🪆MANZHOULI - Russia in China

Yes, believe it or not these places are still inside Mainland China! Located a few kilometers from the Russian border, Manzhouli is a tiny city with great personality. It is a mix of three countries: China, Russia, and Mongolia; becoming quite the urban city along the years. It shares borders with Xing’anling on the east, Hulun Lake on the south, Mongolia on the west and Russia to the north. 🇨🇳 🇷🇺 🇲🇳 Manzhouli is also home to China’s century-old and busiest land port, hence it’s known regionally as "the Window of Eastern Asia". We visited in mid-July and although the days were nice and sunny, we were definitely not prepared for the nights. Temperatures would drop drastically after sunset and winter coats (which we found at a little street stand for ¥100) came in very handy! When in Manzhouli, you cannot miss Matryoshka Square: the only one of its kind in China, with features that combine all three cultures. The square displays over 200 oversized Matryoshka dolls, which are also known as nesting dolls. The dolls have a wide variety of figures painted on them in many styles. They have Russian, Chinese, and Mongolian girls painted on the outside of some. The largest one is about 30 meters tall. This massive doll holds the Guinness World Record for the largest Matryoshka doll in the world. Inside of it, there is a hotel, Russian cuisine restaurant, and a performance hall. At night, there are singing and dancing performances in the square by foreigners, along with fireworks. Of course, gift shops all around. 🎁💸 Around Manzhouli you can also visit Hulun Lake and an interesting, small (but most of all random) theme park. There are life-sized mammoth statues all around, old school rollercoasters, a big Ferris wheel, and bumper cars. Plus a beautiful Russian style building that seemed to be completely empty and abandoned! 😂 It’s good fun since there is not much else to do. The night life pretty dead, sadly. We roamed around a lot looking for places to eat and have a drink, but at around 10pm, all the street lights were off and finding a cab was a hassle. You’ll need no more than a day or two here! #thisischina #manzhouli #themepark #mongolia