Where is it? Khabarovsk Krai, or region, is located in the Russian Far East just north of Primorye Krai along the Sea of Okhotsk. It is in the same time zone as Vladivostok. You can find the current local time here.

What's the biggest city? Khabarovsk, which is a major Pacific Ocean port and the second biggest city in the Russian Far East after Vladivostok. Like Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, population 579,000, grew up along the Amur River.

Who lives here? The region was originally populated by a nomadic Chinese tribe. The first Russian outpost--a military fort--dates from 1858 and the area's current demographic is mostly ethnic Russians. There is a small ethnic minority, the Nanai. Like Vladivostok, however, Khabarovsk is seeing an influx of Koreans and Chinese as it expands its trade with the rest of the Far East. About 1.4 million people live in Khabarovsk Krai now.

What do they do here? Commercial fishing, shipping and forestry. It also has extensive deposits of tin and iron ore.

Does it have any English-language news sources? None that I have found.

How do I see what it looks like? You can see pictures of Khabarovsk on Flickr.

How do I get here? By air--Novy Airport is served by Aeroflot, Dalavia, S7 and TransAero from Moscow, and by Rossiya from St. Petersburg. You can fly to Khabarovsk from Vladivostok on Vladivostok Avia, and there are also flights from Seoul and Pyongyang in South Korea. There is also an overnight train from Vladivostok.

Which adoption agencies work here? Adoption Source, Alaska International Adoption Agency, Children's Home Society & Family Services, Cradle of Hope and Family & Children's Agency.
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Which Russian adoption bloggers have been here? You can read about this region in "Derek And Lisa's Adoption Adventure", "Unexpected Miracles" and Worth The Wait. There is also a Yahoo! group FarEastRussianAdoptions, which covers Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk, Amursk and Birobidjian.

Truly trivia: Khabarovsk's development got a boost when Stalin closed Vladivostok to the outside world in the middle of the 20th century.

Need more information? Try Kommersant's guide to Khabarovsk, or the Russian-language Web sites of the region or the city. Here's the current weather in Khabarovsk.

Image Credit: borya