Recently, on the banks of Heihe River in Heilongjiang Province, an aerial passage spanning the Sino Russian border river has begun to take shape. The main project of the Heihe Blagoveshchensk Cross Heilongjiang Cross border Cableway has been fully completed, with an overall progress of 96%. From the official start of construction in 2019 to the completion of the main body today, this world's first cross-border passenger cable car has undergone 7 years of construction and is about to shorten the shortest straight-line distance of 750 meters across the river from the China Russia border to 6 minutes, completely filling the gap in short distance customs clearance between China and Russia.

6-minute high-speed cross-border travel

The total length of the cableway is about 970 meters, connecting Heihe City in China and Blagoveshchensk City in Russia. The two cities face each other across the Heilongjiang River, and the shortest straight-line distance is only 750 meters. The maximum speed of the elevator car can reach 12 meters per second, and it only takes 6 to 8 minutes for one-way cross-border travel, achieving the ultimate efficiency of flying across the river in three minutes and clearing customs quickly in ten minutes. A single car can carry 110 people, with an annual one-way passenger throughput of up to 2.6 million people. The plan is to achieve uninterrupted operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, completely breaking the pain points of traditional ferries and highway bridges that are limited by weather and time periods. The project officially started construction in July 2019. Putin publicly evaluated its significance and requested relevant Russian departments to focus on promoting its implementation at the national level.

Fill in the gaps in logistics

The traditional customs clearance mode has obvious bottlenecks. In winter, the frozen river surface, rain, snow, and heavy fog weather cause ferry services to be suspended, and highway bridges are severely congested during peak hours. Short distance business negotiations, sample transportation, and small cross-border logistics take a long time and have poor flexibility. The cross-border cableway will optimize the Sino Russian cross-border logistics ecosystem from three dimensions. The cross-border commuting time for Russian foreign trade enterprises has been reduced to less than ten minutes, significantly saving business travel time and transportation costs. For cross-border e-commerce small items, fresh samples, precision accessories, and lightweight logistics needs, Cableway can build a short distance high-speed express channel to achieve same day customs clearance and delivery. Cableway can divert a large number of business and tourist flows, effectively alleviate the pressure of the Heihe Port Bridge and ferry clearance, and make the transportation channel for bulk goods more smooth. Keywords: the Belt and Road news, cross-border cableway, international, logistics

Stereoscopic channel forming

Cableway does not undertake the function of bulk freight transportation, but can accurately fill the gap in cross-border trade, business commuting, and small express transportation. It complements the functions of Heihe Bridge and ferry routes, and builds a multi-level and fully covered cross-border transportation network. From a single ferry operation to a three-dimensional cross-border transportation system, the Heihe Port between China and Russia will form a differentiated traffic pattern of using large bridges for bulk cargo transportation, cable cars for high-frequency small items, and ferries for emergency transportation. Cableway combines transportation and sightseeing attributes, and will become a characteristic cultural and tourism business card of the China Russia border, driving the development of supporting industries such as cross-border tourism, accommodation, and warehousing, and deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Russia in the new era. With the completion of the cross-border cableway within this year and its official operation next year, this air cross-border channel will continue to reduce the cost of cross-border trade between China and Russia and improve cooperation efficiency.Editor/Gao Xue