Chinese delegation takes a walk around Moscow with a personal guide

On the first day of summer, guests from China came to Moscow to take a walk around the city with a guide and learn a lot of new and interesting things about the capital. 

The author's excursion was conducted with the help of radio guides: Elena spoke into the microphone, and the guests heard her voice in the headphones. In addition, the guide was assisted by a translator - she explained unclear moments to the tourists. The guests really wanted the capital to be shown to them by the employees of the "Radius" bureau, so they agreed that the excursion would be translated into English. 

The group consisted of more than forty people, and guide Elena met them in Skolkovo. It so happened that the guide herself had never been there, but it turned out that it was very convenient to get there via D1. Elena changed trains at the station. Belorusskaya and boarded the comfortable and modern Ivolga train. It was clean and even cozy inside. True, it was quite a long walk from the station to Skoltech, where the excursionists were waiting. 

There was a conference there, organized by a Russian professor named Artem, who teaches innovative technologies. To the conference Teachers from China and Russian scientists from other regions arrived, for example, a young man from Khakassia.

When the delegation drove past Victory Park, Artem offered to go out and showed the guests foreign military equipment captured during the fighting in Ukraine. Immediately after that we went to have lunch at VDNKh. The guests were impressed! After getting off the bus, the tourists and the guide took a photo break near the main entrance, then walked to the fountain, where a concert was taking place on the stage behind the central pavilion as part of the “Russia Unites” forum. Just at this time, the girls on stage were dancing in a circle, and the guests managed to shoot a video and take photographs of their performance. In general, we were lucky - we accidentally plunged into Russian culture!

After the photo shoot at the fountain, everyone went along the central alley to the House of Russian Cuisine, a new pavilion near Uzbekistan, where the guys had pre-ordered lunch. The tourists sat on the second floor: they were served fish soup, pancakes with cloudberries, and burgers with salmon. 

While everyone was eating, the Russian professor went to the Armenian pavilion and, having bought there the dessert sharots, which is a long sweet sausage with nuts, he treated it to the members of the delegation. 

After lunch, the excursionists had a lot of fun and went to the “Stone Flower” fountain, where the guide told about the national pavilions: what was there and what’s inside now. By the way, the excursionists learned that the most beautiful pavilion at VDNKh is the pavilion of the former Ukraine, where the Museum of the Word is currently located. 

Returning to the bus, the guys went to the center, and along the way the guide, as usual, talked about what was visible from the windows. The people were upbeat and positive. In the center we walked along Red Square and stood at the Mausoleum, because this was one of Artyom’s requests. Yes, Chinese tourists are very familiar with everything connected with Lenin and Stalin. Accordingly, the guide told about the great leader. 

Then we went to Zaryadye Park on the Soaring Bridge, and also had time to visit a hill with northern landscapes. In both places, tourists arranged photo sessions. 

Of course, the delegation really liked everything. Moscow is so diverse: beautiful, interesting from a historical point of view, and also has a lot of greenery. By the way, Skolkovo also makes an impression: on the one hand, there is a lot of nature, and on the other, there are a lot of ready-made and under construction modern buildings in the high tech style, with the influence of Suprematism, and you can also find forms there like in Malevich’s paintings. True, despite the fact that buses go to Skolkovo, the distances are still long. But people are interested, they come, and they have an interest not only in innovation, but also in the capital as a whole. 

Despite the fact that the group was large, everything was more than organized. It was clear that the people were educated, advanced, very smart, they knew English quite well, and some of them even spoke Russian, although not very clearly. Luckily, the guide was helped by a guy named Theo, who speaks wonderful English. He translated to his guys what the guide asked him to do. Theo's help was especially useful when it was necessary to call everyone. For example, when we looked at the equipment, everyone liked it so much that instead of the allotted ten minutes, they spent at least half an hour. And Theo, who had the second speaker, said in Chinese that Elena was calling everyone, and it was time to leave the exhibition to move on. 

By the way, when the guys were in the center, the sky was clouded with serious clouds. It seemed to everyone that a thunderstorm was about to begin, even lightning was flashing, and the bus with sightseers was stuck on the bridge. It all happened somehow unexpectedly: they wanted to get off at Vasilyevsky Spusk, but the parking lot there was closed. And in the end, the bus dropped off the entire delegation on the bridge, and it itself went to turn around. But while driving, I got stuck in a traffic jam, and just then it started to rain.

Thank God, the excursionists and the guide found a tent, which they very successfully set up there for the Green Marathon. Fortunately, we were lucky and there was no rain, just a few large drops. Some members of the delegation even decided not to go, but to continue their walk around the center on their own.

And the bus took the rest to the hotel, which was located near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When the tourists went outside, most of the group went to Arbat to do some shopping. In general, in the end, only a few returned to the hotel, including Elena and the translator, because they had to give the radio guides to the reception.

Despite the fact that the individual excursion lasted 6 hours, the group remained cheerful and in a good mood until its end. Everyone enjoyed everything!