Blagoveshchensk is a Russian city, the administrative center of the Amur Region. It is the only administrative center of the subject of the Russian Federation that stands on its frontier. The population of Blagoveshchensk makes 219.861 (2010).

The city stands in the southwest of Zeysko-Bureinsky Plain, on the left coast of the Amur, at the confluence of River Zeya into it. It is located 7985 km to the east of Moscow, on the border with China, just opposite the Chinese city of Heihe. Cities Blagoveshchensk and Heihe are divided by Amur River, which is 800 meters wide in this area. The cities maintain a visa-free regime with each other.

Blagoveshchensk was founded as a settlement during the building of a copper-smeltery in 1756 and gained the status of a city in 1941. Blagoveshchensk has a cable factory, a wire factory, and a biochemical industrial complex.

Bashkir Blagoveshchensk is not like its namesake in the Far East. It is much more modest. It is an industrial town about forty kilometers from Ufa, on the banks of the White River. In fact, the borders of two cities are separated only by ten kilometers - Bashkir capital is stretched to the north, and the road from Ufa to Blagoveshchensk is a big industrial zone. Steel reinforcing mill, polyester and concrete mills function directly in Blagoveshchensk. Severe factory landscapes are for fans of industrial architecture, but the town itself is quite green. There are not many cars in the city and streets are quiet with trees on every corner.

Despite the greenery, Blagoveshchensk ecology is a complex question. There are three major industrial productions per thirty thousand inhabitants in the city. In addition, a grandiose dump is situated three kilometers from the town.

The social atmosphere is also not easy. Industrial Zones are depressive places by definition; besides, in Soviet times unreliable citizens were sent to Blagoveshchensk to be forced to labor from all over the country. Recently, the city regularly is in crime reports, there are a lot of street gangs and individuals "asking for a cigarette" in the evening. Relations between the police and the local people are complicated. So it is better to avoid walking in the dark.

If we talk about the cultural life, it interferes with the proximity to the capital of Bashkiria. Why to build something new, when it is easier to sit down on a minibus, and after half an hour to be near the fashionable IMAX-theater. Why to open a theater, if you can go to the show in Ufa. The same situation is with museums and exhibition halls. However, the Palace of Culture is open in the city. Blagoveshchensk is going to be merged with Ufa, but the plan is not implemented. Shuttle buses and taxis go between the cities. They are often used to get to Blagoveshchensk