Chinese businessmen are buying land in Listvyanka on Lake Baikal for illegal hotels. Chinese chaos. The authorities are hiding the fact that the crew of the Olkhon ferry was beaten. Not investment, but expansion

24 May 2017, 10:57

IN last years China has become the main supplier of tourists for Russia. Lake Baikal is a particular favorite of theirs: businessmen say that there are no vacancies in hotels even in winter, tour operators complain that their Chinese colleagues are pushing them out of business, and local residents are unhappy with the way the Chinese behave. Taiga.info publishes an excerpt from a Meduza report about the Chinese invasion of the Irkutsk region.

Lake Baikal is covered in ice. People in colorful clothes walk along the ice one after another, in groups, in pairs and (occasionally) alone, rolling suitcases on wheels behind them. You can get to Olkhon Island from the mainland in summer only by water, in winter, when the lake freezes, by ice: for three minutes and four hundred rubles on a hovercraft or for free for fifteen to twenty minutes on foot. People with suitcases prefer to save money. They all came here from China.

“It was like I was in the Moscow metro. Although no, in Beijing,” - wrote In the winter of 2017, Karina Pronina, a resident of Irkutsk, saw this picture on Facebook and added: this didn’t happen a year ago. This is confirmed by representatives of the local tourism industry: according to them, up to 90% of all tourists on the lake this winter came from China; and during the Chinese New Year (this year it fell in the last week of January), some hotels on Olkhon had exclusively Chinese guests. Of course, people from China go not only to the Irkutsk region (Moscow and St. Petersburg are the most popular, like other tourists), but it is this region that is now experiencing a real tourism boom: according to Rostourism, the increase in tourist flows from China in the region compared to 2015 to 2016 was 158%.

“This year, almost all of our hotels and camp sites remained open for the winter,” recalls Christina Mayor, administrator of the Nikita Bencharova Estate camp site. - For several days in a row, only Chinese tourists stayed with us. Out of curiosity, we checked on Booking.com - there were no vacancies anywhere. People, our locals, came at random and tried to move in, but alas. On excursions it’s the same story: we have popular place- Cape Khaboy, northern point islands. So in winter it happened that you would arrive and you would feel like you were somewhere in China, and not on Lake Baikal.”

Tourists from China, especially the older generation, are often fans of the so-called red tourism to places significant to the history of communism, which arose within the country at a time when its citizens did not have the opportunity to travel abroad. Hundreds of such routes have been created in China, so the Russian tourism industry has adjusted to the demand, especially since Russia has something to offer guests on this topic both in Moscow and in the regions. In 2017, the Chinese tourist flow is expected to grow in connection with the anniversary of the October Revolution.

However, among those who go to Baikal, according to workers in the local tourism industry, there are others: often young people and students, “intelligent and Europeanized,” some traveling on their own. They stay in budget hotels and hostels and do not use the services of guides, relying on social networks. They travel, however, on the same routes as other Baikal tourists: Irkutsk as a starting point; the village of Listvyanka located on the shores of Lake Baikal; optional - Circum-Baikal Railway; definitely Olkhon.

“It is Olkhon that almost every tourist from China strives for,” says the director of the Irkutsk travel company"Greenexpress" Vadim Kopylov. “As far as I know, there is even a popular song about him in Chinese.”

Not investment, but expansion

Back in the eighties, on the border of the Irkutsk region and China there were red signs with inscriptions like “Attention! The Chinese are our enemy! Then the current director of the Irkutsk company Sputnik and head of the Siberian Baikal Tourism Association (SBAT) Igor Kovalenko was one of the pioneers in establishing business relations with neighbors - in 1989, as part of the Soviet delegation, he traveled throughout the northeast of China to sign several agreements on mutual exchange of tourists. He continued to develop the region in the 2000s - once Kovalenko traveled up and down winter Baikal with a photographer to get photographs that are still used in Chinese advertising brochures. It was then that he coined the phrase “blue ice of Baikal” - now in China it is used to promote winter tours.

Recently, however, representatives of the Siberian tourism industry have begun to worry about competition from Chinese colleagues, often operating under dubious schemes. In the spring of 2017, the executive director of the World Without Borders association, Alexander Agamov, said that the Russian market was flooded by Chinese tourists, who were being sold disproportionately cheap tours in their homeland. According to him, this flow is served by Chinese citizens based in Russia, who meet their compatriots, arrange accommodation for them - and also take them to friendly stores where tourists make purchases for cash at inflated prices: gold, amber, jewelry made of precious stones, clothing from European brands . As a result, at least $500 million is withdrawn from the Russian economy annually, according to World Without Borders, because these purchases are not declared in any way. As the “World Without Borders” explained to Meduza, it works something like this: the Chinese bring cash to Russia (tourists are instructed back home that in Russia everything is sold only for paper money), they make purchases in stores specially created for them for inflated prices that do not correspond to actual cash receipts, and the cash is divided between the owner of the shop, the Chinese guide of the group and/or the Russian guide and the Chinese company.

