Ulan-Ude

Ulan-Ude was first called Udinskoye for its location on the Uda River. It was founded as a small fort in 1668.From around 1735, the settlement was called Udinsk and was granted town status under that name in 1775. The name was changed to Verkhneudinsk, literally "Upper Udinsk" in 1783, to differentiate it from Nizhneudinsk ("Lower Udinsk") lying on a different Uda River near Irkutsk which was granted town status that year.

The "upper" and "lower" refer to positions of the two cities relative to each other, not the location of the cities on their respective Uda rivers. Verkhneudinsk lies at the mouth of its Uda, i.e. the lower end, while Nizhneudinsk is along the middle stretch of its Uda. The current name was given to the city 27 July 1934 and means "red Uda" in Buryat, reflecting the Soviet Union's Communist ideology.

Ulan-Ude lies 5,640 kilometers (3,500 mi) east of Moscow and 100 kilometers (62 mi) southeast of Lake Baikal. It is 600 meters (2,000 ft) above sea level at the foot of the Khamar-Daban and Ulan-Burgasy mountain ranges, next to the confluence of the Selenga River and its tributary, the, which divides the city.

Ulan-Ude is one of the few pairs of cities in the world that has a near-exact city — with Puerto Natales, Chile.

Ulan-Ude is traversed by two rivers, the Selenga and Uda. The Selenga provides the greatest inflow to the Baikal Lake, supplying 50% of all rivers in its basin. The Selenga brings into the lake about 30 cubic kilometers (7 cubic miles) of water per year, exerting a major influence on the formation of the lake water and its sanitary condition. Selenga is the habitat of the most valuable fish species such as Omul, Siberian sturgeon, Siberian taimen, Thymallus and Coregonus.

Uda is the right inflow of the Selenga river. The length of the watercourse is 467 kilometers (290 miles).