Strait of Tartary or Gulf of Tartary is a strait in the Pacific Ocean dividing the Russian island of Sakhalin from mainland Asia, connecting the Sea of Okhotsk on the north with the Sea of Japan on the south. It is 632 kilometres (393 mi) long, 7–342 kilometres (4.3–212.5 mi) wide, and less than 210 m (690 ft) deep at its deepest point.
The coasts of the "Channel of Tartary" were charted by La Pérouse in 1787. The land adjacent to it from the west was referred to at the time as the "Chinese Tartary"
Vanino, here in early May 2008, is an important port on the Strait of Tartary
Sakhalin is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies 6.5 km (4.0 mi) off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of Japan's Hokkaido. A marginal island of the West Pacific, Sakhalin divides the Sea of Okhotsk to its east from the Sea of Japan to its southwest. It is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast and is the largest island of Russia, with an area of 72,492 square kilometres (27,989 sq mi). The island has a population of roughly 500,000, the majority of whom are Russians. The indigenous peoples of the island are the Ainu, Oroks, and Nivkhs, who are now present in very small numbers.
La Perouse charted most of the southwestern coast of Sakhalin (or "Tchoka", as he heard natives call it) in 1787
Anton Chekhov museum in Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, Russia. It is the house where he stayed in Sakhalin during 1890.
Central part of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 2009
Velikan Cape, Sakhalin
