Khabarovsk

An attractive square in front of the railway station.

Located where the mighty Amur river meets up with a couple of smaller rivers, and therefore a sensible place to choose to build a town, Khabarovsk was founded in 1858 as a military outpost. It is within 15 miles of the Chinese border, but still retains a strong European feel and influence, most notably in the form of distinctive 19th century brick buildings and broad tree-lined main streets. During Soviet times when Vladivostok was a "closed" city - to both foreigners and most Russians, too, Khabarovsk assumed the mantle of the major eastern city.  Nowadays with Vladivostok open to everyone once more, Khabarovosk's importance has probably dwindled some.  These days it is enjoying a measure of business revival, brought about mainly by immigrants from Korea and Japan. A city of almost 650,000 people, it is very large in physical size (almost half the size of Moscow!) and the railway station is on the east side of the main city area, 2.5 miles from the Amur river. The city is one of the main centers of the Russian fur industry.  Fish processing is another major industry.  There are eight universities and other forms of higher education, three main theatres, and two museums in the city.

General Information

   Khabarovsk Information 

A simple page and a link to a second page, both of which have some nice photos of the area.

   Khabarovsk Information 

Another simple page but has quite a bit of intersting information about the city.

   Khabarovsk Photo-Essay 

A collection of not very good photos of the area.

   Khabarovsk, Bikin and Me 

A fascinating travelog written by an American lady in 1997.

Hotel Information

Russian hotels vary wildly in quality and price.  Although prices and values have improved in the last few years of the 1990s, the best hotels are still among the most expensive in all of Europe, but as a redeeming feature, their quality is also of highest world standards.

In Khabarovsk, there is nothing that would qualify as an excellent quality hotel.  There are a number of second level - what might perhaps be styled as "average" hotels.  Then there is another quantum drop in standard to hotels that involve major compromises in quality and comfort, and of course, there are plenty of opportunities to find even worse hotels below these.

The cheaper the hotel, the less English that is spoken.  In the highest grade of hotels, all reception, bar, restaurant and porter staff will speak acceptably good English.  When you move down to the next grade of hotels, some staff will speak English, and when you move down another grade, you may quite likely find that, depending on who is on duty, perhaps no-one will speak English at all.

   Listing of Hotels in Khabarovsk 

When we find some hotels in Khabarovsk with their own web pages in English, we'll add links.  For now, this page at least provides some basic information about the major hotels in the city.