Suifenhe heilongjiang is created. Other small checkpoints in pr

As an experiment, based on the decision of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Suifenhe became the first platform in the PRC for the implementation of free circulation of foreign currency on a par with the national one, which will allow you to freely store funds and withdraw them from your account, pay for services and goods in Russian rubles.

Population

More than 60,000 people live in the city district (more than 100 thousand visitors).

Trade with Russia

Suifenhe is the largest crossing between Russia and China in Heilongjiang province. Among the main crossings of Heilongjiang, Suifenhe has the absolute advantage in terms of export and import volume. The share of trade with Russia at the Suifenhe crossing is almost a quarter of that of the entire Heilongjiang province.

History of trade development in Suifenhe

• 1899 - Suifenhe crossing formed.
• July 1903 - Direct communication between Suifenhe and Manchuria was opened.
• 1992 - officially recognized by the PRC as the first open border city.
• January 1994 - received the status of the International Bilateral Passenger and Freight Crossing.
• June 1999 - an agreement was signed between the governments of Russia and China on the creation of the Suifenhe-Pogranichny trade complex.
• January 16, 2000 - the official opening of the road crossing.
• 2001 - Suifenhe city is approved by the State Forestry Administration, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of the People's Republic of China, the General Administration of Customs as the only border crossing in Heilongjiang Province, designed for the import of roundwood, its processing and the export of lumber.
• December 2013 - by decision of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, it became the first city in China where, along with the national currency, the Russian ruble is used for payments.

Railway crossing Suifenhe-Grodekovo

The only railway crossing with Russia in Heilongjiang province connects the Manchuria-Suifenhe railway and the Russian Far East Railway. There are also two internal railway lines leading to the northeastern regions: Harbin-Suifenhe and Binzhou. The total capacity of the railway crossing is 10 million tons of cargo, and the passenger traffic is 1 million people. in year .

Road crossing Suifenhe-Border

The Suifenhe road crossing is located in the eastern part of Heilongjiang, bordering the Primorsky Territory of Russia, the corresponding road crossing on the Russian border is Pogranichny.

External highways: Suifenhe-Pogranichny, Suifenhe-Ussuriysk, Suifenhe-Vladivostok. Inland: State Highway 301, Suifenhe-Manchuria Expressway. Connects 4 major cities of Heilongjiang province - Harbin, Qiqihar, Mudanjiang, Daqing. The passage is open 12 hours a day.

The total annual throughput is 12 million tons, the passenger traffic reaches 1.6 million people.

Currently, Suifenhe's transport infrastructure is undergoing another upgrade, in which the Chinese government has invested 1 billion yuan. By 2018, an international center for multimodal passenger transportation will be built here - by road and rail.

Airport

It is planned to build an airport that will be able to serve up to 450 thousand passengers annually, as well as have an annual turnover of 3.6 thousand tons of cargo.

Import timber in Suifenhe

The Suifenhe Crossing is the only one in Heilongjiang Province approved by the State Forestry Administration, Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Customs, a crossing designated for the import of roundwood, processing, and re-export of lumber.

With the start of the implementation in 1998 of the state policy of "greening" (reduction and regulation of deforestation in China), Suifenhe began to import almost 1/4 of the total volume of Russian timber imported into China.

Because of this, it has gained fame as the capital of China's woodworking industry. Today, Suifenhe is the largest collection and distribution center for timber imports in the northern Chinese mainland. Mostly raw wood and sawn timber are imported. Priority species: spruce, larch, pine, linden, birch, oak.

Timber import volumes from Russia via Suifenhe

The dynamics of the import of roundwood and sawn timber from Russia through the Suifenhe crossing corresponds to the general situation in the Chinese timber import market. The share of sawlogs exported to China through Suifenhe during 2005-2015 did not go beyond the corridor of 20-30% of the total volume imported to China from Russia.

The maximum volume of roundwood imports through Suifenhe was recorded in the so-called. "golden years" - in 2006, 2007 and 2008 it was 6.65, 7.02 and 6.38 million m³, respectively.

After Russia raised export duties on raw wood, its import to China, including through Suifenhe, began to decline, although the results of 2014 showed a positive trend.

