Projected Chikoy National Park

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Chikoy National Park is currently in the planning stages. The proposed park has the backing and support of many local citizens and officials and, if established, the park will protect the largest remaining cedar-pine taiga ecosystem in the Chita region. However, progress in the establishment of the park has met resistance from timber companies.

Three Natural Monuments are situated in the area of the proposed park.

1. Lamsky Gorodok (Lama’s Town) is an area with picturesque rock outcrops situated in a Pinus pumila forest at an altitude about 1800 м above sea level. (In Transbaikalia this represents a highland.) The boundaries of the park are very close to the Mongolian border. The local inhabitants remember that Buddhist lamas hid here during Stalin’s reprisals against religious factions. The lamas retreated from their destroyed datzan (Buddhist temple) near the Semiozer’ye Village. Local legend recounts the fact that the lamas hid a large quantity of gold and the statue of Buddha from the datzan somewhere in, or around, Lamsky Gorodok. There is probably some truth to this legend. Currently, a mining operation is extracting gold nearby in the Chikoy River valley. To appreciate the beauty of this area, one only needs to look at photographs of the river and surrounding forests and mountains. There are very few national parks in the world which can encompass such beauty.

2. Barun-Shabartuy (Bistrinsky Golets) Mountain is the highest summit in Southern Transbaikalia (2519 meters). Glaciers are evident on this mountain.

3. Shebetuy Lake is very picturesque taiga lake.

The Chikoy National Park would be ideally suited for adventure travelers since the terrain is difficult and the logistics of getting to this area require long and complicated travel arrangements.

A very important reason for protecting this region is the fact that rivers that originate in this area carry waters to the “well of the Planet” – Baikal Lake. In addition, the WWF considers the Siberian taiga as one of the Global 200 Ecoregions of the World.

Chikoy River
	Lamsky Gorodok (Lama’s Town)
Names are asked itself for some rocks. It’s, certainly, elephant baby.
The top of the Barun-Shabartuy Mountain
	Shebetuy Lake
Destroyed by communists datsan near the Semiozer’e Village. Even in taiga the Buryat builders chose an open place reminding native steppes with slopes in the form of a pyramid which is esteemed in East as a symbol of Universe.