Slyudyanka

Slyudyanka (Russian: Слюд'янка, slyu-DYAN-kah) is a town in Irkutsk Oblast 110 km away from Irkutsk with population of 18,000 people (2018). Coming from Irkutsk, it's where the Trans-Siberian Railway and Trans-Siberian Highway descend by hairpins down the mountain to Lake Baikal, at the lower tip of this halfmoon-shaped lake.

Understand


Whenever you ride Trans-Siberian railway and the train moves slightly south to curve the Baikal, it stops and the passengers pitched by the fish-sellers always get out to buy some smoked Omul then you have arrived in Slyudyanka station. When fish is bought and carriage is oozing with the smell, give a look to the station building. White plates are the same as the gravel under the rails. It's marble. The name Slyudyanka stands for another mineral found here - the mica (slyuda in Russian).

In 1647, at the heyday of the Russian conquest of Siberia, a prison was built at the site of present day Slyudyanka. Shortly after it was moved northwest to where Kultuk is now. The next building to appear, about a century and a half later, was a winter hut built in 1802 to provide shelter for voyagers along the Irkutsk-Kyakhta postal route. Going south up the mountains, the route was part of the Great Tea Road, also known as the Siberian route, along which tea arrived from China to Russia overland. In the middle of the 19th century a road to Ulan Ude (Verkhneudinsk back then) was built. However the arrival of the Trans-Siberian railway in 1905 was what turned the outpost into a settlement and eventually a town. It got the status as a regional center in 1930 and city status six years later.

The railway, and marble mining are the main sources of income; mica mining has stopped and the large fishing and fish processing industries didn't survive the collapse of the Soviet Union. Fishing is still ongoing on a smaller scale but the town is no longer the one and only omul capital it still was at the turn of the millenium.

The older buildings of Slyudyanka is on the strip between the highway (Lenin street) and the lake, southwest of the highway you can find Soviet buildings. A few kilometers to the north is the town of Kultuk - also handled in this article - which has almost grown together with Slyudyanka. From Kultuk the serpentine road and railway rises up the Olkhinsky Plateau towards Irkutsk, whereas the Circum-Baikal Railway follows the coastline east to Port Baikal. Overall Slyudyanka and Kultuk are mostly points of transit, people traveling the Trans-Siberian or around Lake Baikal will pass through here at some point though for few they're the destination. They nevertheless offer attractions to keep a visitor busy for half a day or so.

Get in
There's boat traffic on the lake, but not to Slyudyanka. The nearest passenger airport is in Irkutsk. As such the ways in are by train, bus or car.

By train
Trains on the Trans-Siberian stop at Slyudyanka and they're almost certainly the most common way in. Normal passenger trains usually just stop for a few minutes (as opposed to half an hour back in the day) so to visit even the station you need to continue on a later train train. The journey time by long-distance trains from Irkutsk is 2.5 hours, from Ulan Ude 5.5 hours. From the former you can opt for local trains - elektrishkas - that take three hours but tickets are much cheaper. Both include some of the most beautiful sections on the Trans-Siberian; from Irkutsk the descent from the high plateau to Lake Baikal, from Ulan Ude the southern shore of the lake. Slyudyanka is also the western terminus of the Circum-Baikal railway.



By bus
You can take marshrutka #543 from Irkutsk railway station (₽158, 2 hours). They depart hourly or even more frequently, in addition there are marshrutki from Irkutsk bus station. Marshrutka #103 connects from Baikalsk, and there are also marshrutki from Tunkinskaya Dolina (near the Mongolian border), and Arshan. Finally there are lines passing through Slyudyanka such as Ulan Ude-Irkutsk, though the latter don't have official stops in the city.



By car
Slyudyanka is also at the Trans-Siberian Highway, more exactly at the P258 "Baikal" section between Irkutsk (110 km) and Ulan-Ude (350 km). The road from Irkutsk has a lot of curves and you can expect the drive to take at least two hours. Also, the section between Kultuk and Slyudyanka can take up to 20 minutes because of heavy traffic. From the west, local road A333 comes in from Tunkinskaya Dolina and eventually Khankh, Lake Hövsgöl and Mörön in Mongolia.

Get around
There are local marshrutka minibuses, but since the town is small there is little use for them. Marshrutka 101 goes from the south of town across Slyudyanka and all the way to Kultuk and runs every 20 minutes. The walk from Rudo district in the SW of the town to the centre takes about 20 min. Anyway you can see the bus stops on map on this website.

Downtown




Finally, you can take a stroll among the wooden houses from the first years of the 20th century, these are between the railway and the lake. The simpler houses were inhabited by railway workers whereas the more elaborate ones were for engineers and administrative staff.

Do

 * Hike: Slyudyanka may serve as a base and starting point for walks into nearby mountains.


 * Beach life: The waters of Lake Baikal are too cold to swim in even on the hottest summer days (still many tourists try it), but locals do tan on the beach northeast of the city.

Buy
A shop in Russian is "магазин", so look for this sign.



Eat and drink




In addition to these, there are many roadside cafés open from early in the morning to late in the evening.

Sleep
In addition to the ones listed below, there are also "country hotels" along the road outside Slyudyanka though these are unpractical unless you have a car.













Connect


Megafon has 4G coverage in town, 3G and 2G further out. MTS sistema and Tele2 have 4G coverage also outside town. Beeline VEON has GSM coverage.

Go next

 * The Circum-Baikal Railway starts (or ends) in Slyudyanka. Train 6201 Matanya departs Slyudyanka 4 times a week (M Th F Su) at around 13:20, arriving in Port Baikal 5-6 hours later.
 * Arshan: There is one marshrutka mini-bus daily going to this foothill spa town, leaving at 09:30; price is around ₽250-300. In high season, try to book early.
 * Baikalsk is the next town east on the Transssib. The next city west is a major one, Irkutsk, and the next major one to the east is Ulan Ude.
 * Hikers can hit the trail to Chersky Peak, at 2090 m ASL one of the highest mountains in the Khamar-Daban range. It's a two day hike.