Chita is a city and the administrative center of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, located on the Trans-Siberian Railway route, roughly 900 kilometers …Chita is a city and the administrative center of Zabaykalsky Krai, Russia, located on the Trans-Siberian Railway route, roughly 900 kilometers east of Irkutsk. Pyotr Beketov's Cossacks founded Chita in 1653. The name of the settlement came from the local River Chita.