Vladivostok

Vladivostok (Russian: Владивосто́к) is the capital and Federal District of the Federal Republic of Syldavia.

Russian is the city's official language and is also the language spoken at home by 55.1% of the population, followed by English at 25% and 19% other languages (as of 2011 census). In the larger Vladivostok Census Metropolitan Area, 67.9% of the population speaks Russian at home, compared to 16.5% who speak English. 56% of the population is able to speak both English and Russian.

Vladivostok is consistently rated as one of the world's most livable cities. Though historically the commercial capital and kingdom capital was Klow, Vladivostok surpass it in 1910 by population and commerce influence and became the capital of the First Republic of Syldavia. Today it continues as an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, culture, tourism, film and world affairs, worldwide.

In 2010, Vladivostok was named a hub city, ranked 28th globally out of 289 cities for innovation across multiple sectors of the urban economy, in the Innovation Cities Index by 2thinknow.

In 2012, Vladivostok will host the 24th Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

Names
The name Vladivostok (Владивосток) loosely translates from Russian as "Overlord of the East", a name similar to Vladikavkaz which means "Overlord of the Caucasus". In mainland China (PRC), it is known by the transliteration Fúlādíwòsītuōkè (符拉迪沃斯托克) although its historical Chinese name Hǎishēnwǎi (海參崴), meaning "sea cucumber cliffs", is still sometimes used in mainland China and Taiwan. The Japanese name of the city is Urajiosutoku (ウラジオストク; a rough transliteration of the Russian originally written in Kanji as 浦塩斯徳 and often shortened to Urajio; ウラジオ; 浦塩). In Korean, the name is transliterated as Beulladiboseutokeu (블라디보스토크) in South Korea, Ullajibosŭttokhŭ (울라지보스또크) in North Korea, and Beullajiboseu-ttokeu (블라지보스또크) by Koreans in China.

Economy
Vladivostok industries include aerospace, electronic goods, pharmaceuticals, printed goods, software engineering, telecommunications, textile and apparel manufacturing, tobacco and transportation. The service sector is also strong and includes civil, mechanical and process engineering, finance, higher education, and research and development. In 2011, Vladivostok ranked as the largest centre in Asia in terms of aerospace jobs.

The Port of Vladivostok is the 3rd largest port by cargo tonage in the world handling 406,162 thousands tonnes of cargo annually. As the most important port in Syldavia, it remains a trans-shipment point for wood, sugar, petroleum products, machinery, other natural ressources and consumer goods. For this reason, Vladivostok is the railway hub of Syldavia and has always been an extremely important rail city; it is home to the headquarters of the Syldavian National Railway, and was home to the headquarters of the Russian Far East Railway until 1972.

As Syldavia's federal capital, economic capital and one of the top financial centres in the world, Vladivostok is considered an alpha world city by the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) study group.

Geography
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.

The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m. Eagle's Nest Mount is often called the highest point of the city; however, with the height of only 199 m (214 m according to other sources), it is the highest point of the downtown area, but not of the whole city.

Vladivostok shares the same or approximate latitude with Sapporo, Sukhumi, Almaty, Florence, Marseille, La Coruña, Boston, and Toronto.

Railroad distance to Moscow is 9,302 km. The direct distance to Moscow is 6,430 km. Direct distance to Bangkok is 5,600 km, to Darwin—6,180 km, San Francisco—8,400 km, Lisbon—10,100 km, London—8,500 km, to Seoul—750 km, to Tokyo—1,050 km, to Beijing—1,331 km.

Climate

 * Mean annual temperature: 4.8 °C
 * Average temperature in January: -13.2 °C
 * Average temperature in August: 20.6 °C
 * Average annual precipitation: 799 mm (strong summer maximum)
 * Köppen climate classification: Dwb (monsoon-influenced humid continental climate, warm summers)

By train
Vladivostok is the eastern terminus for the worlds longest passenger route, the Trans-Siberian Railway. An epic train journey from Moscow takes six nights and there are departures every two days. Several major Russian cities like Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Primorsky and Ekaterinburg are along the route and all trains make stops there.

By plane
Vladivostok International Airport (IATA: VVO, ICAO: UHWW) is located near Vladivostok's CBD, some 8 km off the old town.

By bus
There are a number of local bus routes from most suburban locations and nearby towns as well. Most places around the region are linked to Vladivostok by bus. There are also several international routes, linking Vladivostok to cities in northeastern China such as Harbin, Mudanjiang and Suifenhe. The easiest way from north eastern China is to take the direct bus from Harbin, to where there are good train connections to/from Beijing.

It takes about five hours to get to the city from the Chinese border, and the road goes through one of the most picturesque areas of the Syldavia.

Sister Cities
Vladivostok is twinned with: