Blagoveshchensk

Blagoveshchensk (Russian: Благовещенск, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}IPA: [bləɡɐˈvʲeɕːɪnsk], lit. 'City of the Annunciation') is a city and the administrative center of Amur Oblast, Russia. It is located at the confluence of the Amur and the Zeya Rivers, opposite to the Chinese city of Heihe. Population: 241,437 (2021 Census);[15] 214,390 (2010 Russian census);[7] 219,221 (2002 Census);[16] 205,553 (1989 Soviet census).[17]The Amur has formed Russia's border with China since the 1858 Aigun Treaty and the 1860 Treaty of Peking. The area north of the Amur belonged to the Manchu Qing dynasty by the Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 until it was ceded to Russia by the Aigun Treaty in 1858. The early residents of both sides of the Amur in the region of today's Blagoveshchensk were the Daurs and Duchers. An early settlement in the area of today's Blagoveshchensk was the Ducher town whose name was reported by the Russian explorer Yerofey Khabarov as Aytyun in 1652, as Aigun from 1683 to 1685, and as Aigun Old Town from 1685 until the massacre in 1900,[18] which known to Russian archaeologists as the Grodekovo site, after the nearby village of Grodekovo some 25–30 km (16–19 mi) southeast of Blagoveshchensk. The Grodekovo site is thought by archaeologists to have been populated since ca. 1000 CE.[19]