A l'est magazine (France), May 2011, by Pascale Pierard

RATA-News № 628 from September 23, 2002 "A Picnic in the Middle of Scythian Burial Mounds"

As we have already noticed, the RATA delegation consisting of the President of the Association Sergei Shpilko, Irina Tyurina and general director of the information service "Krasniy Telefon" ("Red Phone") Victor Nechiporenko, were invited by the travel company "Paradise" for the tour "The Great Sayan Ring". Andrey Kataev, the general director of "Paradise" and the organizer of the tour, also took part in the tour.This route was tailored for foreigners threee years ago, but was also in demand among Russians.

RATA-News № 635 from October 2, 2002 "A Syndrome of Throat Singing"

We continue a story about a tour "The Great Sayan Ring" that was designed by Krasnoyarsk travel company "Paradise" (beginning in the RATA-news from September 23, 2002).
Throat singing - "khoomei" - is a fantastic ability of Tuvinians (and some other peoples of Siberia) to emit two-three musical sounds of different pitch simultaneously and at that sustaining them during 25-30 seconds, not taking a breath. If you listen to it with your eyes shut, it's impossible to believe, that these sounds are emitted by a man, not by a musical instrument.

RATA-News № 631 from September 26, 2002 "Flower Carpets of Granny Katya"

We continue a story about a tour "The Great Sayan Ring" that was designed by Krasnoyarsk travel company "Paradise" (beginning in the RATA-news from September 23, 2002).
Our group had the next test by the Siberian hospitality not in the museum, but the real village Nizhniy Suetuk, established by the Russian Cossacks-settlers in the 1740 year. Tourists are met here as relatives. Despite the spate, Galina Demyanova, the head of the local administration, presented the guests with an offering of bread and salt at the village entrance, and her country people treated them with hot pies and of course, offered a vodka glass - so to say, after the journey it should be so.

RATA-News № 633 from September 30, 2002 "In a Jurt of a Nomad Cattle Farmer"

We continue a story about a tour "The Great Sayan Ring" that was designed by Krasnoyarsk travel company "Paradise" (beginning in the RATA-news from September 23, 2002).
Our route lies through the mountains of the East Sayan. In general, we need to add that one should go to Sayan mountains even without any itinerary, just to contemplate this nature. The sceneries that charm the eye, are met here near every corner, and all the time we wanted to stop the bus to make the next picture. Look: during a week - fourteen photographed films, it's quite much for the amateur photographer.

"Travels Through a Land the World Knows Far Too Little About" By Erik Flesch, Special to The Moscow Times

Bring salt, matches, canned goods and vodka, a Muscovite acquaintance warned me. Another told me "Russians all want to come to Moscow or St. Petersburg. Why should anyone want to leave just to find suffering and hardship?"
But what I experienced in summery Siberia transcended every possible stereotype or difficulty, and I returned suntanned and spiritually refueled.
Road-tripping through Krasnoyarsk, Tuva and Khakassia, over the land of the Yenisei River and the Great Ring of the Sayan Mountains, I found that beyond the Kremlin and its obsession with vertical power structure, there is beauty and pride to be found in Russia's varied natural landscape and its diverse regional cultures.

"Land of the Shamans" By Erik Flesch, Special to The Moscow Times

Part legend, part mystery and part ancient ritual, the Republic of Tuva eludes many a cartographer. But this all but forgotten corner of Siberia steeped in physical contrasts, natural beauty and living history is starting to gain international attention. Erik Flesch spent several impressionable days in this native land of shamanism, throat-singing and Hunnic, Scythian and Turkic burial mounds.

"S'ekonom!" magazine, 2003 "The country of Shamans"

Tuva is the center of Asia, with the most mountain Steppe, and the most queer in its varicosity nature. Mountains and forests, Steppes and taiga, yaks and camels, all that seems to be incompatible, but all this is combined on this land. Wonderful animals inhabit this severe land - sarlyks and snow leopards. The Alpine fields please an eye with the variety of colors and flowers. There is no any sign of modern civilization on the territory of Tuva. Steppes stretch with their "cosmic" landscapes for the hundreds of kilometers, one can find also high mountains with sharp ridges like the creation mystery. It seems that you've got to another world and even another planet, another history, unpredictable and unknown.

Financial club, 2003 "Who Said That Only Summer Is For Rest?"

According to the latest data of investigations, the winter rest becomes one of the new fashionable trends among Russians. So, at the first International conference of tour business among the Russian regions that took place in frames of the 8th International tourist exhibition "Baikal Tour 2003", it was noticed that in comparison with the 1999, the demand for the active winter rest in 2002 has grown by 25% and the number of people interested in winter holidays - by 60%. Russians began to pay more attention to the beauty, singularity of their own regions, and Siberians keep pace with them.

"Commersant" 02.09.2002 "Tuva is considered to be the native land of the Scythians"

The director of an archeological expedition from Saint Petersburg professor Konstantin Chugunov started a proposal in Kizyl that Tuva is the ancient native land of the Scythians. According to the report of ITAR-TASS of September 2, the scientist made his conclusions from his excavations in the Tsar Valley in Biy-Chem district of the Republic this summer.

Tourinfo 2004

Krasnoyarsk travel company "Sayan Ring" was the first to represent a special program of trips for foreigners for the Tuvinian holiday. The guide of the company says that event tourism in Siberia is very popular among foreigners.
Krasnoyarsk tour operator "Sayan Ring" is a result of de-merger of a well-known company of this region "Paradise". Some years later this company won the prize as the best tourist itinerary in Russia: their tour product was named the best; the tour covers Krasnoyarsk region, Khakasia, Tuva. The last year the incoming department separated with its general director from "Paradise" and now "Paradise" is mostly for going abroad.

Mobile № 5, 2003 "The country of Sayan"

In Krasnoyarsk region tourism develops in such an active way that a lot of vacationists pays their attention to the most beautiful places of their native region in summer. It turns out that our region has a lot of secrets to be unveiled from year to year. When an experienced instructor or a professional tourist would ask you: "Where did you travel to?", don't tell him about trips abroad and warm seas. He won't envy you, but he will tell you about wonderful trips to the unique nature corners.

RATA-News № 638 from October 7, 2002 "Secrets of Shaman Rites"

We continue a story about a tour "The Great Sayan Ring" that was designed by Krasnoyarsk travel company "Paradise" (beginning in the RATA-news from September 23, 2002).
The first time we met shamans in Kizyl, at so called clinic. Of course, that is not a hospital, just rooms where shamans receive visitors. But first we communed in a big guest jurt that is set before the "clinic" in summer. Our interlocutors, both men and women, looked quite picturesque: head-dresses with feathers, robes, embroidered with animal tails, decorated with cords, small knots, fabric sacks filled in with something mysterious, black leather boots with turned up toes.

RATA-NEWS № 630 from September 25, 2002 "Shusheskoye is not an Excursion, it's a Show"

We continue a story about a tour "The Great Sayan Ring" that was designed by Krasnoyarsk travel company "Paradise" (beginning in the RATA-news from September 23, 2002). A visit to the state ethnographical museum-reserve "Shusheskoye" cannot be called otherwise, but a show. This is a unique by it's atmosphere, a thrilling adventure of a group in a real Siberian village of the frontier of 19-20 centuries.