Thus, in 2012 and 2013, 3.5 and 3.6 million m³ were imported through this crossing, respectively, and in 2014 - 4.4 million m³ (+18%). The share of exports of Russian sawn timber through Suifenhe shows a steady positive trend and impressive growth rates, both in relative and physical terms.

In 2008, only 49,000 m³ of sawn timber was imported through Suifenhe, which accounted for 2.5% of all sawn timber imported to China from Russia that year. In just 5 years, this figure increased in physical terms to 1.09 million m³ (by 2224%), which accounted for 22% of the total sawn timber imports from Russia to China (+880%) . Thus, the growth rate of sawn timber exports through Suifenhe has significantly outpaced that of the entire country.

Timber processing market in Suifenhe

Timber processing enterprises are an integral part of Suifenhe's economy, both in terms of tax revenue for the city budget and in terms of job creation.

In order to reduce logistics costs, many Chinese woodworking enterprises located in the center of the country are moving their production sites to Suifenhe, creating a new production infrastructure.

Of the wood imported through the Suifenhe crossing, about 40% remains for processing in the city, the rest of the timber is sent by rail to the interior of the country.

The territory of the industrial park, with an area of ​​4.37 km², organized in Suifenhe, is designed for more than 420 enterprises. Currently, 300 large and small woodworking enterprises are located here, of which almost 70% are engaged in primary wood processing. Their total production capacity is more than 4500 thousand m³.

About 55% of Suifenhe enterprises have created joint projects with Russian companies to develop and use forest resources in Russia. Of these, 57% of enterprises process wood, and only 5.7% of enterprises are directly involved in felling roundwood without further processing.

With Russia restricting roundwood exports, many private processing enterprises in Suifenhe are moving their activities abroad and organizing wood processing there.

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Notes

An excerpt characterizing Suifenhe

Alexandra (Alexis) Obolenskaya Vasily and Anna Seryogin

Probably, one had to be a truly FRIEND in order to find the strength in oneself to make such a choice and go of one's own free will to where one was going, as one goes only to one's own death. And this "death", unfortunately, was then called Siberia ...
I was always very sad and hurt for our, so proud, but so mercilessly trampled by Bolshevik boots, beautiful Siberia! ... And no words can tell how much suffering, pain, lives and tears this proud, but exhausted to the limit, land absorbed ... Is it because it was once the heart of our ancestral homeland, "far-sighted revolutionaries" decided to denigrate and destroy this land, choosing it for their diabolical purposes?... After all, for many people, even after many years, Siberia still remained a "cursed" land, where someone's father died, someone's brother, someone then the son ... or maybe even someone's whole family.
My grandmother, whom I, to my great chagrin, never knew, at that time was pregnant with my father and endured the road very hard. But, of course, there was no need to wait for help from anywhere ... So the young Princess Elena, instead of the quiet rustle of books in the family library or the usual sounds of the piano when she played her favorite works, this time listened only to the ominous sound of wheels, which, as it were menacingly they were counting the remaining hours of her life, so fragile and turned into a real nightmare... She was sitting on some sacks at the dirty car window and staring at the last pitiful traces of the "civilization" so familiar and familiar to her going farther and farther away...
Grandpa's sister, Alexandra, with the help of friends, managed to escape at one of the stops. By common agreement, she was supposed to get (if she was lucky) to France, where at the moment her whole family lived. True, none of those present could imagine how she could do this, but since this was their only, albeit small, but certainly the last hope, it was too much luxury to refuse it for their completely hopeless situation. At that moment, Alexandra's husband, Dmitry, was also in France, with the help of whom they hoped, already from there, to try to help the grandfather's family get out of that nightmare into which life had so ruthlessly thrown them, with the vile hands of brutalized people ...
Upon arrival in Kurgan, they were settled in a cold basement, without explaining anything and without answering any questions. Two days later, some people came for grandfather, and stated that they allegedly came to “escort” him to another “destination” ... They took him away like a criminal, not allowing him to take any things with him, and not deigning to explain where and for how long they are taking it. Nobody ever saw Grandpa again. After some time, an unknown military man brought grandfather's personal belongings to the grandmother in a dirty coal sack ... without explaining anything and leaving no hope of seeing him alive. On this, any information about grandfather's fate ceased, as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth without any traces and evidence ...
The tormented, tormented heart of poor Princess Elena did not want to accept such a terrible loss, and she literally bombarded the local staff officer with requests to clarify the circumstances of the death of her beloved Nikolai. But the "red" officers were blind and deaf to the requests of a lonely woman, as they called her - "from the noble", who was for them just one of the thousands and thousands of nameless "numbered" units that meant nothing in their cold and cruel world ... It was a real hell, from which there was no way out back to that familiar and kind world in which her home, her friends, and everything that she was accustomed to from an early age, and that she loved so much and sincerely, remained .. And there was no one who could help or even gave the slightest hope of surviving.
The Seryogins tried to keep their presence of mind for three, and tried by any means to cheer up Princess Elena, but she went deeper and deeper into an almost complete stupor, and sometimes sat for days on end in an indifferently frozen state, almost not reacting to the attempts of her friends to save her heart and mind from final depression. There were only two things that briefly brought her back to the real world - if someone started talking about her unborn child or if any, even the slightest, new details came about about the alleged death of her beloved Nikolai. She desperately wanted to know (while she was still alive) what really happened, and where her husband was, or at least where his body was buried (or abandoned).
Unfortunately, there is almost no information left about the life of these two courageous and bright people, Elena and Nikolai de Rohan-Hesse-Obolensky, but even those few lines from the two remaining letters from Elena to her daughter-in-law, Alexandra, which somehow survived in Alexandra's family archives in France show how deeply and tenderly the princess loved her missing husband. Only a few handwritten sheets have survived, some lines of which, unfortunately, cannot be made out at all. But even what has been achieved screams with deep pain about a great human misfortune, which, without having experienced it, is not easy to understand and impossible to accept.

