https://www.scmp.com/rss/330935/feed Yvonne Lau is a Hong Kong-based writer documenting life in China and Russia’s border towns. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com 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... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3128728/chinese-tourists-worlds-deepest-lake-very-unique?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3128728/chinese-tourists-worlds-deepest-lake-very-unique?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Apr 2021 04:15:14 +0000 In China’s cold northern frontier, a small city has become a nexus for the exchange of goods and people across a frozen river. Heihe lies just 800 yards away from Russia, separated by the Heilongjiang river. It is a sleepy border town but proffers its own brand of cosmopolitanism. Here, conversations can be heard in Chinese and Russian. The downtown’s main shopping street is filled with made-in-China Russian goods, including smiling Stalin lighters and jeweled mirrors decorated with scenes from... https://www.scmp.com/travel/china-russia-border-suitcase-trade/article/3074316?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/china-russia-border-suitcase-trade/article/3074316?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Mar 2020 10:41:03 +0000 It was summer in Siberia when I first met Viktoria, or Vika as she is affectionately known to her friends. We were at Lake Baikal, considered by geologists as the world’s oldest lake and a sacred site for the Buryat people, Siberia’s largest indigenous group. Since the summer, things have changed. Baikal’s deep waters have crystallized into ice, and Vika, who is in her second year at a university in China, is back home in Ulan-Ude, Russia, for Chinese New Year break. “I never would have thought... https://www.scmp.com/identity/not-quite-asian-not-quite-russian-nomadic-students-life/article/3000885?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/identity/not-quite-asian-not-quite-russian-nomadic-students-life/article/3000885?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Feb 2019 11:53:08 +0000