Russia – Chelyabinsk
The last stop right before entering the truly Asian world is Chelyabinsk. With its more than 1.1 million of inhabitants, it is the ninth largest city in the Russian Federation.
The golden camel in the city’s flag and seal represents its geographical location specifics. Being located on the Eastern side of the Ural Mountains, the city is the most popular point of transit for travelers and, in earlier times, also for merchants on their way from Central parts of Russia to the Siberia or, as it is in our case, to the Kazakhstan. Chelyabinsk was built in 1736 as the fortress to be protected from the Bashkir attacks, yet it began to develop only in 1892, when the Transsiberian Route was built. Chelyabinsk is its first station before the plains of Siberia.
Speaking about Chelyabinsk, the first thing that comes to one’s mind is the plant-city since, of course, it largely increased industry and economy of Russia. Even first results of the Internet searchers for Chelyabinsk involve mostly plant names. However, exactly because of the industry, the city began to develop further: during WWII, metallurgical engineering here reached its highest point; also plants from European part of the USSR got evacuated and moved to Chelyabinsk back then.
Architectonically, Chelyabinsk is a very new city – most of its streets have formed in the 20th Century. However, also most of its Old Town with its main pedestrian street built and decorated in different times and styles has been preserved. Cast iron sculptures in the main street of Chelyabinsk remind of the Kaslin famous cast iron factory that in 19th and 20th century produced sculptures for the biggest cities of Russia. Located in the same region, the name of the factory has always been connected with Chelyabinsk, too.
Right now, it is still problematic for Chelyabinsk to change its industrial face for a fresher one of the cultural centre. Already few years ago both city government and independent entrepreneurs began to work on the „Golden Ring” recreation complex. Allegedly, it will supply all possible kinds of recreation: a hotel, an aqua park, ethnographic and landscapes parks, a mall and other kinds of entertainment for the consumers. However, the work is still in progress. Meanwhile, like many other modern cities, Chelyabinsk is still living through the planning problems: on one hand, there is plenty of recreation and trade centers, but on the other hand, not everyone can afford it, plus, citizens are still lacking good rest facilities, especially such as spruce green zones. So far, inhabitants of Chelyabinsk are having fun at the city parks as they are and by the lakes spread all around the town. By the way, most of its beach-rescue team is female.
The Ural Mountains, as they descend, are naturally changing all the biomes from tundra on their higher floors down to broad-leaved and mixed forests and to the dry plains after all. Coming down from the Urals on the side of Asia, our travelers are stepping in the plain overgrown with the tall grass which on this continent is called steppe.
Elizabete Neimiseva for enduroadventure.lv
Photos from http://virtualtourist.com