Khabarovsk's central boulevard is the spine of city life, a tree-lined pedestrian street running through the heart of the historic centre. Named after Count Nikolai Muravyov-Amursky, the tsarist governor who negotiated the 1858 Treaty of Aigun and secured the Amur region for Russia, the street is flanked by late imperial and early Soviet architecture.
The boulevard is at its best in the early evening, when the outdoor cafes fill and the city strolls. At the northern end, Lenin Square has the inevitable statue; at the southern end, the street opens to views of the Amur. The stretch in between has department stores, restaurants, souvenir shops selling Russian crafts and Amur tiger merchandise, and the occasional street musician. The combination of wide pavements, good architecture, and the proximity of the river makes it one of the more pleasant central streets in any Russian Far Eastern city.