Ropeway of friendship

The new link - to encourage tourism between the two countries - will be constructed between Blagoveshchensk and Heihe, part of a 'common tourist zone' between the two cities. The Russian government hailed it as 'the world's first cross-border cableway'.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order authorising relevant government departments to clinch with the Chinese side an intergovernmental agreement on the construction, operation and maintenance of the 750-meter-long link. 

The cableway - called a ropeway in Chinese reports - is 'required to carry passengers and cargo in cable cars across the Russian-Chinese border. The infrastructure would include stations, support structures, equipment and auxiliary facilities', said the Russian government statement. 'The world's first cross-border cableway would encourage tourism in the border areas of the two countries and provide favourable conditions for a fast and convenient crossing of the Russian-Chinese border by individuals all year round,' it added. 

Designs of Golden Mile project on the banks of river Amur. Picture: Blagoveschensk administration 

The Amur River, known to the Chinese as the Heilongjiang River, is the border between the two countries. The project is slated to begin this year with approval of designs, with commissioning of the ropeway due in early 2018.

It is separate to a railway bridge linking Nizhneleninskoye in Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region with Tongjiang city in China's Heilongjiang Province, intended to boost trade. As Russia pivots towards Asia amid a cooling of relations with the West, it is getting encouragement - and investment - from China on developing a so-called Golden Mile on the banks of the Amur, including hotels and entertainment complexes, shopping malls and recreation zones.

There is also a sense of huge untapped potential benefiting both countries. 

Dim Gang, CEO of Beijing Feng Bao Heng Investment Co., said on Saturday: 'Our country's well-off tourists like Russia a lot. They like your paintings, ballet and other arts. They would be glad to experience the world-famous Russian hospitality. 

'The other thing that appeals to our tourists in Russia is its organic products. It is important for us that a Chinese tourist who comes to Blagoveshchensk sees first and foremost a European city and feels that he has not just crossed a border river, but a border between two cultures'.

'750-metre long cable car link between Russia and China across Amur'. Picture: Blagoveschensk administration 

Mr Gang is in Russia as part of a 17-member delegation from the Tourism Industry Association of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which includes senior Chinese tourism officials, representatives from Chinese big private companies, and the chairperson of the Chinese Business Women Association, Liu Ting, reported Interfax. 

Dim Gang said future plans include creating a common tourist zone between the two border cities. Chinese investors are already putting money into a land-creation project in Heihe.

'It will include hotel and entertainment complexes and recreation zones,' he said. 'We want to attract tourists from Shanghai, from Guangzhou, from southern China in general. Our aim is to have them visit not just the border city of Heihe but Blagoveshchensk as well. 

'This is why we are keen on the Golden Mile project. However, the projects to build a ropeway and a bridge across the trans-border Amur River have yet to begin.'

Chinese investors would be reluctant to consider big investments in Golden Mile infrastructure before a link is established across the  Amur, he warned.

Implementation of the agreement between the two countries 'would make the Amur Region more attractive to tourism and attract investment for development of a modern tourist infrastructure in the region and would promote socioeconomic development', said the Russian statement.