Feb. 16 – Russia and China will begin a new passenger and cargo route linking Yichun City in Heilongjiang Province in northeast China with Birobidzhan.
Birobidzhan is the capital city of Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast and located nearby the Trans-Siberian railway.The city has an active Jewish community with two synagogues and a Birobidzhan Jewish National University. A Chinese road transport official with the provincial communications and transport bureau Li Xiaohao told Xinhua that the Heilongjiang has 48 road transport routes with Russia, covering Russia cities of Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Chita and Ulan-Ude.
“It is the first transport service line linking Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast, which is having an increasing personnel exchanges with Heilongjiang,” he said.
The 410 kilometer route will have a cargo transport business open to foreign companies on the international routes while also requiring them to invest in shares less than 49 percent of the operating passenger transport service.
