The new bridge, whose full name is the China-Russia Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye Bridge, connects Tongjiang (a city in Heilongjiang province, northeastern China) with Nizhneleninskoye (a Russian border town along the Amur River).
The completion of the cross-border bridge means China's northeastern railway network can be connected to Russia's Siberian railway.
The 2,215-meter-long bridge took seven years to build, starting with a groundbreaking ceremony in February 2014. The bridge structure was completed in 2019 and the final rail section was completed on August 17, 2021. The bulk of the 1,886-meter-long bridge is on the Chinese side.
Dong Giang-Nizhneleninskoye Bridge completed after 7 years of construction.
Workers celebrate the completion of the final stretch of track on the bridge.
The Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye Bridge is the latest project completed under China's Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to connect Europe and Asia through infrastructure. The completion of the bridge will shorten the rail travel distance from China's Heilongjiang Province to Moscow via Tongjiang by 809 kilometers, cutting travel time by 10 hours, according to China National Radio. The bridge will reportedly be able to handle 21 million tons of cargo per year.
The bridgehead is on the Chinese side.
The Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye Bridge is not the only bridge connecting Russia and China. A road bridge opened in 2019 connecting Heihe in China and Blagoveshchensk in Russia.
The two cities are also working on the world's first cross-country cable car, designed by Dutch architects UNStudio, which, when completed, will be able to transport tourists from one side of the country to the other in less than eight minutes.
