Vladivostok (“owner of the east”) often compares to San Francisco due to many hills and opinions of the ocean, and is one of the most beautiful cities of Russia.
Like one of only four important ports, Vladivostok is window from Russia to Asia, because it is located except the one from 100km to the east of the Chinese border, and hardly through main the Japanese island of Honshu. The base of origin to the Russian pacific fleet, the city was closed to all no-Soviet as of 1958 until 1991.