Kazan City
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,535, it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. The Kazan Kremlin is a World Heritage Site.
The old Kazan is the center of the city. There are beautiful buildings raised in different architectural styles. Mansions in the style of modernism coexist with the Baroque monuments. You can feel the aura of antiquity spell from ancient white walls of the Kazan Kremlin wherefrom a superb view on the river opens. Imagination is boggled by the red bell tower of Bogoyavlenskaya church at the pedestrian Bauman street beloved by tourists. Kazan easily combines the culture and traditions of the East and the West. A prevailing feature of life in the city is peaceful, creative coexistence of different religions and nationalities.
In 2015, Kazan was visited by 2.1 million tourists, which is a 20% increase in comparison with 2014. The Kazan Kremlin was visited by 1.5 million tourists in 2015, and the city’s hotel and entertainment complex with an aquapark called “Kazan Riviera” was visited by 1 million tourists.
Economy in Kazan
Kazan is an attractive location for foreign investors. Currently there are more than a hundred enterprises with foreign investments registered in the city, as well as 150 representative offices of foreign firms. Major international conferences, including the annual assembly of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Congress of World Heritage Cities organizations are arranged in Kazan on a continuous basis.
There are many modern trade complexes in the city representing the major Russian and foreign networks, such as “IKEA”, “METRO”, “OBI”, “Bahetle”, “Patterson”, “Perekrestok”, “Eldorado”, and many others.
Kazan is a large industrial and commercial center of Russia. Planes and helicopters manufactured in the capital of Tatarstan as well as chemical and petrochemical products produced by gigantic industrial works located in Kazan are well known all around the world.
Climate
Kazan has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb) with long, cold winters (colder than Moscow), and warm, often dry summers. As a result of its far inland position, summers are extremely warm for its latitude and winters are quite cold compared to areas further west in Europe.
The warmest month is July with daily mean temperature near 20.2 °C (68.4 °F), and the coldest month is January, with a daily mean of −10.4 °C (13.3 °F).
The city set its two hottest days on record during the 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves. Temperatures reached +39 °C (102 °F) in the hottest days during that time.
Transport
Kazan is a major transportation center. There are a railway and bus stations, a river port and an international airport. Much attention is paid to the roads. A number of major transport interchange junctions have been completed in Kazan as well as construction of the new “Millenium” bridge has been completed. Renewal of roads is performed with application of up-to-date technologies and foreign-made equipment with Tatarstan being the first of all Russian regions to acquire such technologies and equipment. Transportation pattern reform was carried out in Kazan in 2007, which allowed making the urban public transport convenient for people effectively merging the ground transportation and subways into a single system. In the near future the plans provide for introducing the passage payment system based on application of contactless plastic smart cards.