Khabarovsk: Russian city on the Chinese border!

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Khabarovsk is a Russian city that is just 30km away from the Chinese border. How did this border come to be? And what is it like for Russians living on so close to their much more populated neighbors?

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If we look for the easternmost point of China we would be brought here to Heilong province where the Amur river separates China from Russia creating the 6th longest border in the world.

Just passing over the Amur some 30 kilometers you will find the city of Khabarovsk.

the largest or second-largest city in Russias Far East with around 600’000 thousand residents.

The city is also located along the Trans-Siberian Railway; by which it is 8,523 kilometers away from Moscow. A distance that would take 5 and a half days to cover.

Closest foreign capital is Pyongyang in North Korea roughly 1300 km away. Tokyo isn't significantly further either, just 1430km away.

B eijing on the other hand is some 1700km.

As the city is so close to the Chinese border it has for a very long time been sitting on contested land. Experiencing significant tensions over centuries of complex territorial tensions.

So how did Russia acquire this far eastern territory? And do the people of Khabarovsk and other border regions need to worry about losing influence to China?

Prior to the 17th century, Russia and China were on opposite ends of Siberia, which was populated by independent nomads. So there wasn’t much contest but

By about 1640’s Russian settlers had traversed most of Siberia and founded settlements all the way up to the Amur River basin thereby becoming neighbours with the Chinese.

Border relations between the two countries had never been negotiated and the Manchu emperor did not like the fact that Russians had started to settle along the basin, which he deemed to be his territory.

This was the cause of intermittent fighting and long negotiations between the two empires.

It could take a year for a letter sent from the imperial palace in Peking to reach the tsar’s palace in St Petersburg, and when it did arrive, there were not always translators available to read it.

From 1652 to 1689, China's armies drove the Russian settlers out, and after 1689 peace was established through the treaty of Nerchinsk.

Which simply put was based on the fact that Russia at the time could not match Chinese dominance in the area and had to relinquish the territories north of the Amur river.

After the Treaty the area became an uncontested part of the Qing Empire for the next century and a half.

Modern historical maps of the Qing period published in China mark the site of future Khabarovsk as Bólì

This changed during The Second Opium War which started in 1856.

[zainmudassir]

It's also the city where war crimes trials against Japanese in WW2 took place and details of Unit 731 were revealed.

[aceace]

Pretty good job at the end. Every American I talk to on the subject is somehow convinced China wants to take over that land. Having lived in China's northeast and visited Vladivostok such an idea couldn't be farther from the truth. Actually, you would meet more Russians in Dongbei than you would meet Chinese in Russia's far east simply because of economics. The Chinese economy is doing much better and has more opportunities for both Russians and Chinese.

[WChocoleta]

I was born and raised in China and still live here today. I am astonished to see how many Western geopolitical bloggers have asserted that China is eyeing on taking back some of the territories lost to Russia a century ago. Meanwhile, reclaiming these territories is a topic that practically NO ONE thinks or talks about here in China. It is never discussed by the state-owned media or the independent, private 'We-media'. No nationalist sentiment has been aroused on these territories, except the fact that we still mark the former Chinese names on our map alongside the translation of their current Russian names. That's it. China has had a convoluted relationship with Russia throughout the centuries, and we had a major negotiation with them in the late 1990s to settle all these territorial disputes. After that we have both moved along.

[SBSHNY]

The economy is much better on the Chinese side now, that's why the Chinese wouldn't want to stay in Russia.

[leroyavila]

Wow! I wouldn’t have known without this chanl, the beautiful areas in Russia
!

[vermontnewyorker]

Thanks! I follow “Yeah Russia” too. So you could say Natasha sent me. 🇷🇺🇺🇸

[Fisser_Official]

I’m from Khabarovsk, also nice video!

[sareg]

I did not expect to see in the recommendations a video about my city

I like this video and subscribe

[ssw]

Admittedly nowadays there are not a lot of Chinese people in the city but I remember there were lots of them selling stuff in our markets approximately 10 years ago, my clothes were bought there every year throughout my childhood. And I cannot say this was a bad thing, those Chinese were learning Russian language, Russian life and so on and had Russian partners in markets, therefore, it was a sort of Russian-Chinese economic partnership

[KhabarovskUser]

As a resident of Khabarovsk I like this video!

[stevecheung]

When Russia first took control of Primorsky Krai in 1860 and subsequently developed the seaport of Vladivostok, back then it was not ice free year round. That was why Russia needed to develop another seaport at the tip of Manchuria, Port Arthur (Lushun) which was ice free year round. They even built a short cut of the Trans-Siberia Railroad thru Manchuria. But they lost the port to Japan as a result of the war in 1904.

[loksterization]

Khabarovsk looks like a beautiful and peaceful city!

[MggingGymrat]

Your Videos are educating and interesting, exquisite.

[canadianlivinginrussia]

Thank you for presenting this video. I am a Canadian and moved to Khabarovsk in May 2022. I started a YouTube channel which shows what life is like in Khabarovsk through the eyes of a Canadian. My channel is called, "Canadian Living in Russia". I have uploaded over 275 videos.

[russkiydurak]

I don’t want to seem like a bore, but this is the flag of the President of the Russian Federation as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and not the flag of the Russian Empire. But the rest of the video is interesting and informative!

[zizimai]

Very interested in China - Russian boarder cities. Hope i get to visit someday.

[mayakstudios]

Интересный факт: под Хабаровском было местр ссылки последнего императора Китая. Его домик собираются реконструировать

[archiveofhaiden]

My parents are from khabarovsk, and that's the city I say I'm from wherever someone asks. Amazing video, I had a slight idea of it's history but learning more is always good 😊

[nnsnumbersandnotesunlimite]

As soon as China will realize that Taiwan is a bad and costly choice, it will have a closer look at Outer Manchuria.

[jameswu]

You are really knowledgeable. good at history