A cruise is a good way to experience the culture of Tartarstan

The Trinity Church is the only preserved wooden church on the town-island. [Photo by Xu Lin/China Daily]

In 922, the Volga-Bolgars accepted Islam as their national religion and the ancient Bolgar remains there are a pilgrimage destination for Tatar Muslims.

As part of the cruise, visitors can explore mosques, minarets, mausoleums, public bathhouses and remains of the Khan's palace and shrine in the city.

A typical Bolgar stone bathhouse consists of an anteroom, a central room and a heating room.

In the city, there is a white marble mosque with three yellow domes and two minarets.

It looks like the Taj Mahal in India.

According to our tour guide, European and Asian merchants, including the Chinese, were frequent visitors to the city as it was a hub along the Silk Road.

In 2012, a memorial was built in the city in keeping with ancient Bolgar architecture.

It exhibits Islamic artworks by Tatarstan artists and a large collection of the Quran－the sacred book of Islam－which are made from different materials in various sizes.

The most impressive Quran has a length of 2 meters and a width of 1.52 meters.

The 632-page book weighs 800 kg.

Its green cover is mounted with gold, silver and precious stones of different colors.

The next place you will venture to is Ulyanovsk, where Vladimir Lenin was born and lived until he was 17.

It's said that the Russian Marxist enjoyed the local windy weather, so his statue on the Lenin Square shows him in a windblown coat.

Next to the square is the Lenin Memorial Museum Complex, with several museums about Lenin's childhood and political life and his family's former residence.

The Lenin Memorial Museum has photos, statues and documents about Lenin and the history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union.

Tourists can even see Lenin's death mask and molds of his hands made from plaster.

A simulated map there shows how the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 took place.