Vladivostok, the capital of Primorye, is much younger than Russian major cities like Moscow or even St Petersburg - it will turn just 140 this July. And yet, it is now easily the most important regional centre in Russia. Dubbed "the port of five seas" - four oceans and the air - the city receives visitors from all over the world, coming by sea, plane and train.

Primorye, Russia's Maritime Province, perched on the Pacific Rim in Russia's southeastern corner, features a stunning diversity of life. Habitual denizens of the north like moose and bear here live together with tiger and leopard, European birch and northern larch are often entwined by tropical vines and lianas. A number of plants and animals are unique to Primorye. The local Botanical Gardens are full of diverse trees, shrubs and vines, most of which are indigenous species found in the forests of Primorye. Even the pink Indian Lotus grows here in the wild.

One of the most remarkable residents of the Maritime Province is the misnamed Siberian Tiger, who, in fact, does not live outside the Province in any significant quantities, and the Province is a good way south of Siberia. Amba, as the indigenous people call the Siberian tiger, has always been an important symbol for the natives, and those who came later learned to respect the beast. For good reason! In the early 1900s a tiger attacked a night guard on Semenovskaya Hill in downtown Vladivostok. This incident gave the hill a new name: Tigrovaya, or Tiger, Hill. As recently as 1986, a family of tigers appeared in Vladivostok's suburban woodlands within easy reach of the outer residential areas. And within easy grasp of hapless stray dogs who provided nourishment for the family of the endangered species for a few weeks. The city's emblem has sported a tiger rampant since 1883. Back in the 1950s, Vladivostok was also visited by whales, from whom some indigenous peoples trace their ancestry in their myths.

A few other local names also have roots in the early years of local history. Vladivostok's main harbour, Golden Horn Bay, got its name when the first Europeans (crew of Manchur freighter) saw the horn-shaped expanse of water golden in the light of sunset when they came ashore here on 2 July 1860. Probably the inlet reminded them of a similarly-shaped bay of the same name in Constantinopol. Other local bays and inlets were named after passing Russian boats and naval ships: Patroclus, Diomedes, Ulysses, Sobol, Gornostai, Novik. The new outpost, which a few years later became a port and then a city, was named Vladivostok, which is the Russian for "Rule the East". As if to confirm the name, by 1880 it became a fortress city. Fortifications impregnable in conventional warfare were designed and constructed by Karbyshev and Shoshin, and are still watching the sea from the hills as the vestiges of a bygone age of Cold War wariness.

During the 1870s the city's infrastructure began to take form. Wood clearings at which some boats cast anchor soon became streets and got their names from those boats. That is why we have Svetlanskaya, Aleutskaya, Abrekovskaya and Gaidamak Gardens. The cleaner Officers' Quarter deteriorated in the east into a somewhat shabbier seamen's quarter which merged into luga, meadows, at the eastern edge of Golden Horn Bay. These meadows have long since been replaced by the wide "Lugovaya" square. Sailing ships used to drop anchor in the mouth of the nearby Obyasnenia (Proposal) River, where young people would stroll together in the woods. As early as 1866 Vladivostok had a lively trade with Japanese, Chinese and US cities, notably Yokohama, Shanghai and San Francisco. It became a free port, and by the year 1870 Vladivostok had a population of 1,000 civilians, including a number of highly respected foreign residents. Korean expatriates settled a quarter inland from Cape Burny, quaint Japanese and Chinese houses nestled to Semenovsky Inlet (now Sportivnaya Gavan). It is said that the city's oriental quarter was the birthplace of Irino, a Japanese composer who gave his name to Tokyo Music Academy. This quarter over the years degenerated into a slummy Chinatown, complete with opium houses, dens of every description and oriental shops. Even so the new residents eventually brought the city prosperity.

The site of GUM, Vladivostok's oldest department store, was originally property of de Frieze, a Dutchman whose name is now commemorated in a cape in the North-east corner of Amursky Bay. The store which soon became the city's landmark was set up by two German businessmen, Gustav Kunst and Adolf Albers. A truly encyclopedic store by any standard, the Kunst and Albers Trading House could offer anything from a pin to a stuffed tiger. Another department store in downtown Vladivostok, the Green Bricks Store, was originally a Chinese establishment. Then for over fifty years Vladivostok was off-limits to foreign visitors, as Russia's major naval base on the Pacific. In 1990, it regained the free port status of the early 1900s.