Kopylov adds that this problem is all-Russian (indeed: on May 17, the publication “Paper” published material about souvenir shops in St. Petersburg, where no one except the Chinese are allowed). “Not only do [Chinese entrepreneurs] enter our market, but they create a closed infrastructure around themselves, when hotels, restaurants, transport - everything becomes Chinese,” says the businessman. - According to our estimates, there are already six or seven [Chinese hotels] in Listvyanka, and fewer on Olkhon. But until you see with your own eyes, you will not know which plots were purchased by whom. They are registered to the Russians, the Chinese never show up, and we will find out after the fact who is really behind it. But they control 40–50% of tourists from their country in our region - that’s for sure.”

Such Chinese entrepreneurs are very closed, keep themselves apart - and, according to Russian competitors, operate illegally on Russian territory. “You can’t reach such companies; they won’t talk about these topics,” comments Alexander Agamov. “Shadow business is an acute, painful and delicate issue; it is discussed very carefully at the level of the tourism administrations of both countries, and possibly even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” Attempts by a Meduza correspondent to contact representatives of Chinese companies suspected of shady activities were unsuccessful.

According to Igor Kovalenko, the Chinese who have not previously worked in the industry are starting to get involved in the tourism business on Lake Baikal - even former traders who made money from Russian tourists who came to China for shopping. “These are people who quickly get their bearings, including already buying land on the shores of Lake Baikal,” explains Kovalenko. “I personally asked one question: “Do you want to build something?” Any infrastructure facilities? “No, they say, we will buy now and then sell to the rich Chinese. Eventually they move here. Some may not be forever, but this is not investment - this is expansion."

Kovalenko adds that Chinese companies selling cheap tours often already in Russia take advantage of the fact that their compatriots do not know either the language or the market - and sell additional excursions at exorbitant prices. He also talks about the low quality of service from competitors. “Once I met a partner from Hong Kong at the airport, and this “gray group” flew in with him,” says the head of Sputnik and SBAT. - I say: look at what kind of transport will take them and what their guide looks like, and compare it with what we offer. He says: “I understand everything, there are no questions.” That’s how they make their low prices.”

Excursion spying

In a sense, their Chinese colleagues are also helping Russian tour operators cope with the growing tourist flow. According to the Chinese themselves, in the foreseeable future, about a million tourists from this country will come to the Irkutsk region per year. That's a lot. In Moscow there are already not enough guides and translators with knowledge of the Chinese language, and in St. Petersburg in the summer - at the most high season- and places in hotels. During the high season in the capital, according to the World Without Borders, 80–90 groups from mainland China alone pass through border crossing points (excluding Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as business tourists) - this flow requires about three hundred guides at a time - translators, and there are about a hundred of them in Moscow. The growth of the Chinese flow is recorded everywhere, including beyond the Urals: in Novosibirsk, Altai, Far East and Kamchatka.

Large investment projects aimed at developing Chinese tourism are also beginning to appear - for example, on Baikal, the Grand Baikal company and its Chinese partners are going to invest about 11 billion rubles in the construction of tourism infrastructure in the city of Baikalsk, on the site of the closed Baikal pulp and paper plant. plant.

Nevertheless, Igor Kovalenko is confident in the need for stricter regulation of the Chinese presence in the Russian tourism industry. He, for example, believes that it is necessary to strictly observe the existing ban on the work of Chinese guides in the Russian Federation, “because foreigners are depriving our guys of work who have studied for seven or eight years” - and also because Russians cannot work as guides in China .

Photo by Margarita Loginova

In the Olkhon district, local residents continue to discuss the emergency that happened in late July 2017. At the same time, regional authorities, through law enforcement agencies, are taking all measures to ensure that information does not spread.

Let us remind you that on July 29, the third ferry to Olkhon, Semyon Batagaev, was out of order. The breakdown occurred at the height of the tourist season, as a result of which the queue on the island instantly grew to 700-800 cars.

Considering that the Dorozhnik ferry only carries local residents And Shuttle Buses, only the Olkhon Gate ferry remains for tourists. Tourists, stuck in line for several days, in the heat and without any service, naturally became nervous and tried by any means necessary to get on the ferry.

