12.01.2008 About Belarus
About Belarus (general information)
Official name: Republic of Belarus
Government type: presidential republic
Area: 207,600 sq km
Border countries: Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine.
Longest distance: 560 km (350 miles) from North to South, 650 km (350 miles) from West to East. (Distance to the largest cities)
Population: 10.1 million people (1999)
Capital: Minsk 1.68 million people (2000)
Largest cities:
- Gomel – 506,600 people
- Mogilev – 368,200 people
- Vitebsk – 359,100 people
- Grodno – 301,000 people
Official languages: Belarusian and Russian
Religions:
- Orthodox Christian: 82.9%
- Roman Catholic: 3.8%
- Jewish:12.9%
- Other: 0.4%
Economy Natural Resources in Belarus
National currency: Belarusian rubel.
Territory: The Republic of Belarus is located in the eastern part of Europe. Its neighbors are Russia to the east and northeast, Latvia to the north, Lithuania to the northwest, Poland to the west, and Ukraine to the south. Belarus is located at the crossroads of the major European communication routes. Generally flat terrain and lack of natural borders also create favorable conditions for the construction of transport lines.
The country is crossed by shortest transport communications linking the central and eastern districts of Russia with the countries of Western and Eastern Europe. The distance between Minsk and Warsaw is 500 kilometers, Moscow - 700 kilometers, Berlin - 1060 kilometers, Vienna – 1,300 kilometers.
Local time: Belarus is situated in the Central European time zone: GMT+2. When it is noon in Belarus, it is 11:00 a.m. in Paris, 10:00 a.m. in London, 5:00 a.m. in New York, 2:00 a.m. in Los-Angeles and 1:00 p.m. in Moscow.
Climate: The climate of Belarus is temperate-continental with mild and damp winter and warm summer. The warmest period is May-September, the average monthly temperature in this period is about +13-+19 C. The warmest month is July, the coldest one is January.
The average temperature in Minsk:
January-6; February-3; March-+1; April-+8;
May-+13; June-+17; July-+18; August-+17; September-+14;
October-+7; November-+1; December-1
Useful Information
IN BELARUS payment in cash in shops, restaurants, petrol stations is realized in national currency only.
Insurance in Belarus
Grocery stores are open from 9-00 till 20-00, supermarkets (Czentralnyi, Jubileynyi-92, Preston-Market) are open till 22-00. There are no hypermarkets in Minsk, but there are popular product markets – Komarovskiji, Rakovskiji, Zhdanovichi, and there are a lot of free markets in residence areas.
A wide range of goods is offered by department stores “CzUM", “GUM", Trade house “Na-Nemige", “Kirmash", “Panorama” , and also selling exhibitions “Parking", “Evropa", “Manezh", “Kupalovskiji”. It is possible to buy national souvenirs in the departments of the large department-stores and at specialized shops - “Slavytyja Majistry “, “Galereja", “Lyanok", “Skarbnicza”. Art works are sold at the galleries in Scorina Avenue and in Lenin street, by the way, export allowance can be registered there too.
There are more than 1000 cafes and restaurants in Minsk. The most popular are “Ispanskij Kutok", “Patio Pizza “, “Pechki-lavochki", Club “Gudwin", Club “Bronx", Jazz-cafe “Pojuschie fontany", restaurant of the national cuisine “Mirskiji Zamok", a fashionable restaurant “Lukoil", restaurants at the hotels “Planeta” and “Belarus ” (22nd floor). It is possible to visit restaurants and cafes with Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Arabic and other cuisine. It is usual to leave tips of 5-10% from the total sum.
Three mobile communication operators work in Belarus, two of them are of GSM standard ”Mobile digital communications” (trade mark Velcom) and ”МТS", and also “Belsel”. More information about telephone and postal services
Internet Access in Belarus
In case you want to get an address or a telephone of any institution or establishment in Minsk, you can call a paid inquiries office 185 or city inquiry service 109.
Ambulance - 103
Fire service - 101
Police - 102
Railway station information bureau - 105
Airport information bureau – 106
