Kurai Village is located At 826 km of Chuya highway in the Kureyka River valley. Kurai means “dry land” translated from the Mongolian. The village was founded in 1901. Russian peasants were obliged to to settle in Kurai Village accordance with plan of resettlement. It was supposed to settle 25 souls. But nobody colonized it for 20 years (1878-1898 gg.) Only 40 Altai families lived here. V.I. Vereshchagin, traveling Altai region in 1898, described the village as follows: "Kurai station consists of a church, clerk hut and several Kyrgyz yurts on the shore of the river Kyzyl-Tash." Now the population of Kurai is 1.4 thousand. There were large geological party in the recent past. Now a road service is based in village, also shops, hotel, post office, and even new stadium. Recently, paragliders settled on outskirts of Kurai Village where international paragliding competition is arranged.