Antonina Sizikova, the daughter of the captain of the Olkhon Gate ferry, helped the sailors arrange their cars on the ferry. According to the rules of ferry transportation, cars are arranged first, and only then passengers on foot are allowed on board. These are obvious safety requirements.

However, the moment the cars began to load onto the ferry, a huge crowd of Chinese tourists, arriving on several buses, literally began to storm the ferry.

Let us remind you that Chinese hotels located on Olkhon, back in 2016, created a fairly convenient way to transport tourists from the Middle Kingdom. Large buses bring them to mainland crossings, tourists cross the strait on their own, and on Olkhon they are met by minibuses belonging to hotels. As a result, Chinese tourists practically do not linger at the crossing, since there are no restrictions on the number of foot passengers on the ferry.

The crowd of Chinese who poured onto the ferry actually blocked the passage of cars. Antonina Sizikova ordered not to let the Chinese in until all the cars were loaded. In response, one of the Chinese began to beat her with a stick, after which the rest of the Chinese began to beat her with their fists.

The ferry captain, Sergei Sizikov, came down to help the girl. However, the Chinese beat him too.

The girl was beaten in front of a police patrol ensuring security at the ferry crossing. Subsequently, when asked why they did not intervene in the fight, the police calmly replied that their task was to ensure order on the shore, and not on the ferry.

Immediately after the incident, Sergei Sizikov was fired without explanation. He worked on the ferry for 38 years, from the very first ferry designed for two cars, and is considered one of the most experienced captains on Lake Baikal.

All attempts by the Sizikov family to file a complaint with the police are blocked by the authorities. The family is also being intimidated by Chinese hotel owners who do not want publicity. The situation is completely incomprehensible, as are the actions of Chinese tourists on Lake Baikal in general.

The fact is that the Irkutsk region does not receive a penny from the influx of tourists to Olkhon. The hotels are owned by Chinese citizens and are designed like garden houses. Tourists pay for transportation, service and accommodation directly to the card of the hotel owner, thus the entire flow of money bypasses the Russian budget. Meanwhile, Chinese tourists feel like masters of Olkhon and regularly get into fights with local residents. By the way, the hotel charges about five million rubles from one group of Chinese. Not a penny is paid in taxes.

The situation is aggravated many times over by the fact that there is only one (!) local police officer on Olkhon. The island has an area of 730 square kilometers, a population of about two thousand people and hundreds of thousands of tourists a year.

The emergency happened back in July 2017, but the authorities are still trying to hide this information.

Let us remind you that on July 29, the third ferry to Olkhon “Semyon Batagaev” was out of order. The breakdown occurred at the height of the tourist season, as a result of which the queue on the island instantly grew to 700-800 cars.

Considering that the Dorozhnik ferry transports only local residents and regular buses, only the Olkhon Gate ferry remains for tourists. Tourists, stuck in line for several days, in the heat and without any service, naturally became nervous and tried by any means necessary to get on the ferry.

However, the moment the cars began to load onto the ferry, a huge crowd of Chinese tourists, arriving on several buses, literally began to storm the ferry.

Let us remind you that Chinese hotels located on Olkhon, back in 2016, created a fairly convenient way to transport tourists from the Middle Kingdom. Large buses bring them to the mainland part of the crossing, tourists cross the strait on their own, and on Olkhon they are met by minibuses belonging to hotels. As a result, Chinese tourists practically do not linger at the crossing, since there are no restrictions on the number of foot passengers on the ferry.

The captain of the ferry, Sergei Sizikov, came down to help the girl. However, the Chinese beat him too.

The girl was beaten in front of a police patrol ensuring security at the ferry crossing. Subsequently, the police, when asked why they did not intervene in the fight, calmly replied that their task was to ensure order on the shore, and not on the ferry.

“The Chinese politician traveled to Siberia. They ask him about his impressions.

Irkutsk - beautiful city. Krasnoyarsk is a beautiful city. And we’ll leave Omsk to you.”

Once upon a time they laughed at this joke, but now they almost cry. Residents of the tourist village of Listvyanka on the shores of Lake Baikal wrote a petition to Vladimir Putin asking him to protect him from Chinese expansion. It’s as if businessmen from the Middle Kingdom have already bought a tenth of the local land and are building it up with hotels. The entire village is plastered with advertisements with hieroglyphs, and guides tell tourists that Baikal is the northern sea of the Chinese, where their tribes used to live, and simply temporarily belongs to Russia. KP correspondents understood the situation.

