Achingly beautiful St. Petersburg, with its baroque palaces and sweeping broad boulevards, seemed immune from the sweeping tides of change remaking the architectural and cultural character of Moscow.
You came here to drink in the grandeur of the Winter Palace, to float down the majestic canals, to be transported to its gilded czarist opulence. But focusing on the past is out of line with the city's history.
Founded by the forward-thinking emperor, Peter the Great, the city has always been Russia's cultural capital. This is the city of Balanchine and Baryshnikov, Dostoevsky and Tchaikovsky. It was from here that Peter undertook the first great modernization of Russia, where citizens agitated for the"October Revolution"that ushered in the Communist age,and where residents later pushed for Democratic reform as Communism crumbled.
It is odd that a city that has been at the forefront of so many radical changes should, more recently, come to be defined by its old world character. Eclipsed by the economic powerhouse of Moscow, St Petersburg feels a bit like a large museum. But with the opening of the city's first contemporary art museums, the country's first W Hotel, and a growing restaurant scene, tourists are starting to get a taste of the vibrant cultural life that has been bubbling beneath the city's ornate veneer. But you have to experience St.Petersburg's past to be able to appreciate its present.
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拥有着巴洛克式的宫殿和宽广的林荫道，美丽至极的圣彼得堡看起来仿佛丝毫不受莫斯科建筑与文化革新潮流的影响。
来到这里，你可以在冬宫的宏伟中畅饮，顺着壮丽的运河漂流而下，一睹沙皇金碧辉煌的财富。然而，沉溺于过去已然与这座城市的历史背道而驰。
由拥有“向前看”思想的帝王——彼得大帝建造，这座城市一直以来是作为俄罗斯的文化之都而存在着。这座城市是巴兰钦，巴瑞辛尼可夫，杜斯内耶夫斯基和柴可夫斯基的故乡。也就是在这里，彼得大帝实行了俄罗斯历史上第一次大规模的现代化，在这里人们发起了开辟共产主义时代的“十月革命”，也是在这里人们在共产主义分崩离析后推行了民主改革。
这样一座在诸多变革中起着领头作用的城市竟然在最近更倾向于被依照其旧世界的主人名称命名，这自然显得很奇怪。被莫斯科经济龙头光芒所掩盖的圣彼得堡让人感觉像一个巨大的博物馆。但随着这座城市第一座当代艺术博物馆的对外开放，这个国家的第一家W旅馆在此落户，越来越多的餐厅在这里开张，游客们开始品味到一种逐渐在其华丽外表下形成的充满生气的文化生活。但你需要经历了圣彼得堡的过去才能真正欣赏它的现状。