China and Russia’s first cross-border passenger cableway is expected to be completed by the end of this year, allowing travelers to cross between the two countries in as little as six to eight minutes.
The main structure of the Heihe-Blagoveshchensk cableway across the Amur River — known in China as the Heilongjiang River — has been completed, with the overall project around 96 percent finished, according to Xinhua and Russian state news agency TASS.
Construction began in July 2019, with the Chinese terminal located on Daheihe Island in Heihe, Heilongjiang province, and the Russian terminal in a waterfront area in central Blagoveshchensk. The two cities face each other across the river and are only about 750 meters apart at their closest point.
The cableway stretches about 970 meters and will operate two large passenger cabins, each capable of carrying up to 110 people. The cabins can travel at speeds of up to 12 meters per second, while the system is designed to handle 2.6 million one-way passenger journeys annually.
Zhang Qijun, deputy director of the management committee of the China (Heilongjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone, said the project would give the city a three-tier cross-border transport network comprising a bridge, ferries and the cableway.
Authorities expect the year-round connection to support tourism, trade and logistics along the border. Russian projections suggest the number of foreign visitors to Blagoveshchensk could triple to about 918,000 a year by 2030.