Vladivostok once ended at Poslednaya Ulitsa, or "The Last Street" (now Utkinskaya), bordering on Pokrovskoye Churchyard which later became a recreational park but today is again becoming a memorial area. The old Pokrovsky Cathedral, destroyed by militant atheists in the 1930s, is being restored in this park. The whole city is now going through something of a revival of faith. A Protestant church, which was home to Pacific Fleet's Military Museum for many decades, has been returned to the local Lutheran community. The Roman Catholic Church, which for many years housed the official archives, again holds masses to the sound of a grand organ. The Orthodox St Nicholas Church is being renovated and a new Methodist Church has been built.

Academic Quarter with a number of research institutes appeared over 30 years ago in a suburban area of Vladivostok, the "Green Belt" in the north of the city. Institutes of Oceanic Studies, Biochemistry and Automation stand out as the most important. A little further to the north in the Green Belt are the Botanical Gardens featuring a unique diversity of northern and southern plants.

Those arriving by road are greeted at the entrance to the city, in the middle of the green belt, by a 30ft bronze seaman waving his hand in salute. However, on some days going into city by road would be unwise - when motorists are going in and out of town in large numbers, you could lose hours in traffic jams. However, Vladivostok is now going through a road construction boom which will make the roads more adequate to the four-wheeled crowds rushing about. New suspension bridges, underground and elevated crossings will help the roads accommodate the ever-growing number of cars more easily.

If, on the other hand, you arrive in Vladivostok by rail, you will have travelled the world's longest railway, the Trans-Siberian. (Ironically, it is also the shortest route between the Pacific and Europe.) At Vladivostok Railway Terminal, near a memorial steam engine, you will see a sign with the number 9,288, which is the distance in kilometres between here and the other end of the road in Moscow. This is where the railroad ends, and those willing to continue their travel can take a boat from the marine terminal just across the tracks from its railroad counterpart. The latter is, in fact, a smaller replica of Yaroslavsky Terminal in Moscow. Both the terminals are built in the Russian national style. The glass-and-concrete marine terminal, on the other hand, is in the late 1960s style. In 1993-1995, Tegola-Canadese, an Italian contractor, renovated both terminals bringing them more in line with the modern standards. Across the square from the terminals is the Railroad Post Office, a five-storey building where the clock plays the first bars of the regional anthem at noon.

Vladivostok currently occupies most of Muraviov-Amursky Peninsula, named after the Governor General of the Eastern Russia in mid-19 century. His tomb is now in Theatre Alley in downtown Vladivostok. Two bays, Amursky and Ussuriisky wrap the peninsula, mirroring with their names two great rivers of the Russian Far East, the Amur, and the Ussury, its tributary.

Some 25 years ago, Ocean, an international resort for children and teenagers, sprang up on the western shore of Ussuriisky Bay, in Emar Inlet. Terraces of white marble structures descend to the edge of the picturesque inlet, between the Baby Whale Hill, which is indeed very much like a whale lying on the shore, and the Crab Hill. Nice little inlets best accessible from the sea lie both sides of Emar, and the nearby shallow sandy Lazurnaya Bay is the favourite summertime haunt of Vladivostokians.

Hiding in the groves on the shores of Amursky Bay are a number of summer camps, resort hotels and health resorts, among which the Sad Gorod resort stands out like a gem.

Most of Vladivostok's native residents have a seaman in their family, or a border guard, a fisherman or an employee of DalZavod ship repair yards, the time-honoured enterprise that has been building and repairing ships for the last century. At 13-15 Aleutskaya St, another major local company has its headquarters. Far Eastern Shipping Company, better known internationally as FESCO, started out in 1880 with a single boat Moskva and now operates a fleet faring the high seas on many international routes. Some of the older buildings in this block are under state protection for their cultural value. This is also where Mr. Brynner once lived, father of Yul Brynner, who later starred in over 40 Hollywood's movies, most notably The King and I, and as a hired gunman in The Magnificent Seven.

The maritime aspect of the city is further emphasised by a number of marine and naval schools, including the Far Eastern Marine Academy, Russia's largest marine college. Located at 50 Verkhneportovaya, FEMA started out as Tsar Alexander's Classes back in 1890. Among the famous graduates of the Academy is Anna Schetinina, Russia's first female sea captain. Her presence at the helm of a ship amazed US naval officers during WWII.

Architect Gvozdiovsky designed another of Vladivostok's landmarks, at 10 Pushkinskaya Street. It was completed in 1899 as the seat of the Eastern Institute. Two mythological Manchurian lions still guard its main entrance. Vladivostok's two major universities - the Far Eastern State and the Far Eastern Technical - originated from the Institute. In 1930, FESU moved over to another 19-century building at 8 Sukhanova Street, which originally housed a college of commerce. A Russian author Alexander Fadeiev was once a student there. In front of this building there is now a statue of Academician Igor Y. Tamm, a Nobel Prize winner for physics in 1958 and a native of Vladivostok. His integrity earned him a high reputation and respect with the scientific community. Professor Viktor Vologdin whose name is immortalised on a plaque at the door of FETU was notable for inventing an advanced welding method. Vladivostok currently sports thirteen undergraduate schools and universities.