April 12, 1927 From a letter from Princess Elena to Alexandra (Alix) Obolenskaya:
“I am very tired today. She returned from Sinyachikha completely broken. The wagons are packed with people, it would be a shame even to carry cattle in them………………………….. We stopped in the forest – it smelled so delicious of mushrooms and strawberries there… It’s hard to believe that these unfortunate people were killed there! Poor Ellochka (meaning the Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, who was the relative of my grandfather along the line of Hesse) was killed nearby, in this terrible Staroselim mine ... what a horror! My soul cannot accept this. Remember, we said: “Let the earth be down”?.. Great God, how can such a land be down?!..
Oh, Alix, my dear Alix! How can you get used to such horror? ...................... ..................... I'm so tired of begging and humiliating myself... Everything will be completely useless if the Cheka does not agree to send a request to Alapaevsk ...... I will never know where to look for him, and I will never know what they did to him. Not an hour passes without me thinking about such a familiar face for me ... What a horror it is to imagine that he lies in some abandoned pit or at the bottom of a mine! .. How can you endure this everyday nightmare, knowing that already I will never see him?!.. Just as my poor Vasilek (the name that was given to my father at birth) will never see him... Where is the limit of cruelty? And why do they call themselves human?
My dear, kind Alix, how I miss you!.. If only I knew that everything is all right with you, and that Dmitry, dear to your soul, does not leave you in these difficult moments........... ................................... If I had even a drop of hope to find my dear Nikolai, I would seems to have taken it all. The soul seems to have gotten used to this terrible loss, but it still hurts very much ... Everything without him is different and so deserted.

May 18, 1927 An excerpt from a letter from Princess Elena to Alexandra (Alix) Obolenskaya:
“The same nice doctor came again. I can’t prove to him that I simply don’t have more strength. He says that I must live for the sake of little Vasilka ... Is it so? .. What will he find on this terrible land, my poor baby? .................................. Cough resumed, sometimes it becomes impossible to breathe. The doctor always leaves some drops, but I am ashamed that I cannot thank him in any way. .................................. Sometimes I dream about our favorite room. And my piano... God, how far away it all is! And was it all? ............................... and cherries in the garden, and our nanny, so affectionate and kind. Where is all this now? ................................ (out the window?) I don’t want to look, it’s all covered in soot and only dirty boots are visible … I hate damp.”

