Khabarovsk stands on high bluffs above the Amur, one of the great rivers of Asia, in the far east of Russia, and from its waterfront the view across the broad brown water to the far shore feels immense. Founded in 1858 as a military outpost, the city was named after Yerofey Khabarov, a seventeenth-century explorer who led Cossacks into the Amur region. Today around five hundred and eighty thousand people live here, making it the largest city of the Russian Far East after Vladivostok, and it has a settled, broad-streeted air.
The river is the heart of the place. The Amur forms the border with China for a large part of its length, and the city lies close to the point where the Ussuri river joins it. In the early twentieth century, a railway bridge of a couple of kilometres was built across the Amur, an enormous project for its time, completing the Trans-Siberian line, and it remains a landmark. In summer the riverfront is crowded with strollers, ice-cream sellers and boat tours, and in winter the river freezes into a vast white road, with fishermen cutting holes in the ice.
The city has several museums, a tidy cathedral and a lively market. The cuisine reflects the proximity of China and Korea, and you can eat dumplings, noodles and pickled vegetables alongside Russian soups. The Amur's fish, including sturgeon and salmon, are a local delicacy, and fresh caviar appears in the markets in season.
Beyond the city, the forests of the Sikhote-Alin and the Amur lowlands stretch away. A road leads northeast to Sikachi-Alyan, a village of the Nanai people on the river, where basalt boulders on the bank carry ancient rock carvings of faces, animals and mysterious patterns that may be thousands of years old. The Nanai have lived along the Amur for a very long time, and their museum and crafts are interesting. Another road leads north to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, through taiga and marshland, a long drive on roads that vary a lot in quality.
Everything a traveller needs is in Khabarovsk, with plenty of fuel, repair shops and hotels. Summers are hot and humid, with thunderstorms and mosquitoes, and winters are bitterly cold and dry. The best months for riding are late May to September.