As more and more Chinese tourists flock to Moscow, a group geared toward fostering tourism from Russia's sprawling eastern neighbor have created a Chinese-language map aimed at making life easier for the typical tourist, state news agency RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.
The map, published as part of Russia's "China Friendly" program, lists street names, train stations and airports in both Russian and Chinese characters, giving the tourists an edge when it comes to the language barrier that so often leaves visiting foreigners disoriented.
The map also features a list of Russia's leading tourist spots. The top five, as ranked by tourist association "A World Without Borders," sees Red Square sitting at the number one spot. The Kremlin follows at number two, with the Sparrow Hills viewing platform taking third place and the metro coming in at fourth.
The number five spot went to Novodevichy Convent, which features a monument to Chinese Communist Party leader Wang Ming, known as the Chinese Trotsky.
The China Friendly initiative aims to make the stays of Chinese nationals more comfortable and increase overall tourism in Russia. The map will be available at any of the nine hotels in Moscow that have been declared "China friendly" by the program, many of which already offer newspapers in Chinese.
Chinese nationals currently make up the largest share of international tourists in Russia. Of a total of over 1.1 million trips made to Russia by Chinese nationals in 2014, more than 400,000 of them were for the purposes of tourism.
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