For Chinese tourists, world’s deepest lake is a ‘very unique destination’ expected to draw them back to Russia post-pandemic
- Enthused by singer Li Jian, Chinese visitors were the most numerous to eastern Russia’s Lake Baikal before Covid-19
- Travel insiders expect that the Chinese will re-embrace Baikal in even greater numbers when the borders reopen
Considered the Jewel of Russia by some, Lake Baikal is the world’s oldest and deepest freshwater lake. In January, when its water crystallises into aquamarine ice, the tourism season usually begins.
In recent years, Chinese visitors have become the most numerous and prominent at the lake, making up 65 per cent of all international arrivals in 2019 – but for the past 12 months, they have been conspicuous by their absence.
Lake Baikal was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1996. Framed by steppes and mountains, the vast lake contains 20 per cent of the world’s fresh water and hosts a variety of endemic plant and animal species. The area’s cultural legacy, coloured by shamanic and Buddhist traditions, is influenced by its original inhabitants, the Evenk and Buryat people.
Businesses surrounding the lake have developed in parallel with tourism. In the last few years, they have adapted to suit Chinese holidaymakers in particular. In Listvyanka, Baikal’s main lakeshore village, hotel and restaurant staff learn Mandarin. At the Baikalsky Rynok, Listvyanka’s open-air market, stall operators know which merchandise will appeal to Chinese visitors – local delicacies such as smoked omul fish and Siberian herbal tea.
But those visitors stopped arriving last February when Russia, in an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19, became one of the first countries to close its borders to Chinese nationals – which came as a shock to some, given the value of Chinese tourism to the country. In 2019, Russia recorded 2.26 million visits from China, a 21 per cent jump from two years earlier.