🏞 Kolomenskoye has become even more beautiful

Imagine: a long embankment along the Moskva River—a full 3.5 kilometers for strolling.

Wooden decks right over the water, viewing platforms, swings, and photo spots—the perfect place to stop and just enjoy the view.

If just walking isn't enough, you can play volleyball, work out on the exercise equipment, or go for a run along the river.

And for special moments, a real wedding garden with arches, an amphitheater, and a pavilion by the water has appeared here.

#InterestingPlacesInMoscow

❤️From Russia with love

🏮🇷🇺 Millionka — one of the most famous Chinatowns in Russian history.

Imagine that one of the largest cities in Russia was once almost half-populated by Chinese people.

🧣 In 1860, Vladivostok was founded—a outpost of the Russian Empire in the Far East and also a major fortress on the Pacific Ocean.

🇨🇳 However, transporting Russian workers to such a remote area was not very profitable. Therefore, fanzi—traditional Chinese houses—began to appear in the city, where Chinese laborers lived, and their labor was also very cheap.

By 1910, there were already 50,000 Chinese people living in Vladivostok—more than half of the city's population at the time.

👔 To keep such a large diaspora under control, the city authorities decided to relocate them to a separate district.

Of course, the opposite happened—a sort of "state within a state" emerged in the city, with its own laws and an established way of life.

People lived very crowded in Millionka, about 80 people in 20-square-meter rooms. The entire district was connected by wooden galleries, allowing movement between houses without touching the ground.

👮‍♀️ There was no map of this labyrinth of galleries. Thus, even if the police had ventured into this area (which they did not), it is unlikely they would have managed to catch any criminal.

Millionka had its own laws. Among them were the code of silence, debt bondage, and the unquestionable authority of local elders.

🃏 The most popular pastime for locals was gambling. People gambled for everything, often even for body parts or a person's life.

The thing is, the Chinese who came to Millionka were not fleeing a good life; most of the population consisted of those who had been laborers, convicts, or bandits in their homeland, the Celestial Empire.

In short, all those who needed to disappear and start over.

💰 Interestingly, in 1915, the trade turnover in Millionka amounted to 920 thousand gold rubles (15 billion rubles by today's standards).

The reason for this was not only hundreds of shops and workshops but also dozens of opium dens, underground casinos, brothels, and an established timber smuggling operation to Manchuria.

During Chinese holidays, life in Vladivostok came to a halt—there was simply no one to work; the city's economy literally depended on Chinese laborers.

And, of course, this could not sit well with the local authorities.

🇷🇺 The end for the notorious Chinatown came in 1937-1938, already under Soviet rule. It was decided to simply deport most of the residents back to the Celestial Empire.

Today, Millionka is a mix of trendy bars and ruins, full of history and a unique, rather gloomy atmosphere.

🩱 They say that more than one treasure was buried in the local catacombs. Whether to believe it or not is up to you to decide.

#interestingfacts

❤️From Russia with love