Khinganskaya Skala

Khinganskaya Skala (Khingan Rock) stands in the Khingan gorge, in the Obluchensky district of the Jewish Autonomous Region, close to the settlement of Khingansk. The rock is now part of a hiking trail laid out through the gorge, and it is one of the places in the district that draws visitors for the views and for the traces of an old mining operation. The area around Khingansk has long been tied to ore mining, and the rock stands right where that mining once took place.

History

The Khingan gorge once held an open-pit mine for tin ore. A shaft called Kapitalnaya was driven from the pit and operated until 2006, part of the local mining industry that the settlement of Khingansk grew up around. After mining stopped, the workings were flooded by groundwater, with the volume eventually exceeding seven million cubic meters, forming a large underground pool at the site of the shaft. The pool was later filled in to deal with the flooding. Today only traces of the old mining works remain in the gorge — spoil heaps and ground subsidence that are visible right along the trail leading to the rock.

Trail and views

Khinganskaya Skala is part of a hiking route through the Khingan gorge, meant for walking uphill. The trail is 1.14 km long, with an elevation gain of 53 meters, climbing from 433 to 486 meters above sea level, so the route is manageable without special preparation. The summit offers views over the gorge itself and the surrounding hills, which is what draws visitors to this spot in the Obluchensky district. The gorge's slopes here are fairly steep, and the rock itself is one of the most prominent points on the trail, giving a good view down onto the remains of the old mine workings below.

Good to know

The rock's surface is loose and crumbly, and the stone breaks away easily underfoot, so care is needed when climbing and at the viewing spot at the top: stay well back from the edge and keep to stable ground. Because of this, the trail is best avoided in rain or right after it, when the rock becomes especially slippery.

Getting there

The rock lies in the Obluchensky district of the Jewish Autonomous Region, near the settlement of Khingansk. The road to it runs through the Khingan gorge, the same hiking trail that leads up to the viewing spot at the summit, so there is no separate road access right up to the rock — visitors walk in from the start of the trail in the gorge.