Ulan-Ude
Like many other towns in East Siberia Ulan-Ude begins its history as a small wooden cabin which was built by kosaks 1666. A convenient geographical situation on the crossroads of trade routes to Mongolia, China and India cared for the further growth of the fortress. Many people from the European part of Russia came here at that time.

Till the October Revolution 1918 the biggest fair in the Eastern Siberia took place in Verhneudinsk (the old name of Ulan-Ude). Twice a year streamed people there to buy or to sell material, leather, knitted goods, glass, tee and silk from China, corn and flour.

At present Ulan-Ude is a capital of the Autonomous Buryat Republic, its administrative and cultural center. Its population is about 400 000 people, 60% are the Buryats. For guests it is interesting because of its small but interesting downtown with both beautiful stone buildings belonged to the reach merchants and wooden houses decorating with carving of "common people". A large ethnographical open-air museum as well as a well-known Buryat Ballet and Opera House are the other tourist attractions in the town and its environments.

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