Black Dragon River: A Journey Down the Amur River Between Russia and China

This book is a product of comprehensive scholarship covering multiple fields of research, yet it is a fascinating read. Having on hand a detailed atlas featuring the geography of the remote region covered- the shared border of far eastern Russia, northern China, and Mongolia- will be very helpful to the reader.

A bit of a false billing from what I had in mind, but still engaging. This included much more Russian history than I was anticipating. I was expecting a more detailed glimpse at the smaller or less-known people's of the Amur. The Tungusic family tree was only touched on while many White Russian stories were expounded upon. In the beginning, Ziegler starts with the Mongols and the book is really engaging and interesting. However, as the book moves along he stays to focus more and more on Russian expansion and three plight of Siberian pioneers. I was hoping for more tribal and ethnic minority history along the Amur and revived almost none of that in the last two-thirds of the book. It was still engaging and interesting though, and Ziegler narrates well.

Of the various nooks and crannies of this planet, some of which I have fortunately visited, many more of which I have read about, the area for me that is almost a complete blank spot is the northeast corner of the Asian landmass. And I suspect that is true for many people. The Amur River is the world’s 9th longest, at 2826 miles, with two main tributaries, the Shitka and the Argun. The river has largely served as a border throughout history between Russia and China. Dominic Ziegler is the Economist’s Asian Editor. He does not float down this river. In fact, by boat, he probably traveled only 5% of its length. Access and borders are a problem. He must travel back and forth in order to touch parts of it, but does, from its source in the mountains in Mongolia, where you can step across it, to the coastal town of Nikolaevsk, where it empties into the Sea of Okhotsk, part of the Pacific Ocean. Ziegler is phenomenally knowledgeable about the history of man in the region, in particular the collision of the Russian, Mongolian and Chinese empires. This fascinating history of that “blank spot” in my knowledge was published in 2016.Consider what Ziegler says about the right bank of the Amur, after it makes its last major turn, just beyond Khaborovsk, and runs due north to the ocean: “The forests of the Sikhote-Alin end at the ocean’s edge, and there tough, frugal species of the northern taiga merge with unlikely southern ones in a new wet-temperate zone. Summers are muggier, and winters milder. The shallow-rooting conifers of the boreal forest – spruce, larch and fir – meet with deciduous trees that put down deeper roots in the warmer soil. In the valleys toward the coast, there is a lushness to things; the tall Mongolian oak; the Amur lime with heart-shaped leaves and sprays of cream flowers; a yellow maple; the ashen willow. A thick undergrowth now fills the woods: winged spindlewood, spiraea, rhododendrons, viburnums… peonies and iris and lady-slipper orchids…hydrangeas shoot fifty feet up trees in search of light.” The best part, as he states elsewhere, it is largely uninhabited! It’s enough to make me pack my bags and COVID “passport,”… if only the Russians would let me in. Ziegler does venture into this area, pre-COVID, and his guide shows him a relief carving on the blacken basalt rock of an underwater serpent, with beard, the Black dragon, embodiment of the Amur itself. It had been largely assumed that this meant the Chinese had inhabited this area in the days of yore, but could it have been the other way around… that the aboriginal people here who carved it millenniums ago gave the concept of the dragon to the Chinese? Definitely intriguing, and unlikely ever to be answered.Way, way back upstream, there is the Onon tributary, deemed by geographers as the “source” of the Amur, since it is the most distant point from the sea. In this area Genghis Khan was born and on the “sacred” Burkhan Khaldun Mountain he is purportedly buried. From a rough beginning, he created the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever known, stretching from central Europe and Baghdad to northeastern China. And then it largely disintegrated and disappeared. Zingler deftly explains how all of this happened, another fascinating aspect of the book.Imagine, almost two centuries before Lewis and Clark crossed the American landmass to the Pacific Ocean, Ivan Moskvitin, in 1639, crossed the Asian landmass to reach the Pacific. Alas, there are no journals. The author presents an excellent account of the Russian expansion to the Far East, in part by sending their misfits (I’d probably have been sent, if I was Russian). Cossacks, or those who invented a Cossack past, came in droves. “The Decembrists,” the revolutionaries who led a maladroit uprising against Czar Nicholas I, in 1825 were exiled there, if they were not hanged. Zion was there also, yes, a Jewish homeland. Much like in America, the native peoples were overwhelmed, with a few assimilating. And China has always considered the Russians different than those other Western imperialists since they signed a treaty of commerce at Nerchinsk, in 1689 that regulated their affairs for almost two centuries. Ziegler also hunts down some Russian veterans of the skirmish with the Chinese over an island in the Amur in 1969. Like a lot of veterans, they now wonder what it was all for.I learned of this book from a former fellow Amazon reviewer who, regrettably, is now insisting on keeping his light under a bushel basket. This book was another great recommendation from him. 6-stars.

