Baku, like Stalingrad, was once a strategic location in the Soviet Union and Germany during World War II, when 160,000 German troops, 15,000 of whom were oil workers, marched south along the Don River in July 1942 to capture the Baku oil fields. At the time, 70% of the Soviet Union's oil was produced there, and capturing the Baku oil fields would have been tantamount to choking the Soviet Union's lifeblood. Had Hitler gotten his hands on it back then, the entire history of World War II might have been rewritten, but of course history cannot be hypothesized.
During the Soviet era, the abundance of oil resources made Azerbaijan, along with Russia, the only two countries that did not need centralized financial subsidies. Today the Baku oil fields are a thing of the past, with oil resources gradually depleted after decades of exploitation. Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, oil production here accounted for only about 10 percent of the entire Soviet Union. But for a country of only 10 million people, this was enough to keep them alive. Of the three Caucasus countries, Azerbaijan is now the richest, with a GDP per capita nearly double that of Georgia and Armenia.
We took a flight from Kiev to Baku on October 20, 2018, and as soon as we arrived at the pickup hall we saw hotel staff holding signs to meet us. This is the new terminal building in Baku, luxurious and very modern. The flyover on the highway out of the airport is chic and eye-catching.
About 40 minutes drive to the hotel in the old city, this time did not choose the hostel, the main consideration is to stay in Baku only one night, the hotel is convenient to access the luggage, so that you can make full use of the next day's time. The hotel is small, the receptionist is fluent in English, warm and friendly, offered to help us carry our luggage, we gave him a tip, but he insisted not to accept it. He also gave us a map of the area and circled the main attractions around us on the map, the young man's warm and considerate service left a good impression on us.
Baku is the capital city of Azerbaijan, located on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and is divided into the New City and the Old City, the existing pattern of the Old City was formed in the 12th century after the Silvanshah dynasty settled the capital. As we were staying in the Old City, we had time to wander around the Old City on both the day we arrived and the next day. The streets of the Old City are stone paved and polished. Except for a few main streets, most of the streets are narrow alleys, and walking through them is like walking through a maze, but the good thing is that you can see the city walls not too far away, so you won't get lost. The houses on both sides of the street are not high, two-story and three-story mostly, some buildings with Ottoman Turkish style carved balconies. The houses are mainly residential, with some hotels, restaurants, stores and mosques. The Old City is quiet, with hardly any cars passing by, and most of the pedestrians on the roads are tourists. The walls are intact and well maintained.
We passed by an unknown old house with a lion's head painted on the wall, and saw a large group of tourists listening to the guide in front of us, curious about what the story of this old house is, but unfortunately, I could not understand what he said.
The Shirvanshah's Palace in the Old City is the main historical building in Baku, which was listed as a World Heritage Site in 2000.
In the 12th century, after a major earthquake in Shamakhi, King Shirvanshah moved the capital from Shamakhi to Baku, and built this palace here.
The Royal Palace complex consists of three courtyards containing nine buildings, including palaces, courts, mosques and mausoleums. The Royal Palace is very small, mainly displaying some archaeological excavations of cultural relics and some of the court life, we casually browse, feel tasteless, less than half an hour out.
The streets of the Old City are lined with small traditional stores with bronze and silverware and carpets, similar to those we have seen in other Muslim countries such as Egypt and Turkey.
There are some ancient ruins and some unearthed monuments in the Old City, but I don't know if they are not described or we didn't find them, so I don't know how old they are or where they came from. The locals didn't seem to take them seriously and simply used them to dry their carpets.
The famous Maiden's Tower, located in the eastern part of the Old Town near the Caspian Sea waterfront, is part of the Royal Palace complex built in the 12th century and listed as a World Heritage Site in 2000. The 27-meter-high, eight-story cylindrical tower was a fortified structure in ancient times, and the Tower of the Maiden remained standing after a massive earthquake in Baku in 1304 leveled many of the surrounding homes.
There are many different versions of the story of how the Maiden Tower got its name. One of them is about a rich girl fell in love with a poor boy, the girl's father did not agree, forced her to cut off relations with the man, the girl did not comply, her father confined her in the tower. The girl in order to show the fidelity of love, hate from the tower jumped into the rough Caspian Sea, the young man knew also jumped into the sea. These poignant love stories can not be traced, the common people passed down by word of mouth to this day, expressing the folk to the freedom of love and the pursuit of yearning.
Inside the old city, there is a quiet park with an Islamic-style pavilion. In the park there is a statue of a man's head, doing meditation, perhaps a philosopher.
The west gate of the old city is a street, both sides are full of European-style buildings. There are statues of people in between the buildings, and when I went to look at them, there were names of people written in English on them, and when I looked on the Internet, the one on the left was a local poet and philosopher, and the one on the right was a chemist.
Out of the north gate of the old city, to the Fountain Square. In the center of Fountain Square there is a statue of the famous Azerbaijani poet Nizami G?nc?vi, surrounded by many famous buildings, such as the Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences and the Azerbaijani Museum of Literature, etc., and around the square there are a large number of theaters, stores and restaurants. The square is connected to the pedestrian street, which we pass on every trip.
For lunch at an online restaurant on the pedestrian street outside the Old City, known online as the Cellar Restaurant, we ordered the lamb stew, which was tender, juicy and flavorful. The liquid in the glass looked like wine, but it was actually pomegranate juice, which is not astringent here and very tasty.