“Baikal belonged to the Celestial Empire 200 years ago”

“Two Chinese hang a banner on the fence without hesitation,” writes Evgeniy Kravkl, director of the art song theater on Baikal, on his social media page. - A year ago, this scene began the struggle of local residents against the future Chinese enclave on our land. The ad contains a so-called QUAR code. Chinese tourists point a smartphone at it and receive a complete database of plots that can be bought on Lake Baikal. We didn’t immediately realize what was happening...”

Listvyanka resident Evgeniy Kravkl: “Omul fishing has been banned and locals can only sell their lands”

And it's true. Already at the entrance to the tourist village next to the cemetery you can see the walls of what is probably a future Chinese hotel. A dozen foreign workers are trying to grow a reinforced concrete monster.

What will happen here? - we are trying to establish international friendship with one of the builders, but he is hiding in the corridors in English.

We drive further and after ten meters we see a huge banner in Russian and Chinese “For sale land plot" Immediately another sign invites you to a Chinese restaurant, from which a crowd of tourists emerges with ice cream in their hands - almost like native Siberians!

Isn't it too cold for you to eat ice cream? - we ask and hear a roaring laugh in response.

This is what I suggested to them,” admits the Chinese guide, who has been working in our area for three years now. - They came from the south of China - from Guangzhou. In winter, tourists are mainly from there, and in summer - from Hong Kong. My fellow countrymen miss the snow and ice. There is no ice in Listvyanka yet, so I thought that I could compensate for this with ice cream.

Do you like the living conditions?

You can live! Of course, it’s worse than what we have in China, but better than it was here before.

While we were talking, I drove by tourist bus. There was no doubt - it was carrying passengers from Asia. We say goodbye to some guests from the Middle Kingdom and set off in pursuit of others. Surprisingly, the bus parked next to... a Russian hotel. And who then stays in Chinese ones?

Where are the guests from? - we ask the guide.

From the province of Wenzhou,” he tries to explain himself in broken Russian. - Do you know? South of China.

Chinese man in Listvyanka: “All our people know their history... about Baikal”

Who came? Businessmen?

Yes, businessmen, pensioners, students. They will rest here for a week and look at the snow.

What do you tell them about Baikal?

That it belonged to China 200 years ago. But they already know our history.

They buy land for houses and build hotels

Both in Russian hotels and in Chinese - the living conditions and prices are the same. We were convinced of this when we crossed the threshold of the Asian hotel. Although how can you say Asian: the name is Russian, the building is built of wood in the best Russian traditions, and the cuisine is European. Only the interior gives away the Chinese owner: paintings with landscapes of the Middle Kingdom, hieroglyphs at the reception.

Doctor from Ust-Ilimsk Denis Matveev: “Let the Chinese build hotels, but ours will work in them”

I’m happy with my vacation, the conditions are comfortable, I’ve been coming here for several years now. Maybe, to the local population The Chinese are an eyesore, but they don’t bother me,” our guest, a general practitioner from Ust-Ilimsk Denis Matveev, surprised us.

“Called” is not the right word. In Listvyanka there is only talk about the invasion of foreigners. We went to the local museum, and there three employees, like conspirators, were discussing an accident caused by a Chinese man.

Do you remember the accident on Ostrovskaya? He rushes along in a truck, sees no one. He crashed and said that it was not his fault. But the police arrived and decided that he was guilty.

Well, he didn’t deliberately crush people.

Still arrogant Chinese. Don’t you know how they block the street with their suitcases and don’t react when you honk at them...

Were there any clashes? - we intervene in the dispute and say that we are from the newspaper.

Mathematics teacher from Listvyanka Lidiya Korovyakova: “Every second resident has cancer”

“Not yet,” answered math teacher from the local school Lidia Korovyakova and explained the situation in the village. - The main problem is this: the Chinese are buying land for individual housing construction (individual development), and building hotels. At the same time, they dig up the entire earth and open up the mountains. But under no circumstances should you do this! Radon radiation comes from under the rock layers and that is why every second resident here suffers from cancer. I’ve lived here for 20 years and haven’t plucked a single twig from the forest. But for foreign businessmen, the main thing is money. And it doesn’t matter how they are earned. Again, there is no central sewerage system in the village, and the hotel is located 15 meters from the shore. And where will all the waste go? To Baikal!

The answer to how much land was purchased this year was given to us by the administration. It turned out that local authorities have nothing to do with the sale, since they have no free space in their property.

