China - Russia First Cross-River Railroad Bridge Completed, Cut Travel Time By 10 Hours

The construction of this bridge is part of a dream to connect Beijing with London via train. (Source: china.org.cn)

JAKARTA - A new bridge that will connect Russia's and China's rail systems will be completed on August 17, 2021, seven years after the much-heralded groundbreaking.

Citing CNN August 20, the full name of the structure is the China-Russia Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye Bridge. The bridge connects Tongjiang, a city in China's far northeastern Heilongjiang Province, with Nizhneleninskoye, a city across the border with Russia along the banks of the Amur River.

The capital city of Heilongjiang Province is Harbin, which is famous for its annual snow and ice festival. By itself, this bridge can connect the railway network of northeast China with the Russian Siberian Railway.

Workers carry out final inspection of the bridge. (Source: china.org.cn)

The bridge is 2,215 meters (7,300 ft) long and took seven years to build. The two countries held a groundbreaking ceremony in February 2014. The bridge structure was completed in 2019 and the final section of the track was laid on 17 August.

The majority of the 1,886 meters (6,200 ft) long bridge is on the Chinese side. The Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye Bridge is not the only bridge that connects the two largest countries in the world. A road bridge, which can be used by regular transport by trucks, was inaugurated in 2019, connecting Heihe in China and Blagoveshchensk in Russia.

This is the first railway bridge between the two countries to cross the river. (Source: china.org.cn)

The two cities are also working on what will become the world's first cross-border cable car, designed by Dutch architect UNStudio. When finished, it will be able to transport tourists from one side to the other in less than eight minutes.

In addition, Mohe, China's northernmost ice-covered city, was finally connected by highway to Beijing in 2019.

The two cities are also working on what will become the world's first cross-border cable car. (Source: china.org.cn)

To note, the Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye bridge is the latest project completed under China's ambitious Belt and Road initiative, which aims to, among other things, connect Eurasia through infrastructure.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has stated the goal is to allow getting from China to London via train, making the bridge an important next step on a longer journey across the continent.

According to China's National Radio, with the completion of the bridge, the rail transportation distance from China's Heilongjiang province to Moscow via Tongjiang will be shortened by 809 kilometers (500 miles), cutting 10 hours of transportation time. The bridge can reportedly handle 21 million metric tons of cargo per year.