Recently The New York Times reported the following:
On a Chinese Island, a Sunny Sanctuary for Russian
Tourists (2/2)
Russians find a refuge on the beaches of Sanya from
sanctions and “sideways looks,” toasting the New Year beside a Chinese nuclear
submarine base.
China dispatch - By Andrew HigginsVisuals by Gilles Sabrié.
Reporting from Sanya, China
Jan. 8, 2026
Updated 3:37 a.m. ET
(continue)
“Our countries have a lot in common,” said a
Russian-speaking Chinese guide, who gave his name as Piotr, leading a group of
Russians on a visit to a rainforest near the city of Sanya, a popular Hainan
beach resort and also the site of a huge naval base for Chinese nuclear
submarines.
Invoking a Chinese stereotype of Russians, he apologized that there would only be beer and no vodka at lunch.
The cultural affinity described by the guide is good for business. At his grocery store in Sanya, Dimitry Garifullin, a businessman from the Russian town of Ufa, sells the comforts of home to a growing clientele. But Mr. Garifullin said he has been struck by a different kind of affinity: the local reverence for his own country’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin. Not a fan himself, he said: “Most Chinese like Putin. They see him as a very strong politician.”
But it is Russia, he said, that should learn from China. “Everyone can learn from China,” he added, pointing to economic growth that, even though now far slower than when he first arrived in 2005, still puts Russia’s sickly economy to shame.
His store, stocked with black bread, pickles, cheese, frozen fish, sausages and shelf after shelf of alcohol, did a roaring trade over the New Year holiday.
His store is in Dadonghai, a resort area near the naval base that has so many Russian visitors that restaurant menus, official notices and shop signs nearly all come with translations in Russian instead of English, the usual lingua franca of mass tourism. Chinese hotel staff in the area greet foreign guests with “ZDRAST-vooy-tye” rather than “hello” or “ni hao.”
Loudspeakers controlled by the local government along the beach at Dadonghai blare the folk classic “Kalinka,” and other Russian favorites.
For some Russian visitors, particularly those who take a dim
view of their country’s sharp authoritarian turn under President Putin, China
can feel stifling, even by Moscow standards. Anton Poltoushkin, an IT developer
from Moscow on his first trip to China, said he had tried to talk to his
Chinese tour guide about Taiwan but had been told that the topic was “too
sensitive.”
“I talk about the Ukraine war so why can’t you talk about Taiwan?” he said he had asked.
Mr. Poltoushkin said he would have preferred to go to Europe but could not easily get a visa for himself, his wife and young son.
The European Union in November decided to stop issuing Russian tourist visas that allow for multiple visits and mandated tighter scrutiny of all applicants. This further tightened restrictions on entry to Europe by Russian citizens that began after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
China moved in the opposite direction, allowing visa-free access for Russians to Hainan since 2024 and to the whole country since November, as it tries to revitalize the economy.
Raniya Terkulova, a retired doctor from the Russian region of Tatarstan, said she was on her fifth visit to Hainan. Her family has deep connections to China going back to the 1920s, she said, recalling happy Soviet-era memories of Chinese thermos flasks and other knickknacks. She added that she had for a long time “loved and admired China” and been a big believer in traditional Chinese medicine.
This trip, made with her daughter and granddaughter, however, ended the love affair. “I am very disappointed,” she said, recounting an angry clash on a beach with Chinese vacationers who she said had been rude and domineering.
Occasional culture clashes aside, most Russian visitors enjoy their time in Hainan for a simple reason: the weather. “It is now minus 30 degrees (-22 Fahrenheit) and snowing at home and here it plus 30 (86 Fahrenheit) and sunny,” said a cafe owner from the Siberian city of Khabarovsk who gave only her first name, Nataliya.
She said she used to go to Spain for sun but stopped after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the attitude of Spaniards toward Russians soured. “If they heard people speaking Russian in the hotel they wouldn’t clean their rooms properly,” she complained.
In China, she added, hotels are cheaper, and people don’t care about geopolitics, the war in Ukraine or other topics that rile many Europeans. “Chinese don’t spit at Russians like Europeans do,” she said.
