evidence: Located near the city of Khabarovsk, at the confluence of the Ussuri and Amur rivers, Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island has long held strategic importance for Russia. In 2004, Moscow reached an agreement with Beijing to share the island (known as Heixiazi Island to the Chinese), dividing it roughly in half. Four years later, the new arrangement was fully in effect, and each country was free to do with its piece of the island what it liked. China transformed its side of the island into a nature reserve, attracting more than 600,000 tourists every year. On the Russian side, there are about 100 people trying to survive in ramshackle homes, and all development plans have failed to secure the necessary funding. Journalist Ekaterina Vasyukova traveled to Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island to learn more about life in a land shared with China. [...] The Chinese call their side of the island Heixiazi (Black Bear Island), and since 2008 they’ve developed it into what is basically a nature reserve. Russian tourists, as it happens, enjoy only limited access to the territory. Travel vouchers are available only in Fuyuan, and vendors frequently refuse to sell tickets to Russian tourists, says Alexander Leonkin, a member of the Russian Geographical Society and a writer in Khabarovsk. [...] The Chinese media describes Heixiazi Island as an environmentally pristine haven, promoting it as the country’s most eastern territory with the easternmost nine-story pagoda. (On clear days, the structure is visible from Khabarovsk.) The pagoda is surrounded by 56 traditionally decorated pillars — one for each of the ethnic groups that live in China.