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China and the Urals share a common history
More than 30 international students of USUE, as well as exchange students from China visited the old town in the Urals, Alapaevsk, and the village of Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha. The excursion was organised in honour of the 75th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.
‘1 October is the main patriotic holiday in China - the Day of the Establishment of the People's Republic of China. It is considered the start of the Golden Week, which combines seven days of public holiday in early October for nationwide festivities and recreation. This is also the time of the boom in domestic travelling in China. We have organised an excursion for students from China who did not go home for the holidays,’ said Evgenia Radygina, Head of the Department of Tourism Business and Hospitality at USUE.
The first point of destination for the students was Alapaevsk, which is located 200 kilometres from Ekaterinburg. This old town is one of the sites of the International Cultural and Educational Project ‘Red Route’. It introduces visitors to the places in the Urals where Chinese Red Army soldiers fought side by side with residents of Nizhny Tagil, Kushva, Nizhnyaya Tura and Verkhoturye during the Civil War.
In Alapaevsk, students visited a unique music museum dedicated to Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The museum has a collection of thousands of musical instruments, including miniature models created by the museum's founder Vera Gorodilina. Foreigners heard the sound of such instruments as a harmonium, a grand piano made in Königsberg ( nowadays Kaliningrad), a musical Swiss box and a mechanical organ from the early 19th century that used to sound for the young composer.
Liu Xiaochen, a third-year student of USUE, was one of the students who visited the old town. He came from the Chinese province of the north-eastern city of Heilongjiang. What struck him most was the nature of the Urals, especially the hills, which cannot be found in his homeland.
‘I prefer to learn about Russia during excursions, especially in small towns. Travelling to such places, I immerse myself in the local culture and environment. I enjoy walking around Ekaterinburg, but excursions outside the regional capital give a different perspective on the diversity and richness of Russia. In Alapaevsk, I learnt about the shared history of Russia and China,’ said Liu Xiaochen.
The second point of the route was the Nizhnesinyachikha Museum-Reserve of Wooden Architecture named after Ivan Samoilov. The students saw what the Ural village was like in the XVII-XIX centuries. There were peasant farmsteads, a stockade tower, a three-log bathhouse, a windmill, a watchtower, chapels, and a tavern.
According to the students, this trip inspired them to visit other, equally interesting places in the Sverdlovsk region, such as the The Church on Blood , the Ural Mountains, and the Europe-Asia obelisk.
