It is only a 170-kilometer voyage upstream along the Irtysh River from Omsk to the Russian-Kazakh border.
During this journey, the railway from Omsk to Barnaul in the east runs parallel to the west bank of the river until it approaches the border between the two countries, when it merges with another railway in a small town on the west bank of the river, then crosses the Irtysh River through a high railway bridge and finally arrives at Barnaul, the capital of Russia's Altai Krai.
After the Siberian Endeavour passed through the high railway bridge, it arrived at the border between the two countries. What surprised Yang Jing was that due to the relationship between the two countries, there was no special customs on the border. The Siberian Endeavour passed through the border without anyone checking...
To be honest, this was the first time that Yang Jing had encountered such a smooth process.
However, after entering the territory of Kazakhstan, the river channel is much narrower than that of Omsk, and the water flow is much faster. However, considering the performance of the Siberian Endeavour, this level of water flow rate can be directly ignored.
In fact, the situation in Kazakhstan and Russia is almost the same. Basically, you can see a town every seven or eight kilometers. Some towns have docks on the river, while others do not. But there is no doubt that these towns rely on the long-flowing Irtysh River for their survival.
Because it was sailing on an inland river, the speed of the Siberian Endeavour was always maintained at 20 kilometers per hour. So after setting off from Omsk in the morning and sailing for a day and a night, the yacht arrived at Pavlodar, the capital of Pavlodar Oblast, a northeastern province of Kazakhstan, in the early morning of the next day.
Pavlodar now has a population of more than 400,000 and is an important industrial city in northern Kazakhstan. Before coming here, Yang Jing only knew about the city from what he read in his middle school geography textbook many years ago: the "Karaganda-Pavlodar Central Industrial Zone", one of the four major industrial zones in the former Soviet Union.
But after the yacht arrived here and he admired the city up close, Yang Jing deeply realized why the whole world called the former Soviet Union's industrial products "clumsy and stupid".
The "clumsy and dumb" atmosphere can be clearly felt from this important industrial city of the former Soviet Union. Even though the former Soviet Union has disintegrated for nearly 30 years, the city still retains the industrial style of the former Soviet era.
Some of the factories left over from the Cold War era of the last century are now only in ruins, but some are still in operation. The tall chimneys are constantly spewing out thick smoke, which can be seen clearly even from several kilometers away.
Yang Jing thought, if this happened in China, which is increasingly concerned about environmental protection, such a chimney would have been closed long ago. But only in the sparsely populated Siberian wilderness could such a chimney with no environmental protection measures survive.
Those big chimneys living here are really happy...
Yang Jing didn't feel good about this city, so he was too lazy to go ashore. But the river near Pavlodar became much wider, with the widest part even close to one kilometer. In addition, this is an industrial city, so there are many more transport ships on the river.
The luxurious Siberian Endeavour looked as delicate as a porcelain doll in front of these clumsy transport ships, so Yang Jing didn't want to stay here anymore and notified Captain Ivan to continue moving forward.
After nearly 20 hours of sailing, the yacht arrived near a city at midnight. At this time, Yang Jing and the others were all asleep, so Captain Ivan directly moored the yacht to a pier, turned off the engine and went to sleep.
Perhaps because the boat had stopped and things were much more stable, Yang Jing slept particularly soundly. When he woke up, the sun was already high in the sky.
While washing up, Yang Jing discovered that the yacht was docked at the pier of a city.
Arriving in the cab, Yang Jing asked Captain Ivan, who had just woken up, "Which city is this? Why did we stop here?"
"Mr. Yang, this is Semii, formerly known as Semipalatinsk, the capital of Semipalatinsk Oblast. But later Semipalatinsk Oblast and East Kazakhstan Oblast merged, so this is no longer the capital."
"Semui? The city that once conducted nuclear tests?" Yang Jing asked.
"Yes, it is the place where the Soviet Union's first mushroom bomb was tested. However, that mushroom bomb was not tested here, but at the Mishkova test site about 150 kilometers away from here."
"Oh? Only 150 kilometers? That's not far. We can go over and take a look."
Captain Ivan smiled and said, "That's why I docked the ship here. Every time Mr. Alekperov comes to Semie, he will go to the nuclear test site to take a look. He said that it is the starting point of the glory of the Soviet Union and Russia, and it is a place that every Russian should visit."
Yang Jing agrees with this statement. Just like China, if China had not successfully developed the two bombs and one satellite, the world situation would definitely not be what it is now. Just look at India, and you will know the consequences of not having such deterrent weapons.
The reason why the former Soviet Union was called the "Red Giant" and "Red Terror" by Western countries was that it had a large number of nuclear weapons. Even though the Red Giant that terrified Western countries eventually fell, Russia, which took over most of the Red Giant's legacy, is still a force that Western countries dare not underestimate.
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