In the village of Topolevka, Sarkand District in the Zhetysu region, known for the annual blooming of the wild Sievers apple tree — the progenitor of all modern apple varieties — local authorities plan to open a tourist visitor centre. According to official data, 200 million tenge has already been allocated from the budget for this project.
However, ORDA reports that the village still lacks a road, communication links, and infrastructure, and the future visitor centre building itself is abandoned.
As journalist Sandugash Duisenova explained, the reason for her trip to Topolevka was an anonymous letter claiming that a cottage had supposedly been purchased for 150 million tenge for the needs of the regional governor, Beibit Isabayev.
The village of Topolevka is located approximately 160 kilometres from Taldykorgan. Getting there is not easy, but every spring, enthusiasts come here to see the Sievers apple tree in bloom.
According to Duisenova, the potential visitor centre is a large brick cottage on the outskirts of the village that is completely empty. The grounds are overgrown, there is no fence, the doors are warped, and the steps are broken.
Local residents said the plot previously belonged to a businessman who planned to open a hunting enterprise there. He then left, and the house was supposedly bought for 120 million tenge — for the visitor centre.
According to officials, the facility is intended "for the development of tourism." However, as the journalist notes, the village lacks basic elements of tourist infrastructure: there is no asphalt road, mobile phone connection, tourist trails, directional signs, toilets, or guides. The apple blossom, which lasts for several weeks in spring, remains the only tourist event of the year.
"Tourism is not an empty cottage. Tourism is a road, a toilet, a guide, trails, communication, infrastructure. None of that exists," Duisenova emphasises.
The journalist sent an official request to the Zhetysu regional administration. The reply came almost a month later. It stated that the regional department of entrepreneurship and industrial-innovative development had not purchased any facilities.
According to the document, "procedures are currently underway to transfer the facility, located in the village of Topolevka and intended for a visitor centre, to the balance of the state-owned institution 'Zhetysu Tourist Information Centre' from the Sarkand District administration on a gratuitous basis."
The journalist noted that the response contained no information on the cost, date of purchase, valuation results, or the legal basis for the transfer.
Meanwhile, it emerged that discussions about creating a visitor centre in the village of Topolevka had been ongoing since January last year. At that time, the possibility of renovating the old school building or constructing a new building was discussed.
"As the district governor, Galymzhan Mamanbayev, reported, it is proposed to either reconstruct the old school building, built in the 1960s, or build a new building on the site for the visitor centre. In total, there are two buildings with a total area of 659 square metres. The area of the land is 1.4 hectares," the report states.