Translation
一個中國島嶼成為俄羅斯遊客的陽光普照避風港（2/2）
俄羅斯遊客在三亞海灘找到了避風港，躲避制裁和奇異的目光，在中國核潛艇基地旁舉杯慶祝新年。
（繼續）
一位名叫彼得會說俄語的中國導遊說道:「我們兩國有很多共同之處」。他正帶領一群俄羅斯遊客參觀三亞附近的熱帶雨林。三亞是海南島著名的海濱度假勝地，同時也是中國核潛艦的大型海軍基地所在地。
他基於中國人對俄羅斯人的固有印象，抱歉地表示午餐只有啤酒，沒有伏特加。
導遊所描述的這種文化親近感對生意很有利。在三亞的雜貨店裡，來自俄羅斯Ufa市的商人Dimitry Garifullin向越來越多的顧客兜售著家鄉的舒適感。但Garifullin說，他感到一種截然不同的親和力：當地人對俄羅斯領導人普京的崇敬。他本人並非普京的擁躉，他說： “大多數中國人喜歡普京。他們認為他是一位非常強勢的政治家。”
但他表示，俄羅斯應該向中國學習。 他補充道:「每個人都可以向中國學習」，並指出中國的經濟成長雖然遠不及他2005年剛到中國時的速度，但仍然令俄羅斯疲軟的經濟相形見絀。
他的商店裡擺滿了黑麵包、醃菜、芝士、冷凍魚、香腸以及琳瑯滿目的酒類，新年假期期間生意興隆。
當被問及他的生意是否受益於烏克蘭戰爭（這場戰爭極大地促進了海南的俄羅斯遊客熱潮）時，他表示，他不喜歡從他人的苦難中牟利。他補充說：“從這場戰爭中獲利最多的國家是中國。”
他的店舖位於大東海，這是一個靠近海軍基地的度假區，俄羅斯遊客絡繹不絕，以至於餐廳菜單、官方公告和商店招牌幾乎都有俄語的翻譯而非英語，而英語通常是大眾旅遊的通用語言。該地區的中國酒店員工用“ZDRAST-vooy-tye”（俄語，意為“你好”）而不是“hello”（英語）或“ni
hao”（國語，意為“你好”）。
在大東海海灘，當地政府控制的揚聲器播放著民謠經典《Kalinka》和其他俄羅斯流行歌曲。
對於一些俄羅斯遊客，特別是那些對普京總統領導下俄羅斯急劇轉向威權主義感到不滿的遊客來說，他們即使以莫斯科的標準來看中國, 也令他有壓抑感。來自莫斯科的IT開發人員Anton Poltoushkin是第一次來中國。他說，他曾試圖和中國導遊談論台灣問題，但被告知這個話題「太敏感」。
他回憶他曾問:「我可以談論烏克蘭戰爭，為什麼你們不能談論台灣？」。
Poltoushkin說，他原本更想去歐洲，但他自己、妻子和年幼的兒子都很難拿到簽證。
他問:「我喜歡法國南部，但現在我要怎樣去尼斯或摩納哥？」。 他補充道:「我從沒想過自己會落腳到這裡，但現在我們無太多選擇」。
歐盟於去年11月決定停止向俄羅斯發放可以多次入境的旅遊簽證，並對所有申請人進行更嚴格的審查。這是對自2022年2月俄羅斯全面入侵烏克蘭以來，針對俄羅斯公民入境歐洲的限制進一步收緊。
中國則採取了相反的措施，自2024年起允許俄羅斯公民免簽前往海南，並於去年11月起允許俄羅斯公民免簽前往中國其他地區，以期重振中國經濟。
來自俄羅斯韃靼斯坦共和國的退休醫生Raniya Terkulova表示，這是她第五次到訪海南。她說，她的家族與中國有著深厚的淵源，可以追溯到上世紀20年代，她回憶起蘇聯時期那些中國產的保溫瓶和其他小玩意兒，記憶猶新。她補充說，她一直以來都“熱愛並敬佩中國”，並且非常相信中醫。
然而，這次與女兒和孫女的旅程卻終結了這段美好的情緣。當她回憶起在海灘上與中國遊客發生的激烈衝突，她說那些遊客粗魯無禮、盛氣凌人。她說: 「我非常失望」。
撇開偶爾發生的文化衝突不談，大多數俄羅斯遊客喜歡在海南度假的原因很簡單：天氣。一位來自西伯利亞城市Khabarovsk的咖啡館老闆，她只透露了自己的名字叫Nataliya說: 「現在家鄉零下30度（華氏22度）還在下雪，而這裡是零上30度（86華氏度），陽光明媚」。
她說，她以前經常去西班牙曬太陽，但自從2014年俄羅斯從烏克蘭手中奪取克里米亞後，她就不再去了，因為西班牙人對俄羅斯人的態度變得惡劣。她抱怨道: 「如果他們在酒店裡聽到有人說俄語，他們就不會好好打掃其房間」。
她補充說，在中國，酒店更便宜，人們也不關心地緣政治、烏克蘭戰爭或其他令許多歐洲人憤怒的話題。 她說:「中國人不會像歐洲人那樣對俄羅斯人吐口水」。
So, unlike in many places in Europe, where
Russians have learned to keep their voices down because of the war in Ukraine,
the beaches of southern China offer a safe and sunny space for Russians. Some
Russians feel that the country that get the most profit from the Ukraine war is
China. Apparently, the war in Ukraine has affected the daily life of many
middle-class Russian and also help tourism in China.
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