Amur-Heihe (07.2011)

Russia's Far Eastern Amur Region lies five thousand miles (8,000 kilometres) east of Moscow. Named after the Amur River, the 10th longest river in the world, it's capital, Blagoveshchensk, (from the Russian word for Annunciation), was established in the 1850s. A town of approximately 200,000, Blagoveshchensk is but a five minute ferry ride from Heihe, China, making the region an important Russian outpost. Here, within the city limits of Blagoveshchensk, the first dinosaur fossils in Russia were discovered, despite the claim of Yale paleontologist, Charles Marsh, who in 1887 declared there were no dinosaurs in Russia. A vast territory of beautiful taiga, native Evenk reindeer herders still inhabit the region, while its marshlands are important breeding grounds for the Japanese Crane & Oriental Stork.