Ulan-Ude, Middleton Street.
Like all other cities, Ulan-Ude, a city battered by two hundred years of wind, frost, rain, and snow, is also divided into rich and poor districts. Ulan Street, where the Church of Wisdom is located, belongs to the affluent area, while the vast areas to the south and east of the city are the notorious slums, no-man's-lands of chaos, where people of all sorts roam, and where police rarely patrol.
In the cold air, a pungent smell that's hard to accurately describe lingers, and the soggy streets are lifeless, a stark contrast to the nearby city center bustling with barbecues and celebrations. It's common to see women sloshing dirty water onto the curbside where it quickly forms a thin layer of ice in the frigid temperature. Men with unkempt appearances and sullen gazes are seen everywhere, loitering on the streets.
This is Middleton Street, a road disdainfully referred to as a "stinking ditch" by the affluent.
