Sino-Russian floating river ice road opens for freight traffic on border

THE river-crossing path made by ice-supported floating objects for the winter season, connecting China's northeastern city Heihe to Blagoveshchensk on the Russian side, has opened for traffic, Xinhua reports.

The ice path is 614 metres long length and 13 metres wide. It can hold trucks of 40 tonnes or less. The floating part is made of nine converted feeder ships. The ships were put into the frozen river after using an ice breaker to break the covering ice and were linked together. Anchors on the ships were then dropped into the river.

Heihe checkpoint's opening days will be extended by another 60 to 70 days with the path.