Nibuchu

Nibuchu, known to Russians as Nerchinsk, stands on the Nercha River near its junction with the Shilka. A Russian fort was established here in 1654, and the settlement became a meeting point between the expanding Russian and Qing empires. Its position connected the lands east of Lake Baikal with the river routes of the Amur basin.

In 1689 Russian and Qing representatives concluded the Treaty of Nerchinsk, settling a frontier dispute and curtailing Russian expansion into the Amur basin. Nerchinsk then became a principal centre of Russian trade with China. The opening of the Kyakhta route through Mongolia in the eighteenth century diverted much of that commerce, but mines and the arrival of exiles gave the town a new role in eastern Dauria.