We have nothing to do with the sale of private lands and cannot influence the owners, assures the head of the Listvyanka administration, Alexander Shamsudinov. - I know that on paper these are residential buildings, but in fact they are commercial properties that are not officially registered anywhere. And all because in Russia citizens of other states have the legal right to buy land (except for farmland). During this year, Chinese citizens purchased 27 plots in Listvyanka. However, we do not intend to turn a blind eye to this, and have sent out an appeal to various structures. Our main goal is to bring Listvyanka's business into compliance with the law.

P. S. The day after our trip to Listvyanka, the director of the Art Song Theater on Lake Baikal, Evgeniy Kravklyu, published a new post about the fight against illegal construction by Chinese businessmen: “Two hours ago, a detachment in uniform and with machine guns arrived at the illegal construction site. Looks like riot police or FSB. The arrival was sudden. I am pleasantly surprised by the determination of the security forces. According to eyewitnesses, attempts to resist by Chinese workers were abruptly suppressed. After some time, a team of electricians arrived here. Obviously, to disconnect the construction site from the network.”

The small village of Listvyanka, located on the coast of Lake Baikal, has become the center of attention of the Russian media. This started after Baikal was sold to the Chinese. Many newspapers claim that Chinese investors are going to buy the land and make the area a province of China.

Land lease

It is known that back in 2015, one of the Chinese companies located in the city of Zhejiang entered into an agreement regarding the lease of Baikal lands. The agreement envisaged the sale of land for 49 years in advance, with an area of 115,000 hectares, which the Chinese plan to use for their own purposes - for growing rice and other agricultural products.

According to one of the project managers of the Chinese side, all details about the benefits for all partners will be decided after they have established technical side question. However, after the first investment of about 28,000,000 US dollars, intensive deforestation began. All wood was imported in full to China, and deforestation work continues to this day.

In addition, Chinese investors demanded that Putin provide contractual cooperation with a Russian oil company that produces oil in Siberia. After which, Kremlin leaders approved the right to use Siberian lands for the study of fossil resources. And according to local media, the Chinese are buying up territories for future development and they do this several decades in advance.

Water rental

The main task of the Chinese Baikal project is the installation of a water pipeline on the lake, through Mongolian lands, and then through the Gobi Desert. The final destination is the capital of Gansu province - the Chinese suburb of Lanzhou. This project was included as a main point of the 2015 agreement.

The project was developed by Chinese specialists from the Lanzhou District Planning Institute. From a theoretical point of view, this development is quite realistic and no difficulties should arise.

For China, this is a very important project that will help solve the shortage problem. fresh water in the country. The Chinese intend to use about seven percent water resources, which is an unacceptable indicator, given that China accounts for 20% of the world's population.

Beijing investors plan to take leadership positions in market relations that involve sales drinking water, transported from Lake Baikal. In future prospects, they are going to pump out about 2,000,000 tons of water per year. And the trademark “Well of the Earth” has already been patented in many European countries in two languages.

Putin expects to receive a good percentage from the sale of water, claiming that the funds received will be used to restore and develop the infrastructure of the Siberian regions. However, the fact that the Chinese are deliberately buying up land in Siberia suggests the opposite.

Results

Many Russians and residents of Baikal settlements express their dissatisfaction that the lands of Siberia were sold to China. Some are confident that they were given away without thinking, and argue that the Chinese deliberately and openly want to buy up Russian lands, which were once supposedly the territory of the great Chinese dynasty.

According to many journalists from the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, in addition to water and forests, the PRC plans to invest in the following activities:

processing industry;
oil production;
international tourism.

From an environmental point of view, enormous damage could be caused to the forests and coast of Lake Baikal. This is facilitated by the constant destruction of forests, the laying of pipelines and other communications. These places are the habitat of many rare animals and birds, which may disappear during the process of construction and progress. However, neither the Kremlin nor the Chinese government cares about this. If Chinese investors buy most lands, it will be almost impossible to control the situation.

Local authorities convince residents that the resources consumed by Chinese Baikal will not cause significant damage, since the rates of deforestation and fresh water transportation do not exceed environmental standards. And a share of the profit will pay for the damage and part of the funds will be invested in restoring the living resources of Siberia, especially the taiga. Moreover, the authorities no longer plan to sell their territories and are doing everything possible to preserve the environment.

According to Nikita Isaev, the party leader, “ New Russia“, Russian politicians reasonably assess the situation on Lake Baikal and will not allow an environmental crisis. Moreover, the Chinese promised not to compensate for the damage caused, but also to contribute to other Siberian projects that are very beneficial for Russia.