| Kyakhta (English) Кяхта (Russian) Хяагта (Buryat) |
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Location of the Republic of Buryatia in Russia |
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Kyakhta
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| Administrative status | |
| Country | Russia |
| Federal subject | Republic of Buryatia |
| Administrative center of | Kyakhtinsky District |
| Municipal status | |
| Mayor | Valery Tsyrempilov |
| Statistics | |
| Population (2010 Census, preliminary) |
20,041 inhabitants[1] |
| Population (2002 Census) | 18,391 inhabitants[2] |
| Time zone | IRKST (UTC+09:00)[3] |
| Founded | 1728 |
| Dialing code(s) | +7 30142 |
Kyakhta (Russian: Кя́хта; Buryat: Хяагта, Khyaagta) is a town in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located on the Kyakhta River near the Russian-Mongolian border. Population: 20,041 (2010 Census preliminary results);[1] 18,391 (2002 Census);[2] 18,307 (1989 Census).[4]
The town stands directly opposite the Mongolian border town of Altanbulag.
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Kyakhta was founded by Serb Savva Raguzinsky as a trading point between Russia and the Qing Empire in 1728. The eastern terminal of the Great Siberian Route from Moscow, Kyakhta prospered from cross-border trade with Altanbulag which was then a Chinese trading center called Maimachin (Mǎimàichéng, "Trading City.") Trade was essentially based on barter, with merchants crossing the border to make their business.
The foundation of the city was paralleled by a treaty, one of the first between China and a Western nation, named the Treaty of Kyakhta, which established trade agreements and defined the border between Siberia and the Qing Empire territories of Mongolia and Manchuria. As a result of this agreement, Kyakhta was an exclusive trading point on the frontier.
Kyakhta and its Chinese counterpart, Maimaicheng, were visited by the famous English adventurer and engineer Samuel Bentham in 1782. He related that he was entertained by the commander of the Chinese city "with the greatest politeness which a stranger can meet with in any country whatever". At that time, the Russians sold furs, textiles, clothing, hides, leather, hardware and cattle, while the Chinese sold silk, cotton stuffs, teas, fruits, porcelain, rice, candles, rhubarb, ginger and musk.
Much of the tea is said to have come from Yangloudong, a major center of tea production and trade near today's Chibi City, Hubei.[5]
The town was crowded, unclean, ill-planned and never came to reflect the wealth that flowed through it,[6] although an outcrop of Neoclassical buildings were erected in the 19th century, including a tea bourse (1842) and the Orthodox cathedral (1807–17) which still stand. It was from Kyakhta that Nikolai Przhevalsky, Grigory Potanin, Pyotr Kozlov, and Vladimir Obruchev set off on their expeditions into the interior of Mongolia and Xinjiang.
Town status was granted to it in 1861.
After the entire Russian-Chinese frontier was opened to trade in 1860 and the Trans-Siberian and the Chinese Eastern Railways bypassed it, Kyakhta fell into decline. The whole city assumed the name Troitskosavsk during the first part of the 20th century, but reverted to Kyakhta in 1935.
In the mid-20th century, a branch railway was built from Ulan-Ude (on the Trans-Siberian) to Mongolia's Ulan Baator, and, eventually, to China, paralleling the old Kyakhta trade route. However, this railway crosses the Russian-Mongolian border not in Kyakhta itself, but in nearby Naushki.[7]
As the first market town on the border between the Russian and Chinese Empires, Kyakhta gave its name to the so-called Kyakhta Russian-Chinese Pidgin, a contact language that was used by Russian and Chinese traders to communicate. [8]
Kyakhta's economy today relies mainly on its status as an important center for trade between Russia, China and Mongolia, located on the highway from the Buryatian capital of Ulan-Ude to the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator. It also has textile, lumber, and food-processing plants, as well as the Damdin Sükhbaatar memorial museum.
In Mongolian, Kyakhta was formerly known as Ар Хиагт (Ar Khiagt, lit. "North Kyakhta"); Altanbulag (then, Maimaicheng) across the border was Өвөр Хиагт (Övör Khiagt, lit. "South Kyakhta"). Troitskosavsk is known as Дээд Шивээ (Deed Šhivee) in Mongolian.
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