During the Soviet era, nearby glass and porcelain industries utilized Ussuri Bay, which is located along Russia’s Pacific coast, as a landfill for empty bottles of wine, vodka, beer, and ceramics.
The broken glass bottles in the area that is now a tourist attraction formerly prohibited anyone from entering. It is now a popular tourist destination, and the Russians have designated this area as safe.
Ussuri Bay, also known as Уссурийский зaлив in Russian, is a significant bay located in the Great Gulf of the Sea of Japan’s Peter.
At roughly 67 kilometres (42 miles) in length, 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) to 55 kilometres (34 miles) in breadth, and an average depth of 40 meters (130 feet) to a maximum of 69 meters (226 feet), it is the largest bay in Peter the Great Gulf. The Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula and the Eugénie Archipelago divide Ussuri Bay from Amur Bay, which is connected to it by the Eastern Bosphorus and together they make up a much larger bay. The Ussuri River, a tributary of the Amur River that shares a portion of Russia’s border with the People’s Republic of China, inspired the name of the bay.
The settlements of Bolshoy Kamen and Shkotovo are located along the bay’s coast, and Ussuri Bay is wholly contained within Primorsky Krai, Russia, as well as portions of Vladivostok, the largest city in the Russian Far East and the capital of Primorsky Krai.
Because of the bay’s sand beaches—Lazurnaya Bay being the most well-known—it is a well-liked recreational location in the area.
Sea glass is one newer feature that has been drawing tourists; the tidal motion has smashed glass bottles into rounded glass pebbles that had washed up on the shore or been deposited there by surrounding glass and porcelain industries. The Siberian Times daily reports that glass on the beach is safe and poses no threat to the ecosystem.
On the other hand, the powerful erosion brought on by the Pacific Ocean’s swishing waves forced the empty bottles to shatter into tiny bits. Because of this, the waves produced polished, unevenly shaped glass fragments that shone brightly enough to turn Glass Beach into a popular tourist destination.
In order to get top price for sea glass, a lot of conditions need to be met. Pricing varies greatly; one can pay cents per piece for little bits in unusual forms with chips and faults (often referred to as “roughs”), or $5–10 per piece for perfect, neatly formed, jewelry-quality stones that may be rare colours like deep aqua or azure blue. A genuine, medium-sized piece of red sea glass with even greater rarity and jewellery quality could get up to $100 or more in the market.