Across the pedestrian street and through the underground crossing to the promenade. The floor of the passageway is marble and spotless, the walls on both sides are beautifully artistic carvings, and the passageway has an automatic walkway similar to that of an airport, which is the most luxurious underground crossing I've ever seen.
The Baku Promenade, a promenade that runs parallel to the Caspian Sea waterfront, was recently named a national park. There are many landmarks along the promenade, and this shopping mall looks like a crown from a distance.
Baku's tallest skyscraper, the Flame Tower, can be seen from the Promenade. It consists of three towers with elegant flame-like curves, and the three towers' fa?ades are covered by LED displays, which reflect the blue sky, white clouds, and surrounding buildings like mirrors in the daytime, and look like three burning flames when night falls, demonstrating the Baku people's worship of fire.
As we strolled along the Caspian Sea from west to east, a cool sea breeze welcomed us and refreshed our lungs. The afterglow of the setting sun reflected off the buildings in the distance in a rainbow of colors.
A section of Seaside Boulevard is hosting a photography exhibition showcasing landscapes from all over Azerbaijan.
At dusk, the esplanade is quiet and peaceful, with few pedestrians, so it is very pleasant to walk in it.
As it was getting late, we headed back to the hotel from the Esplanade, passing through Fountain Square, where we saw several fountains that looked very colorful under the lights.
The morning of October 21st in the online application for a half-day tour of the group, received a notice in the old city metro station waiting, I did not expect the agreed time after a long time did not see the tour guide shadow, I thought I was wrong about the meeting place, and then met a few other tourists waiting for the tourists there, only to understand that the tour guide is cool, the first time in the dozen countries of Eastern Europe in the travel is the only time to encounter this kind of thing, quite upsetting. It was quite a bummer. We took the metro to the Aliyev Cultural Center instead.
In the subway station, we found that our two metro cards need to be recharged in the vending machine, we do not know how to operate, just met a group of fifteen or sixteen year old girl came over, so to them to ask for advice, who knows that they directly handed us two recharged metro cards, we have to give them money, they smiled and shook their hands, and then said goodbye into the subway station, to come to the previous I heard that the people here! The first time I heard of the hospitality of the people here before I came here, this time I experienced it myself.
The Baku metro is as deep as many of the metros in the former Soviet Union, and is said to be more than 50 years old, but it's well-maintained, and the carriages are still quite new.
The Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center was built in 2012 on the site of an abandoned Soviet tank factory, and the Azerbaijani government hoped that the new complex would wash away the Soviet legacy and reveal the vitality of a modern city. 2007 saw an international design competition for the center, and renowned architect Zaha Hadid was chosen to design it with her futuristic, ground-floor-like design. The famous architect Zaha Hadid won the competition with her futuristic proposal of a spaceship landing on the ground. Zaha is an Iraqi-British architect whose works include the Glass Tower in Milan, the Dance Tower in Dubai, the Galaxy SOHO complex in Beijing, the Youth Olympic Center in Nanjing, and the Grand Theater in Guangzhou.
This brand new cultural facility includes a conference center, a museum, a library and a very large square park. It is named after Hidar Aliyev, the third president of Azerbaijan*** and the country.
The entire building shape is streamlined, very dynamic, like flowing clouds and water in the sky, the shape of the building changes with the observer's position and perspective changes, come to the scene, can not help but for the designers beyond the imagination of the creativity and marveled at the design of the Design Museum in London 2014 Design Award.
According to the introduction of this building in the steel skeleton covered with flexible fiberglass concrete and fiberglass reinforced polyester as the skin of the panel material, each panel geometry is different, expensive, Azerbaijan for this building really want to put money.
The square outside the cultural center is very large, where many locals rest and play. There are a lot of animal sculptures on the square, a row of large and small snail sculpture attracted our attention, the sculpture is very realistic, big red color is very bright. Right next to the Cultural Center is the Baku Convention Center, where the 2019 World Heritage Conference will be held. The Cultural Center is surrounded by many new and beautiful residential buildings.
It is said that the Azerbaijani government has borrowed the successful experience of Dubai and wants to make Baku another Dubai, to get rid of the shadow of the Soviet Union by building a large number of landmarks and presenting a brand new image of the country, so as to attract foreign investment and tourists, and to change the structure of the country's economy, which is dependent on oil. It can be said that Azerbaijan has achieved great success in this regard, and we have seen many modern and uniquely designed buildings in Baku, which have brought vitality to this ancient city and earned it the name of Dubai of the Caucasus.
We arrived at the train station in the evening of October 21st. It was still early and we took a casual stroll around the train station. There is a big square in front of the train station, next to a large commercial building, we went in to see, there are many stores, there are many world famous brand stores, a variety of goods, in the Caucasus in these countries, the level of consumption here is the highest.
Baku train station is not big, very modern, no security check, no one check tickets, not many people in the waiting room, all kinds of facilities, waiting for the train here feel very comfortable.
Baku Railway Station is also served by high speed trains, the white double-decker train shown below is a high speed train.
The photos below show the regular train we took from Baku to Tbilisi, which is similar to the green train in China. The train left at 9:50 p.m. and arrived at 10:30 a.m. the next morning, and first-class sleeping compartments cost about 250 yuan per ticket, which we purchased online and boarded the train with our printed tickets. The carriages were more comfortable than the domestic 4-room soft sleepers, there was no bunk beds, and we were the only two people in one compartment, which also had a TV. That night we slept very well in the car, until the next morning more than five o'clock train to the border when someone on board to check the documents only to wake up, Georgia has arrived!