I was really interested in reading this based on the subject matter. Focusing on the Amur river it touched upon a region often ignored to some degree even though many books focus on the results of that region (Mongols and Manchurians etc.) I knew it had a rich history and would have a unique aspect for travel in today's world as China grows, Russia still strives and North Korea is still in the scary mess it is.But almost right off the bat, the author skews and skitters all over the place in terms of narrative. He has an odd style of getting his own prose in the way. It is not a smooth informative approach for me and I found that the author's obvious interest actually doesn't serve up all the wonderful detail and observation such a book should deliver.There are some good segments here. But they get lost too often. Ziegler sounds like he would be a fascinating travel companion. He just might need a better editor or someone else along to handle the travel journal-ing. It was not a horrible book. But the disappointment of potential not achieved probably lessened my appreciation of the efforts here.

Good travel narrative, rich in political background, less rich in natural descriptions, no photos and one inadequate map in the Kindle version, about a fascinating and increasingly important sector of the world where Russia, China, Korea, and Japan collide. I'd have appreciated hearing a bit more about the landscape and natural features, but the tales of the interactions between the incoming Russians and the Manchurians and Chinese are well-written.I was a little surprised that the author didn't mention the Fridtjof Nansen book about the same region (although he's aware than Nansen was on the Yenisei) "Through Siberia, the Land of the Future". Not even in the bibliography.

Hard to believe that one can go on an adventure that in many ways compares with the greats of the past centuries. The kind of book you want to read slowly because of the excellent prose and places he visits, many dangerous and beautiful. Get it!

The Amur River is is the 8th or 9th longest river in the world; it borders Mongolia,China, and Russia. This river presents an interesting vantage point to view the historic rise of Gengis Kahn, Russian and Chinese expansion in the far East; all centered around the Amur basin. If you are a history buff, don't miss this one.

Black Dragon River explores a fascinating chapter of history which is next to unknown to most of us, and which is far from finished. Russia still occupies land with resources that China needs rather urgently, including space, water and raw materials. Dominic Ziegler was very thorough in his research, but for my taste he included a bit much detail.

A heartfelt and unique travel memoir, Black Dragon River sheds new light on a rather overlooked region of the globe, or rather, it illuminates it entirely.To borrow a phrase from perhaps the pre-eminent author in this genre, Robert D Kaplan, a journey through history, Black Dragon River is both a journey and an immersion into history. Covering every detail from the Mongol hordes under Genghis Khan, a sweeping history of the Cossacks, the early treaties dividing the borders between Romanov Russia and Qing China, the early history of the Manchu peoples, from the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, to Nurhaci re-branding the people under a new name, to the much forgotten 1969 border war between the Chinese and the Soviets, this book simply covers it all. Every consequential piece of history affecting this region, is contained within this highly readable single volume.Ziegler not only brings to life the history, but rams home the significance of the geography. While the Amur River is entirely noticeable on any map, one does not get an appreciation of the vastness of this waterbody until one Ziegler describes the vastness of this region.Having traveled in China's Northeast, this book was initially bought to shed new light on this region, but to one's surprise, the travelogue takes place largely in Russia, with a few chapters in Mongolia. This surprise was a pleasant one, as one develops a greater sense of feeling for the Russian Far Eastern spirit, and Ziegler's sentimental and descriptive writing makes you feel as though you are there with him.In all, a well informed, well researched, well written, and truly heartfelt travel memoir. A true gem in the historical travel writing genre.

Alles sehr gut

A charming, engrossing travelogue of the borderlands between the Russian Far East (Outer Tartary) and the edges of Manchuria. Legendarily, and hopefully, regarded by the 19th century Russians as their potential Mississippi, the Amur river basin would instead prove to be a land of broken dreams, settled by hardened ex-convicts and hotly contested by the nearby Chinese. The topic is already well-trodden academically, in books such as Forsyth's History of the People's of Siberia, and Bassin's Imperial Visions, but Ziegler's book is a very different animal, as he personally plods around the dangerous lands that may well become a flashpoint for future superpower conflict, hobnobbing with Armenian taxi-drivers and sad-eyed babushkas. There are some odd gaps -- Ziegler seems to spend more of his time considering the Russian shore rather than the Manchus whose homeland lay across the water, but one suspects that this is part of his point. He seems to be in agreement with current Russian schoolbooks, which discount the "Chinese-ness" of the region's natives in the years before the Russians arrived. His account of the opening act of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, however, is hopelessly muddled, confusing Shanghai with the Himalayas, and a vial of poison antidote for the "essence of Nurhaci". Has nobody involved in the production of this book ever been to the movies...?

Mr Ziegler's wandering ambition matches that of his subjects, except thankfully that of Genghis Khan. More a political history than a travel book but it covers society at every level as smoothly as the water flows down this great but almost unheard of river. Not many books include anecdotes about tattooed ex-convicts alongside fascinating insights into the minds of great leaders and this is ultimately what makes Black Dragon River such a fascinating read.

This is a quite comprehensive history book which I have enjoyed and I have learned a great deal. Why only three stars? The almost total lack of maps. I bought the paperback version as opposed to the Kindle version because I thought "all the maps!!" would be more difficult to read on the Kindle. I have had to resort to finding maps of the various areas and printing them to keep with the book. I am reminded of the excellent "Emperor far away" book which had the relevant map at the beginning of each chapter. A timeline would have been very helpful too.