Russia's only funicular goes up from the main building of FETU in Pushkinskaya. It will take you up to a lookout platform which commands a view of Golden Horn Bay, most of Vladivostok, and outlying islands of Russky and Popov. The building adorned with chess rooks at 19 Pushkinskaya below was once the seat of the Chinese Consulate. Now the building houses a special school for handicapped children. Two more consulates used to be further downtown, in Kitaiskaya Ulitsa (Chinese Street), now Oceansky Prospekt. Two griffons, which in Japanese mythology are said bring good luck and longevity, guard the door to the former Japanese consulate, which is probably why the building was later handed over to an oncologic clinic. The house across the street from the clinic was built on the property of Mr. Demby, a Scotsman by birth. Mr. Demby lived here himself, and between 1912 and 1917 it was the seat of the British consul. Now it houses the administration of Frunzensky District.

The cultural life of the city is quite varied. Apart from four theatres and concert halls Vladivostok has 11 movie theatres, four assembly halls, a circus and a number of museums. Children's Creative Centre offers children and teenagers a variety of studios, construction and design societies and clubs. Vladivostok has a strong chessplayers' society at one time headed by famous grand master Alexander Zaitsev. Ballet fans will note in Fontannaya Street Viktor Vasutin's ballet school, which has earned international renown.

Primorye Picture Gallery at 12 Aleutskaya displays a fine collection of classic European and Oriental art in its halls. Artists' House exhibits canvasses of the local artists. Art-Etage, a gallery on the ground floor of the white 22-storey building of the Primorye Administration, holds exhibitions of ultra-modern art, works by modern designers and popular artists. Local museums contain a wealth of information and materials on the Province's history, nature and indigenous people, especially the Arsenev Museum of Area Studies (at 20 Svetlanskaya and 6 Petra Velikogo). It features extensive exhibits of semiprecious stones, authentic artefacts of indigenous life, unique documents relating to Russian expatriates in the US. Among the museums are the residences of the Sukhanov family and Vladimir Arsenev. In the latter at 7a Arseneva Street the famous writer and explorer of the Russian Far East taiga spent the last years of his life.

The memorial complex at Korabelnaya Naberezhnaya Quay commemorates the naval glory of Vladivostok. A concrete bowsprit symbolises Manchur, the first Russian boat to visit Golden Horn Bay. Krasny Vympel, a tiny naval schooner which held high proudly the Russian flag and never surrendered to a large international intervention force in the early 1920s. Among the monuments in honour of Russian seamen who fought in WWII is Submarine C-56, which is open for visitors. Hundreds of names of Vladivostok KIA seamen are inscribed on black marble slabs near the memorial fire.

Vladivostok has over a total of 130 monuments and buildings of cultural value. The earliest monument, dedicated to Admiral Nevelskoi, was erected in 1897, and the last monument commemorating the heroic deeds of Russian border guards was unveiled in 1997. Marine Cemetery has a fine memorial area, with a monument to the cruiser Varyag, a symbol of Russian seamen's heroism in the Russo-Japanese war. A wooden statue of three dolphins near the Seamen's Assembly hall commemorates another kind of courage and human greatness. A Canadian sculptor represented in wood the gratitude of dolphins whom Russian seamen saved from their ice-bound prison in the Northern Pacific.

The waterfront at the foot of Tiger Hill attracts visitors and Vladivostok residents with the view of the Amursky Bay, a Dolphinarium and an Oceanarium featuring a varied collection of denizens of the deep in its great aquariums. The adjoining building, which also faces the waterfront, contains a set of gymnasiums, swimming pools and basketball and volleyball courts. The round building of Ocean Cinema sits in the middle of the Tiger Hill, while the hill itself is nearly smothered in hotels ranging from the four-star luxury Versailles and snow-white Gavan to the more down-market Equator and Vladivostok, the white Amursky Zaliv down at the water edge, and to starless Primorye and Moryak, just up the Tiger Hill from the terminals (click here to see these hotels). Another modern hotel, Korean-operated Hyundai, sits on a nearby hill in downtown Vladivostok, complete with a business-centre, sauna and two restaurants. More restaurants, both stand-alone and combined with hotels, offer European, Russian and Oriental cuisine.

All of this will make your stay in Vladivostok pleasant and entertaining.

A different version of this essay was originally written for SIght Ltd., a Vladivostok-based publisher (I'm still the one who wrote it).

Look at pictures of most these sights here or see all of these places with a local tour operator that knows how to make tours exciting.

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