The Heihe highway port in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province officially resumes two-way customs clearances for goods exchanges on February 10, 2023. Photo: Shan Jie/GT

Heihe, a border city between China and Russia in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, is seeing a revival in the post-epidemic period as cross-border exchanges of goods have returned to normal since the country downgraded its COVID-19 management measures one month ago. 

A bus carrying 19 Russian drivers arrived at the arrival hall of the Heihe-Blagoveshchensk cross-border highway bridge on Friday morning. The drivers have to go through procedures at the hall before they are allowed to enter the city to pick up construction vehicles and drive them back to Russia. 

Trucks taking goods such as soybean oil from Russia continually passed through the guard points of the Heihe port via the Heihe-Blagoveshchensk cross-border highway bridge and parked in front of the arrival hall while awaiting handling procedures. 

The Heihe highway port officially resumed two-way customs clearances for goods exchanges on Friday. As of 2 pm that day, the port had conducted clearances for more than 100 vehicles and 1,800 tons of goods, China Central Television reported. 

"Since the outbreak of the epidemic three years ago, we have been conducting non-contact security checks on entry personnel in accordance with national requirements," Lu Xiao, a deputy captain on duty at the Heihe Entry-Exit Border Inspection Station, told the Global Times. "Now, with the adjustment of the policy, we are able to conduct face-to-face checks, which is much more convenient for both travelers and the border guards," he said.

Lu expected that with temperatures rising, cross-border tourists will gradually return to Heihe, and the number of visitors will peak in summer, the May Day holiday and the National Day holidays.

According to China Central Television, the number of cross-border trips made via the Heihe port exceeded one million in 2019. 

Across the Heilongjiang River, the city of Heihe neighbors Blagoveshchensk, the capital city of Russia's Amur Oblast, which is also an important town in the Far East of Russia. Heihe port is not only an important channel for imports and exports, but also a gateway through which Chinese and Russian tourists go to each other's countries.

According to the Heihe customs, the total value of imports and exports in goods made in Heihe exceeded 16.5 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) in 2022, the highest since 2014.

The Heihe-Blagoveshchensk cross-border highway bridge was officially opened in June, 2022. With a length of 1,284 meters and a width of 14.5 meters, the cross-border highway bridge is a key part of a 19.9 km-long highway project that links the Jilin-Heilongjiang expressway in northeast China and a highway in Blagoveshchensk.

This bridge is expected to become a new westward Eurasian passageway linking China and Russia, which will be of great significance to promoting the high-quality development of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

In 2022, China's trade with Russia hit a record 1.28 trillion yuan ($190 billion), increasing 34.3 percent year-on-year, according to Chinese customs data. China and Russia have set a goal of lifting bilateral trade to $200 billion annually by 2024, and they are on track to meeting it. 

A bus carrying 19 Russian drivers arrives at the arrival hall of the Heihe-Blagoveshchensk cross-border highway bridge in Heihe, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on February 10, 2023. Photo: Shan Jie/GT

Heihe merchants are confident that bilateral trade will grow this year along with the shift in COVID-19 measures and the opening of the Heihe-Blagoveshchensk bridge.

For some of the Russian drivers, it is their first time coming to Heihe since China downgraded its COVID-19 measures. This means that after three years, they can contact Chinese border inspection personnel face-to-face and experience an offline inspection procedure for the first time.  

Anatolii Agoshkov, a 60-year-old Russian truck driver, told the Global Times at the arrival hall on Friday that he was so happy and excited to meet the inspection personnel at the Heihe port, whom he considers his old friends, face-to-face after three years.

Agoshkov came to Heihe as a truck driver in 1990 for the first time. Over the past 30 years, he said he has witnessed great changes in the border city and cannot wait to visit it with his family and taste his favorite local barbecue.  

Liu Haoxin, a police officer, was on duty on Friday in the falling snow at the No.1 post of Heihe port, which is right on the Heilongjiang Bridge. This post has police officers on duty 24 hours a day to ensure the bridge's safe operation. 

It is the first post from Russia to China, as well as China's "last line of defense." "Our work environment is harsh, but we understand the importance of our duty," Liu said.