New Russia-China Ussuri River Cross-Border Checkpoint Opens

A new Russia-China cross-border checkpoint has opened, situated at Lesozavodsk, in Primorsky Krai. It is near to the Chinese city of Jixi in China’s Heilongjiang Province, where the Russia-China border runs down the length of the Ussuri River. Lesozavodsk is 10 kilometers from the Sino–Russian border and about 300 kilometers north of Vladivostok.

The Lesozavodsk checkpoint is a mixed crossing, meaning that cross border transport is carried out on ferries in summer, and via an ice crossing in the winter. It was opened on October 10.

The crossing is primarily intended to serve cargo flows for the construction of the underwater section of the gas pipeline across the Ussuri River, and it is possible that it may be temporary, although this depends upon the transport flow along the new Blagoveshchensk–Heihe road bridge between the two countries. Should this become busy, the Lesozavodsk crossing could be made permanent to reduce the strain at the Blagoveshchensk–Heihe crossing. The construction of the Ussuri River gas pipeline section will continue at least until 2027.

In addition, a new checkpoint is already in use in Khabarovsk, and a road crossing is planned to be built near the new Nizhneleninskoye–Tongjiang rail bridge in the Jewish Autonomous Okrug. Furthermore, a project to launch rail traffic with China across the Argun River near Priargunsk in Zabaikalsk is also under consideration.

The main beneficiary of the new transport crossing launch is Yakutia, which gains the shortest route to the China border.