[1] Endemic to Northeast Asia, E. schrenckii is found in China, Korea, Mongolia, and Russia.

The common name, Russian rat snake, is misleading as only a small portion of the geographic range of E. schrenckii is in Russia.

[7] In the Netherlands the species occurs as an introduced exotic around Groningen airport near Eelde, where it was first seen in the mid nineteen nineties.

However, the snakes which were hardier than expected bred, and the species is now gradually increasing its range.

[8] As one common name, Manchurian black water snake, suggests, this species inhabits fairly moist biotopes such as forest clearings, scrub, farmland, hiding amongst cavities in trees, piles of stone or wood, and when threatened can flee up a tree or into the water.

It is often found in wetlands, but also found in a wide variety of mainly moist environments such as scrub land, farmland, river banks, swamp land, gardens, stones, log piles, forests, and up in trees.

The Manchurian black water snake is an excellent swimmer (hence one common name) and is a very good climber, as it is semi-arboreal.