China, Russia to build first cross-border passenger cableway

China and Russia will build a cableway across river on their shared border to promote tourism and facilitate border crossing between the two countries, the Chinese investor announced Tuesday.

[File photo: Wechat]

The cableway will cross the Heilongjiang River, known in Russia as the Amur River, linking Heihe in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province with Blagoveshchensk in Russia.

It will be the first cross-border passenger cableway between the two countries.

With investment of 799 million yuan (120 million U.S. dollars) from the Chinese side, the construction of the cableway is expected to start in spring 2018.

"The cableway will make border crossings between the two countries more convenient and will also become a tourist attraction on the river," said Li Bo, deputy head of customs bureau in Heihe.

A road bridge between the two cities is also under construction. It is expected to be put into operation in October 2019.