Russian in China 
cctv.com 03-15-2005 18:48
Russia. What does this short word bring to mind? Silver birch wood, orthodox churches, air-crafts, warships, wooden huts, heavy snow, endless winters and white nights, small Lada cars, vodka, trans Siberian railway, Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, alcoholic men, beautiful young girls, fat women, funny kids, people who love to suffer and who also love to party. All this happens, even in its more conservative neighboring country of China.
鈥楾hou shall love thy neighbor as thyself鈥, was an instruction from God, which Orthodox Russians to this day still remember. The Chinese also have this creed written in Confucius books. But how much do the Russians love the neighboring China? I鈥檓 Victoria Hamilton and in this edition of Rediscovering China, we鈥檒l be hearing a story about neighbours.
Well, like every story, ours also starts from long long ago, when some adventurous souls decided that the west should meet the east.
Along the China Russia border, most places are still tranquil and sparsely populated, as if nothing could happen apart from the gradual evolvement of nature. But things did happen鈥
There is 4300 meters of land in total shared by the two countries, but not all of it has experienced as many good and bad times as the three places we鈥檒l be seeing: Heihe, Manzhouli and Shiwei. Let鈥檚 start from the sweetest, whose history is tinged with love.
Shiwei is a place, small in territory but huge in history. The Mongolians who took most of Asia and conquered eastern Europe originated from a small tribe here.
Although I expected to hear some ancient Mongolian language, the fact is that they have another way of communicating. The Russian speaking woman lives in this pretty wooden hut with her children and she was kind enough to teach me some words:
She even showed me the real thing.
To have a sauna is not simply a Chinese habit. And there are even more surprises鈥
Guess what she is doing? Making Jiaozi or the Chinese pancake?
Yes, the woman who has never been out of China is making bread, the typical western food. mmm, looks yummy. But how is it that this remote Chinese village is so westernized?
Russian women brought the knowledge of how to build wooden huts to China, the habit of baking bread, bathing in a sauna, celebrating Easter and Christmas, and gradually a village full of children grew up in multi-cultural families.
But they deem themselves to be fairly similar to the Chinese locals.
Nostalgia crept in and so the Chinese migrated back to the east bank of China. It was the Russian women鈥檚 turn to miss their homes.
Well, the dance seems not so hard to learn if you have a good teacher.
The border was highly guarded after 1949 when the New China declared its establishment. Most of the Russian wives spent the rest of their lives in this foreign country.
Standing by the river, the homeland of the Russian wives is only several miles away but impossible to reach. Most of them have since passed away, but their life style has already become deeply rooted into the Chinese village and their love romances will be re-told again and again by generations to come.
Under the clear sky, here comes our second stop, a town by Heilongjiang鈥檚 west band, Heihe, and with it a story by the river.
Blagoveshchensk, the third largest city in the far-east of Russia, lying by the east bank of what they called Amur River. And Heihe, the Chinese town dwells by the west bank. But in this side, the river name Heilongjiang, means River of Black Dragon.
Everyday, tons of Russians are shipped across the river by shuttle boat. To many of them, the cross-country journey is already a weekly or even daily routine for shopping and sightseeing. Among passengers on the boat named after Blagoveshchensk, we met a Russian girl called Liena.
Let鈥檚 also start from the very beginning of Liena鈥檚 journey this morning. Although as a tour guide Liena can hardly remember how many times she has been to China, this time, she is guiding a team of retired teachers.
The majority of Russian travelers are self-guided. Most of the Chinese signs have Russian translations, the Ruble can be used here, and most importantly, people ranging from custom staff to sellers and taxi drivers can speak very good Russian. But Liena鈥檚 mission is of the usual tourism track. This special group of tourists hopes to meet with the Chinese people and know about the real China.
Everything went pretty smoothly except for her requirement to see a war museum, which was turned down by the local government. What lies in history that the Chinese deem to be unreachable?
Actually it鈥檚 a long time dispute with borders and conflicts cost millions of lives. Alongside the museum one can see the cannon used in the year of 1689 when the Chinese Qing Government beat the Russian troops longing to expand their territory along the Heilongjiang River. That victory led to the 鈥楴erchinsk 鈥 treaty clarifying the border between the two countries, in which the Heilongjiang was an inland river of China. But things soon changed. Civilians of 64 Chinese villages by the river were slaughtered by Russian calvarias in the year1900. The craving for more territory started far early than that.
Today the old Customs House of Aigun is merely a gateway separated by the Heilongjiang River. Fragments of stones and monuments scattered in the wild grass. The treaty, which is named after the small village, made its mark in Chinese history, and after half a century, to the local Chinese, this page of history is still unreachable by the Russians.
But there are still a lot of Chinese willing to share with the Russians. Liena succeeded in her second mission: bringing the retired Russian teachers to their Chinese counterparts.
