Для знатоков английского языка привожу статью из китайской газеты "Жеминь Жибао":
by Igor Serebryany
Visas, money, unrest no obstacles for adventurous Russians
To catch Valery Shanin, a devoted traveler, at home is a tricky task. Changing planes for the 50-year-old native of Belarus is as routine a business as changing socks.
"You can only meet him here between his arrival from somewhere and departure to somewhere else," said his wife Svetlana.
So finally Shanin was caught at his apartment on the city outskirts when he was stuffing backpack for another travel.
RUSSIANS IN WONDERLAND
Shanin, who turned his passion into travel writing business, said that in 20 years he has circumnavigated the Earth three times and visited 96 countries.
"The most memorable part of my travels was, perhaps, crossing China from Mongolia to the Laotian border entirely by hitch-hiking, while I couldn't utter a single word in Chinese," Shanin recalled.
In his book "Around the World for $280," Shanin wrote that he had hit the road for a global tour carrying only pocket money with him as a matter of principle. Unlike a conventional tourist, Shanin rarely bothers himself about booking hotels and buying tickets.
In 2010, after completing his nine-month-long, 39-country tour, Shanin has launched a "visa-free world" educational program. He teaches his "students" how every Russian passport holder, regardless of his or her income and the embassies' red tapes, could enjoy the world's wonders. His classes gather crowds of people who look for out-of-the-box ways of touring the world.
Such a kind of alternative tourism, or "downshifting," became popular among Russian middle class in the recent years.
Yet, Shanin is only one of the few who dare leaving their homes with no itinerary on hand. For the majority of the Russians, vacations start with the visit to a travel agency.
A SMALL UNSAFE EXPENSIVE WORLD
"This year, on the eve of the high tourism season, (Russian civil aviation watchdog) Rosaviatsiya unexpectedly started to put a spoke in wheel of the regional air companies. This policy effectively squeezed the smaller carriers out of the market, which led to price hikes for nearly all foreign tourism products," Irina Tyurina, spokeswoman of the Russian Tourism Union, told local media.
The fuel crisis that hit Russia in May also added troubles for those who have planned to spend vacations abroad. According to local experts, airfares to the popular "sun destinations" this summer could hike by 30 percent to 40 percent, due to combined effects of fuel shortage and highly monopolized market of air transportation.
Many Russian tourists, who even in the better times have got narrow choice of easy overseas trips because of visa restrictions, had found themselves cut off their favorite beaches in visa-free Northern African countries due to a lately political turmoil there.
So as soon as Egyptian and Tunisian authorities re-opened their resorts for foreign holiday makers, sales of the tours in Russia has leapt by 100 percent, Turina said.
However, for Shanin and those who follow his "Visa-free World" hints, this is not a problem. "You'll never get anywhere unless you try to make the first step," Shanin said.
"When I crossed Siberia on my own, virtually every driver going the same way offered me a free lift. When I travelled in China, I has hardly spent a thousand yuan for a week: people in the countryside fed me out of compassion and offered me lodging out of sheer curiosity to host a foreigner," he recalled.
Soon after speaking to Xinhua, he has left Moscow for Nepal, one more visa-free country for the Russian citizens.
Source: Xinhua
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http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/7381878.html
