Day Schedule

➤Early arrival in Ulan-Ude

➤Transfer to the hotel and guaranteed early check-in

➤Breakfast

➤Atsagatski Datsan

➤Lenin’s head monument

➤Old town tour

Ulan-Ude is the capital city of the Republic of Buryatia, Russia. The first occupants of the area where Ulan-Ude now stands were the Evenks and, later, the Buryat Mongols. Ulan-Ude was settled in 1666 by the Russian Cossacks as the fortress of Udinskoye. Due to its favourable geographical position, it grew rapidly and became a large trade centre which connected Russia with China and Mongolia.

Ulan-Ude is located on the mainline (Trans-Siberian line) of the Trans-Siberian Railway between Irkutsk and Chita at the junction of the Trans-Mongolian line (the Trans-Mongolian Railway) which begins at Ulan Ude and continues south through Mongolia to Beijing in China.

The Buryats practice Tibetan Buddhism but, along with all other religions, this was suppressed under communism. All of the Datsans (monasteries) were destroyed and the monks sent off to the Gulags. Now they are being rebuilt but not on the original sites, monks from Tibet and Mongolia have visited and divined the most auspicious spots for the new temples. They are not as big and grand as those in Tibet, somehow they have a more homely, approachable feel to them. Atsagatski Datsun seems to stand in the middle of nowhere but there's a steady flow of locals through the door leaving a few coins in front of the various images.

The main sight of Ulan-Ude is Lenin's head monument. Every tourist who is interested in unusual monuments and amazing architecture should see this 7,7 meters-high bronze head of Vladimir Lenin. This monument is the largest head sculpture in the world. This fact makes the monument situated on the Sovetov Square as more popular among tourists.