Project work.

Imagine you are a participant at the International Tourism Conference. How would you present the Republic of Buryatia and its touristic resources?

TEXT 2

Ulan-Ude –the Capital of the Republic of Buryatia

Read the text and say why Ulan-Ude is the business, educational, cultural and political center of the Republic of Buryatia.

The city of Ulan-Ude is the capital of the Republic of Buryatia. It is located in the Western Transbaikalye, in the valley where the Uda River and the Selenga River meet each other, in 140 km from Lake Baikal.

The city was founded in 1666 as a Cossack winter camp of Udinsky. Later, this small Udinsky ostrog was renamed into the city of Verkhneudinsk (1775). In XIX century it was known as a trading center of Transbaikalye. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad has brought a new impulse in the development of the city. In 1923 Verhneudinsk from a district city became the capital of the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and in 1934 the city was renamed into Ulan-Ude. Translating from Buryat it sounds like “Red Uda”. “Ulan” is a Buryat word, meaning “red” and “Ude” is the river name. The river name in its turn means “streaming flow”.

Ulan-Ude has 3 districts: Soviet district (political and business center of the city), Zheleznodorozhny (the industrial center) and Oktyabrskiy (this is mostly the residential area).

The city is rich in historical monuments. Today it is a large educational, scientific and cultural center of the republic. The Buryat Center of Science (Siberian Department) of the Russian Academy of Sciences with scientific research institutes is situated here. There are 4 state institutions of higher education, 11 branches of institutions of higher education from other cities of the Russian Federation, 24 colleges, the total number of students in which makes more than 40 thousand.

The city of Ulan-Ude is also the center of political and business activities of the Republic of Buryatia. This is where the Republic’s government (People’s Khural) and the office of the Republic’s president are situated.

At present more than 400 thousand people, representatives of 100 nationalities, live peacefully in Ulan-Ude. People, who peacefully coexist and live in the city, profess different religions. Nowadays, together with the Orthodox churches the Buddhist datsans are restored and are under construction in the city. One can find Old Believers and Catholic churches in the city as well.

Many companies, enterprises and organizations of different type successfully operate at the Buryat market. The major of them are Locomotive-Carriage-Repair Plant (LVRZ), Aviation Plant, Bridge Metal Structures Plant, Meat-Packing Plant (Buryatmyasoprom), Confectionery Factory “Amta”, Baking Factory “Buryathlebprom” and some others.

There are more than 20 hotels, tourist hostels, 140 enterprises of a small-business involved in tourist service. The well-known hotels are “Baikal-Plaza”, “Sagan Morin”, “Geser”, “Buryatia” and “Barguzin”.

There are 5 professional theaters in Ulan-Ude: the Opera and Ballet House, the Youth Art Drama Theater, the Buryat State Academic Theater of Drama after Kh. Namsaraev, the State Russian Drama Theater after N. Bestuzhev, and the Republican Puppet Theater “Ulger”.

Ulan-Ude has 6 museums: the Open-Air Ethnographical Museum, Museum of Nature of the Republic of Buryatia, Museum of the History of the Buryat Republic, Geology Museum and Museum of the History of Ulan-Ude City.

Today Ulan-Ude is developing to a modernized city where new buildings, banks and offices, entertaining and shopping centers, restaurants and cafes are emerging.