Largest city and administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia
About Vladivostok
Vladivostok is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area of 331.16 square kilometers, with a population of 603,519 residents as of 2021. Vladivostok is the second-largest city in the Far Eastern Federal District, as well as the Russian Far East, after Khabarovsk. It is located approximately 45 kilometers (28 mi) from the China–Russia border and 134 kilometers (83 mi) from the North Korea–Russia border.
Names and etymology
Vladivostok means 'Lord of the East' or 'Ruler of the East'. The name derives from Slavic владь (vlad, 'to rule') and Russian восток (vostok, 'east'); Colloquial Russian speech may use the short form Vladik (Russian: Владик) or "vdk" (Russian: вдк) to refer to the city. The city, along with other features in the Peter the Great Gulf area, was first given its modern name in 1859 by Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky. The name initially applied to the bay, but following an expedition by Alexey Karlovich Shefner in 1860, it was later applied to the new settlement. The form of the name appears analogous to that of the city of Vladikavkaz ("Ruler of the Caucasus" or "Rule the Caucasus"), now in North Ossetia–Alania, which was founded and named by the Russian Empire in 1784. Chinese maps from the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) referred to Vladivostok as Yongmingcheng (永明城; Yǒngmíngchéng). …
History
Some modern Chinese historians claim that the city was the site of a Chinese settlement around 600 AD, where it was known as Yongmingcheng (永明城 [Yǒngmíngchéng], "city of eternal light") during the Yuan dynasty. For a long time, the Russian government looked for a stronghold in the Far East; this role was played in turn by the settlements of Okhotsk, Ayan, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. By the middle of the 19th-century, the search for the outpost had reached a dead end. None of the ports met the necessary requirement: to have a convenient and protected harbor next to important trade routes. …
Geography
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 kilometers (19 mi) long and 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) wide. The highest point in the city is Mount Kholodilnik, at 257 meters (843 ft). Eagle's Nest Hill is often called the highest point in the city, but with a height of 199 m (653 ft), or 214 m (702 ft) according to other sources, it is only the highest point in the city center, not the whole city. Located in the extreme southeast of the Russian Far East, in the extreme southeast of North Asia, Vladivostok is geographically closer to Anchorage, Alaska, US and even Darwin, Australia than it is to the nation's capital of Moscow. Vladivostok is also closer to Honolulu, Hawaii, US than to the city of Sochi in Southern Russia. It also is further east than any area south of it in China and the entire Korean peninsula. …
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