Travel: Moscow and St. Petersburg

choi

本文通过一路BBS站telnet客户端发布

史蒂夫•罗森伯格, 记者来鸿：高深莫测的俄罗斯. BBC Chinese, Oct. 1, 2010.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/world/2010/10/101001_fooc_future_of_russia.shtml

My comment:
(a) Try as I may, I can not find the English original.
(b) Day in pictures. Dec. 26, 2008.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7800364.stm
(caption of picture No. 7: A man cleans a window of Russia's new Sapsan high-speed train in St Petersburg. Eight of the German-made trains are due to enter service in Russia by the end of 2010.)
(c) St. Petersburg - Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod. Russian Railway, undated.
http://eng.rzd.ru/isvp/public/rzdeng?STRUCTURE_ID=4146

Quote:

"The route is served by high-speed Sapsan trains.

"'Sapsan' is Russian for the peregrine falcon, the fastest bird in the falcon family, so it was an appropriate name for this new train, which can reach speeds of up to 250 kmph. Produced with true German precision by Siemens, the Sapsan is fully adapted to the harsh climate of Russia

Note:
(i) Sapsan started in December 2009. The air distance between Moscow and St. Petersburg is 632 km/ 392 miles.
(ii) In the left column of this web page, there is St. Petersburg - Helsinki high-speed trains, which will begin operations at the end of 2010. The Italian-made Pendolino (from Italian pendolo "pendulum", and -ino, a diminutive suffix) will have a top speed of 220 km/hr. The air distance between the two cities is  301 km/187 miles.

(d) Kronstadt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronstadt
(30 km (19 mi) west of Saint Petersburg; seat of the Russian admiralty and the base of the Russian Baltic Fleet)



---------------------------Separately
Konstantin Rozhnov, Russia expands railway tourism. BBC, Sept. 30, 2010.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11434770

Note:
(a) The air distance between Moscow and Vladivostok is 6,414 km/3,985 miles.
(b) French Riviera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Riviera
(Its largest city is Nice; section 1.2 Origins of the name French Riviera: The French Riviera took its name from the Italian Riviera)

* Riviera. Online Etymology Dictionary.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Riviera
("'Mediterranean seacoast around Genoa,' 1630s, from It. riviera, lit. 'bank, shore' (see river). In extended use, the coast from Marseilles to La Spezia, which became popular 19c. as a winter resort")

Please enter"river" in the box of the same web page.
(c) Tver
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tver
(at the confluence of the Volga and Tvertsa Rivers; The city was known as Kalinin from 1931 to 1990)

* Tver is 100 miles north of Moscow.

(d) Lake Baikal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Baikal
(world's deepest and largest freshwater lake; second largest lake, after saltwater Caspian Sea; Lake Baikal was known as the "North Sea" in historical Chinese texts. It was situated in the then Xiongnu territory.)

*Think 蘇武 北海牧羊.
* Baikal
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Baikal
(From Russian Байкал (Baykal, “Baikal”), from Buryat Байгал нуур (Baygal nuur, “Lake Baikal”), ultimately from the Turkic bai "rich", and kul "lake")
(e) The report mentions "Golden Eagle" twice.
(i) "However, for the pleasure of making a 15-day luxury tour on board the Golden Eagle, a tourist train from Moscow to Vladivostok."
(ii) "The Golden Eagle train is operated by Trans Siberian Express, a Russian travel company."

In fact, the outer appearance of the train is not golden but blue in color. See
Golden Eagle. GW Travel Ltd.
http://www.gwtravel.co.uk/train_list.php?trnm=Golden%20Eagle

(f) The air distane between Moscow and Nice, France is 2,002 lm/1,244 miles.
(g) "Interfax is a Russian non-governmental news agency based in Moscow. The agency was established in 1989 by officials from the international service, Moscow Radio." Wikipedia.


--