visiting the Chinese border town of Manzhouli, on the remote fringe of the country's northeastern Inner Mongolia region, is like stepping into a 'made in China' Russian outpost.
On the highway linking the small airport to the city, two enormous Matryoshka nesting dolls tower over the horizon, rising almost absurdly out of nothing but the vast, flat steppe that sweeps across the border into Russia.
The dolls are actually hotels and connected to a Russian-themed amusement park featuring Kremlinesque buildings topped with brightly coloured onion domes and spires in a pastiche of Moscow's Red Square.
Arriving at night, as my translator and I did earlier this month on a flight from Beijing, is to be treated to a glittering vision of the city, its skyline of Russian gothic and European-style buildings lit by golden lights after sundown each evening.
The mystique abruptly ends about 9.30pm, when the town's facade plunges into darkness, as though a city official has pulled the cord on a giant electrical plug.
Manzhouli in the harsh light of day is a hustling township on the 4209-kilometre border between China and Russia, near the juncture with Mongolia. Its identity is split between being a Russian-themed tourist trap for Chinese travellers, and its foremost purpose as China's largest land port and economic lifeline to Russia.
The best place to witness this stark juxtaposition is in a dusty carpark near the border checkpoint, where dozens of Russian and Belarusian trucks are stationed each day waiting for customs clearance under the gaze of the Matryoshkas looming in the distance.
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News.com.au
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- News.com.au
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4 days ago
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The Advertiser
5 days ago
- The Advertiser
Typhoon Wipha causes flight disruptions in Hong Kong
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Wipha, which is a Thai name, passed over the Philippines at tropical storm strength and drenched parts of Taiwan on Saturday. In the Philippines, the storm intensified seasonal monsoon rains, leaving at least one villager dead in floodwaters in northern Cagayan province. More than 370,000 people were affected by days of stormy weather, including 43,000 who fled to government-run emergency shelters or homes of relatives due to flooding, landslides and fierce wind. More than 400 houses were damaged in the onslaught, officials said. Typhoon Wipha has caused major flight disruptions in Hong Kong and at some nearby airports in China as it moved west along the southern coast. Airports in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Macao cancelled or postponed all their daytime flights, their websites showed on Sunday. Some high-speed train services in the area were suspended. The Hong Kong Observatory issued a hurricane signal No 10, its highest warning. The eye of the storm was passing just south of the city around midday with maximum sustained winds of 140km/h, the Observatory said. The government said over 200 people had headed to public shelters and that it had received dozens of reports of fallen trees. Hong Kong Disneyland and other amusement parks were closed. The storm, which reached typhoon strength overnight, was headed toward Macao and the neighbouring Chinese city of Zhuhai. It was forecast to make landfall late Sunday and continue moving west, reaching Vietnam later this week. Wipha, which is a Thai name, passed over the Philippines at tropical storm strength and drenched parts of Taiwan on Saturday. In the Philippines, the storm intensified seasonal monsoon rains, leaving at least one villager dead in floodwaters in northern Cagayan province. 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The storm, which reached typhoon strength overnight, was headed toward Macao and the neighbouring Chinese city of Zhuhai. It was forecast to make landfall late Sunday and continue moving west, reaching Vietnam later this week. Wipha, which is a Thai name, passed over the Philippines at tropical storm strength and drenched parts of Taiwan on Saturday. In the Philippines, the storm intensified seasonal monsoon rains, leaving at least one villager dead in floodwaters in northern Cagayan province. More than 370,000 people were affected by days of stormy weather, including 43,000 who fled to government-run emergency shelters or homes of relatives due to flooding, landslides and fierce wind. More than 400 houses were damaged in the onslaught, officials said. Typhoon Wipha has caused major flight disruptions in Hong Kong and at some nearby airports in China as it moved west along the southern coast. Airports in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Macao cancelled or postponed all their daytime flights, their websites showed on Sunday. Some high-speed train services in the area were suspended. The Hong Kong Observatory issued a hurricane signal No 10, its highest warning. The eye of the storm was passing just south of the city around midday with maximum sustained winds of 140km/h, the Observatory said. The government said over 200 people had headed to public shelters and that it had received dozens of reports of fallen trees. Hong Kong Disneyland and other amusement parks were closed. The storm, which reached typhoon strength overnight, was headed toward Macao and the neighbouring Chinese city of Zhuhai. It was forecast to make landfall late Sunday and continue moving west, reaching Vietnam later this week. Wipha, which is a Thai name, passed over the Philippines at tropical storm strength and drenched parts of Taiwan on Saturday. In the Philippines, the storm intensified seasonal monsoon rains, leaving at least one villager dead in floodwaters in northern Cagayan province. More than 370,000 people were affected by days of stormy weather, including 43,000 who fled to government-run emergency shelters or homes of relatives due to flooding, landslides and fierce wind. More than 400 houses were damaged in the onslaught, officials said.
