destination

Nur-Sultan

Astana is a very interesting city. It's a "planned city" much like Washington DC, meaning that it was carefully planned since its inception of being named the capital city of Kazakhstan 19 years ago. In case you were wondering, here's how it all happened: The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and a few months later, #Kazakhstan became an independent country. In 1998, the #Kazakh government decided to move the capital city from #Almaty (a city full of history and tradition) to #Astana (a small town with practically nothing) -- So essentially, they built up Astana from a small town into a modern international hub in just two decades. The population has increased 10X from 100,000 to 1,000,000 since 1998, and tons of global companies, restaurant chains, hotels, banks, etc have flocked to Astana for business. Not to mention, the futuristic architecture and skyscrapers that make up the skyline are very impressive. There's actually "one straight line" that runs through the city, which has all the freakishly modern buildings lined up on both sides. I've never been to a place like Astana, and I can't imagine what it'll look if I come back in 5 or 10 years 🇰🇿