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Ulan-Ude
City in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia

Ulan-Ude

Ulan-Ude is the capital city of Buryatia, Russia, located about 100 kilometers (62 mi) southeast of Lake Baikal on the Uda River at its confluence with the Selenga.

Plan a trip to Ulan-Ude→From Irkutsk

According to the 2021 Census, 437,565 people lived in Ulan-Ude; up from 404,426 recorded in the 2010 Census, making the city the third-largest in the Russian Far East by population.

Get in

Getting to Ulan-Ude

  1. 01
    Baikal International Airport
See

Worth seeing

The World's Largest Lenin Head is in Ploshchad Sovietov, the main city square. The head is 7.7m tall and weighs 42 tons. It was unveiled in 1970 in honor of Lenin's 100th birthday and to remind the local population who was in charge. It is now a common meeting place. The merchant's mansions, richly decorated with wood and stone carvings. Historical relics of the town's prosperity as a trading center.

  1. 01
    City History Museum / History of Ulan-Ude

    Verhnaya Beriozovka (In the city centre),.

  2. 02
    Museum of Buryatia History

    Rare books, clothing, and artifacts from the region, including those from Shamanism, Buddhist, and Christian religions.

  3. 03
    Museum of Buryatia Nature

    Includes exhibits on the animals, botany, and geology of the area.

  4. 04
    Sampilov Museum of Fine Arts

    Also known as the East-Siberian Hermitage, this museum contains over 7,000 pieces of fine art from the Buryatia region.

  5. 05
    Ivolginsky Datsan Buddhist Monastery
Do

Things to do

Buryat State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, Lenina St., 51 (At Lenin's head square), uuopera@mail.ru. Beautiful building. Watch performances of Buryat singing and dancing. 150-700 руб. Puppet Theatre Ulger, Lenina street 46,. 9am -6pm from Mon to Fri. The name of the “Ulger” theatre is translated as “legend”. The theatre was built in 1967 and caters to kids.

Eat

Where to eat

Try local buryat cuisine. Mainly it's steamed meat dumplings called "Buuza" (or "Pozy"), fried "Sharbin", or "Khushuur". Soups include meat broth "Bukhlyor" and noodles "Shuleen". Sweet baked goods served with jam or condensed milk are called "boovy". The fish "omul" is unique for the region, as it exists only in the Baikal lake. Appetite Lenin's head looks at it. Quite cheap, tray style, Russian food, free WiFi.

How locals move

Getting around Ulan-Ude the local way

  • Get inIt is from the train station and it can be reached on foot or by marshrutka #30 or #29.
  • Get inMinibuses operate a service to the Mongolian border town of Kyakhta.
  • Get inThe minibus driver will most probably ask for extra for each piece of luggage.
  • Get inThere are buses/marshrutkas to Lake Baikal (3 hours, ), Irkutsk (9 hours, ), Arshan, and Chita, departing from the Ulan-Ude train station.
  • Get aroundThere are marshrutkas, buses, and a few tram routes.

From Wikivoyage: Ulan Ude, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.