They have a party tonight. Liena is the interpreter, organizer, and host鈥
The Chinese hospitality was quite moving. However, Russians still feel a little uneasy however when the Americans start to show their influence in the country.
She might not however be right this time.
Singing, dancing and learning the Russian language were once compulsory courses in most Chinese schools. In Heihe, and everywhere in China amongst the older generation, Russians can evidently find the influence of their culture. Are they proud of the power that their culture has achieved in its largest Asian neighbour? Liena acted as my interpreter in seeking answers from the Russian teachers.
But China seems clear about the things they learnt from the Soviet Union: the idea of revolution, advanced technology, science, architectural styles which can still be found today in many Chinese cities, and the many heavy industrial factories which once nourished the new born communism nation.
Unlike the Chinese, Liena, the 26 year-old Russian girl has her own way to explain the familiarity she encountered in China.
Easygoing, smiling Liena, is one of the hundreds of Russians frequently travelling between the two cities so close to each other. To young Russians like Liena, the sounds of gunfire which once took place by the river have long faded into history books.
Wood. Something you can easily find in front of many houses in the small town of Manzhouli, which lies on the joint border of China, Mongolia and Russia. More logs can be found in the local railway station. Timber trade is one of the most profitable business here. Everyday tons of wood is transported here from, sadly, the Siberian forest, which is often depicted in fictitious stories by Turgenev, poems by Gorkiy, and even music written by Tchaikovsky.
The third story is about how this railway never stops.
Everyday in the busy railway station, wood, oil, and metal comes across from Russian side, while clothes, electronic equipment, fruit and vegetables come from the Chinese side.
Colorful log huts built by Russian railway workers are still bright under the sunlight, as if it has never changed for the half a century.
All the trains will stay here for a while before going on with their cross-nation journeys. What they do here in a few hours at the railway station is quite amazing. They are changing the wheels in the huge factory.
There must be some reason why Russia doesn鈥檛 change her railway tracks to the international standard width. But that鈥檚 something people in Manzhouli don鈥檛 care much about.
Lift the compartment up, find the right wheels, match it and then it鈥檚 ready to run on another track. It takes 4 hours to change the wheels of a train composed of 40 compartments. In a day, 24 hours with the full capacity of workers, 4 trains, two full and two empty ones, can finish the whole process.
Thousands of workers earn their livings by making sure the changing of wheels is undergone. And even with the difference of tracks and wheels, Russian people still flood across the border, both now and hundreds of years ago. Some of their wooden houses are still in the city, witnessing the changes of time.
Before that time, there were hardly any houses in Manzhouli, since the Mongolian people love to continuously move their houses and cows to the best grassland. The railway brought the place new settlers. Some are Russian and some are Chinese.
Russian design proved to be a success and has been well kept to this date. Soon all elements of modern life started to appear, including hospitals, churches, salons鈥hy did Russians spend so much money and time in building a Chinese city from nothing?
The army, the sources and food
were all sent to the Russian front from here.
So Manzhouli experienced an unusual development
And became a city.
Even now during no wartime emergency, the goods going across the port of Manzhouli are still very important to both countries, in terms of quantity and use. The Russians still also love to spend a few leisure days here.
When night falls, Manzhouli turns into a Russian haven, with their beloved beer, soup, salad, huge beef skewers and almost everything they have want for.
With the hottest Russian pop music, how many of the Russians can remember that they are in a foreign country?
When the sun rises, it鈥檚 time to work.
99% of the bar and restaurant goers will show up in the market during the daytime, purchasing all kinds of goods, with all kinds of transportation means.
Hehei boasts the largest water port of China, while Manzhouli enjoy its fame as the biggest land port. Russian cars and vans can run freely on the Chinese side. But Chinese don鈥檛 enjoy the same privilege.
Every afternoon, nowhere is busier than the bus stations, where Russians line up to go home. But it may take some time on the way. Though their houses can be seen from the Chinese side, procedures to cross the border costs quite some time.
Drowsy hours spent in long queues may well be repeated the following day. Who knows?
The characters read 鈥淕ate of People鈥檚 Republic of China鈥, a four floor-high construction facing its Russian counterpart. A watchtower stands by its side. Russian and Chinese soldiers patrol around now and then. Not far from that lies a stone solemnly claiming the sovereignty of China. Only trains can frequently go across these two gates, bringing back and forth the economic link of two countries and a shared dream of a prosperous future.
Churchill said 鈥楻ussia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.鈥 To the Chinese neighbours, Russians are not so hard to understand. For thousands of years, they have been coming to China. The reasons are varied. It could be for love, power, development or simply for pleasure. What they left here is far more than they expected, and how much did they get? Well, it seems to be no less than what they brought.
Editor:Hu Source:CCTV.com
