11 Facts About Bishkek

Bishkek is situated at an altitude of about 800 metres, just off the northern fringe of the Kyrgyz Ala-Too Range, an extension of the Tian Shan mountain range.

Bishkek is connected to the Turkestan–Siberia Railway by a spur line.

Bishkek is a city of wide boulevards and marble-faced public buildings combined with numerous Soviet-style apartment blocks surrounding interior courtyards.

In 1926, the city became the capital of the newly established Kirghiz ASSR and was renamed Frunze after Mikhail Frunze, Lenin's close associate who was born in Bishkek and played key roles during the revolutions of 1905 and 1917 and during the Russian Civil War of the early 1920s.

Today, Bishkek is a modern city with many restaurants and cafes, and many second-hand European and Japanese cars and minibuses crowding its streets.

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Bishkek is Kyrgyzstan's financial centre, with all of the country's 21 commercial banks headquartered there.

The economy in Bishkek is primarily agricultural, and agricultural products are sometimes bartered in the outlying regions.

The streets of Bishkek are regularly lined with produce vendors in a market-style venue.

Bishkek is home to Spartak, the largest football stadium in Kyrgyzstan and the only one eligible to host international matches.

Several Bishkek-based football teams play on this pitch, including six-time Kyrgyzstan League champions, Dordoi Bishkek.

For example, as of the fall of 2008, train No 305 Bishkek-Yekaterinburg was scheduled to take 11 hours to reach the Shu junction—a distance of some 269 kilometres by rail, and less than half of that by road.