First cross-river railway bridge between China and Russia completed

A new bridge that will link Russia and China's railway systems was completed on August 17, 2021, seven years after its much-heralded groundbreaking. The structure's full name is the China-Russia Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye Bridge. It connects Tongjiang, a city in China's far northeastern Heilongjiang province, with Nizhneleninskoye, a town across the border with Russia along the banks of the Amur River.

Heilongjiang province's capital is Harbin, known for its annual snow and ice festival. This means that China's northeast railway network can now be connected with the Russian Siberian Railway. The bridge is 2,215 meters (7,300 feet) long and has been seven years in the making. Both countries held groundbreaking ceremonies in February 2014. The bridge structure was finished in 2019, and the final piece of track laid on August 17. The majority of the bridge -- 1,886 meters (6,200 feet) -- is on the Chinese side.

The Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye Bridge isn't the only bridge linking two of the world's biggest countries. A road bridge -- which can handle regular freight coming on trucks but not railway trains -- was unveiled in 2019, connecting Heihe in China and Blagoveshchensk in Russia.

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