It's not a long way from the Komsomol subway station to Red Square, we took two stops and then changed to another subway line, and only one stop to the Chinatown subway station. The night before departure in Novosibirsk, Vera. Aleksandrovna once told me that when I went to Red Square and the center of Moscow, I had to take the subway to the Chinatown subway station, and I asked her very strangely why this subway station is called Chinatown. Is it the same as Chinatown in the United States? I've never heard of a similar Chinatown in Moscow, though. Vera. Aleksandrovna said that she is not very sure why it is called that, as if the center of Moscow was called Chinatown a long time ago.

Now when I arrived at the subway station Chinatown, I remembered the question of why the center of Moscow was called Chinatown, and asked Brother Chao, who said that when he first came to Moscow, it was also very strange for the center of Moscow to be called Chinatown, and he once asked the Russians, and the Russians sued him, as if he was the first Tsar Ivan of Russia? Yelena, the mother of the Terrible? Greenskaya has a relationship, but the Russian is not very clear. With questions, out of the gorgeous, elegant and full of artistic atmosphere of the subway station. The policeman standing at the entrance of the subway station stopped me and Chao Ge, checked our passports and tickets, looked at Sveta and Vera, and let us go without asking anything. Walking down the street, I saw that the buildings on both sides of the street were magnificent and regal European-style buildings, but I didn't see any Chinese-style buildings. Sveta pointed ahead and told me that it was the Moscow River, and the Red Wall was the Kremlin. I saw the wide river and the towers of the Kremlin's spires and the onion-headed churches, which is the heart of Russia and the world-famous Red Square. Is this area called Chinatown? I asked Sveta, and Sveta replied that the area was called Chinatown. I looked around at Yiqiē and thought to myself that there was nothing here that could be linked to China.

So I asked Sveta why the center of Moscow is called Chinatown? Ms. Sveta said she had been interested in Chinese culture since she had been a flight attendant on international trains, and had studied why the center of Moscow was called Chinatown. She told us that the Kremlin we were going to today was originally called "the city." It was not only the central district of Moscow, but also the first forbidden place to be defended by the construction of walls, as it was the seat of the imperial palace and the residences of the great nobles. To the southeast of the Kremlin, from the palace walls to the banks of the Moscow River, the area that includes the current Red Square, the "Gum" (state department store), the Russian Hotel, Slavic Square and many adjacent streets, was originally called the Great Industrial District, and at the beginning of the 16th century it was officially called Chinatown. Unlike Chinatowns in European and American cities, this Chinatown was not built by Chinese people to survive here. In addition to shops and workshops, it was also a place where officials, merchants, and foreigners lived. This part of Moscow's Chinatown was originally known as the Great Industrial and Commercial District, and the idea of changing its name came from the idea of Russia's first Tsar Ivan? Yelena, the mother of the Terrible? Greenskaya.

Brother Chao and I were very strange, and we couldn't help but ask Sveta in unison, Yelena? Who is Greenskaya? What does she have to do with Chinatown? Why did she name this important part of the city, which was adjacent to the palace, "Chinatown"? Grinskaya was a descendant of Mamai, the 10,000-strong man of the Mongol Golden Horde in the 14th century. Ma Mai was a brave commander, a capable administrator, and a nimble politician. During his reign, King Berbedik of the Golden Horde not only appointed Mamai to take charge of all affairs, but also married his daughter Hanum to him. In the middle of the 14th century, the Golden Horde was in turmoil, and at least 25 khans were replaced, a considerable number of whom were either established or abandoned by Mamai. The Grand Duchy of Moscow took advantage of the Mongol infighting to accumulate strength and unite other principalities against the Mongol occupiers. Later, Ma Mai was defeated and killed.

After Mamai's death, his family fled to Lithuania. Because he occupied Glinsk along the Dnieper River and lived here, his descendants took Glinsky as his surname, accepted Orthodox Christianity in Podolia, was named a duke, became a Lithuanian nobleman, and built a "Little Chinatown" estate in the fief of Portolia. After being a general of the Mongol Golden Horde, why did he call his estate "Little China City"? In fact, Ma Mai was not a Mongol, but a Han or Khitan, and if he were a Mongol himself, he would have sat on the throne long ago. Because at that time, the Khitan people had merged with the Han people, whether he was a Han or a Khitan, he accepted Han culture. His descendants named their manor "Little Chinatown" to show their deep nostalgia for their ancestral home.

By the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, the three brothers Mikhail, Ivan and Vasily of the Glinsky family had become powerful and intended to establish an independent state on the border between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which Lithuania occupied at the time, and clashed with the Polish and Lithuanian kings Sigismund. After the defeat of the three brothers, they defected to the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III at the beginning of the 16th century and received hereditary domains.

Later, Vasily III married Vasily? Yelena, the daughter of Duke Glinsky? Glinskaya is the Grand Duchess. In order to please this Western-educated newlywed wife, he also abandoned Russian national traditions and religious habits, shaved off his beard, and became the forerunner of Peter the Great's shaving movement.

Later, Vasily III died. According to the arrangement during his lifetime, the grand ducal throne passed to his eldest son Ivan, who was three years old, and several princes and ministers shared the responsibility of assistance, but the power of the state was in the hands of the female regent Yelena? In the hands of Grinskaya. One of Yelena's main achievements during her reign was the strengthening of the city's construction throughout the country, especially the city of Moscow. Its walls were originally earthen walls. Yelena thought it was not sturdy, and invited the Italian architect Roque? The Chinese wall with many towers was rebuilt in red brick and stone in the spring of the following year, and the foundation stone was laid by Metropolitan Daniel. Three years later, the huge project was finally completed. The entire urban area covers an area of about 49 hectares. In honor of her hometown of Podolia, the "Little China Town", Yelena officially named the Moscow district "China Town". For more than 400 years, Moscow has undergone several expansions and renovations, but for a long time it has been the central district of Moscow. Due to urban renovation and fires, most of the walls and towers of Chinatown have been demolished, except for two sections of the city wall with pheasant moats from Chinatown Lane to Theater Square, and there is a city gate and tower diagonally opposite the Children's World Store. The buildings in the city have also changed a lot, but the whole pattern, including Red Square and the streets, still reveals what it was back then.

After listening to Svetta's story, Brother Chao and I couldn't help but sigh that the construction of the city of Moscow had such a Chinese origin.