My poor grandmother, because of the dampness in the room, which was not heated even in summer, soon fell ill with tuberculosis. And, apparently weakened from the shocks, starvation and illness, she died during childbirth, never seeing her baby, and not finding (at least!) The grave of his father. Literally before her death, she took the word from the Seryogins that, no matter how difficult it was for them, they would take the newborn (if he, of course, survives) to France, to his grandfather's sister. Which, at that wild time, to promise, of course, was almost “wrong”, since the Seryogins, unfortunately, had no real opportunity to do this ... But they, nevertheless, promised her that at least somehow to ease the last moments of her, so brutally ruined, still very young life, and so that her soul, tormented by pain, could, at least with little hope, leave this cruel world ... And even knowing that they will do everything possible to keep their word to Elena , The Seryogins still didn’t really believe in their hearts that they would ever be able to bring this whole crazy idea to life ...

Perhaps a rare Primorye, but what is a Primorye - a rare Far East resident has not been to the Chinese border city of Suifenhe, known as the most fertile place for shopping tours. And this city is also the starting point for more distant tourist routes - to Harbin, Shenyang, Anshan, Dalian.

But if the “transiters” have practically no time to get to know the city better, then the majority of tourists staying for two or three days do not even try to do this, focusing all their attention on the two main “shopping” streets. But in vain. After all, Suifenhe lives not only by trade.

Correspondent "K" got a rare chance to ask about him Head of the Secretariat of the People's Congress of Suifenhe Liu Jiong Wen.

Mr. Liu, your city is quite young, but in a few decades it has turned from a small border settlement into a modern center of one of the counties of Mudanjiang with a developed infrastructure. How many people live here now, are there many Russians among them?

Suifenhe received city status in 1975. Today, its population, including visitors, is about 120 thousand people. The maximum reached several years ago, when we received 2,000 tourists a day, was 200,000 people. Unfortunately, due to fluctuations in the exchange rate of the ruble against our national currency, as well as the emergence of online stores, fewer Russians are now coming to us.

Some open their own business with us, someone buys apartments and stays to live. There are a dozen and a half mixed families - Chinese guys who married Russian girls. International marriages are not uncommon.

You have recently built a new railway station for high-speed trains. When will the first such train set off and how close will other Chinese cities get to Suifenhe?

Now the railway communication in our country is united into a single network. So, having reached by high-speed train from us to Harbin, and not in 7 hours, as before, but in just 2.5, it will be possible, by transferring to another, to go to Shanghai, Beijing, and so on. From December 26, when the solemn departure of the first high-speed train on the Suifenhe-Harbin route will take place, the travel time will be seriously reduced. As already mentioned, we will travel to Harbin only 2.5 hours, to Shenyang - 6, to Dalian - 7. I invite the correspondents of your newspaper to become the first passengers on this train.

Mr. Liu, there is an electronic encyclopedia on the Internet, the Russian version of which is called Wikipedia. From it, I learned that an airport was being built in Suifenhe. This is true?

Yes, 30 kilometers from the city. Work is in full swing. The project completion date is 2023.

What sights would you recommend visiting?

In the summer, we have a very developed so-called red tourism, which involves visiting memorable places related to the history of the Communist Party, the life of its leaders and the revolutionary past.

We are proud of the feats of the fighters of the 88th Separate Rifle Brigade of the Far Eastern Front, in which the soldiers of China and the Soviet Union stood shoulder to shoulder against the Japanese invaders. One of the main tasks of this formation of only four thousand people was reconnaissance. By the summer of 1945, they studied the situation in the provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin, the structure of the Japanese fortified areas, the places of headquarters and ammunition depots, the number of troops, etc. The Soviet command used this valuable information to plan and conduct combat operations with the Japanese Kwantung Army. Many soldiers of the 88th brigade died. In memory of their feat, we are going to build a park. Another folk heroine is Galina Dubeeva (Galya Zhang), a military translator who was killed by the Japanese on August 11, 1945. In 2009, the inhabitants of our city erected a monument to her and named one of the streets in her honor.

We also have a museum of the VI Congress of the Communist Party of China, which was held from June 18 to July 11, 1928 in the Soviet Union, but all the delegates went to Moscow through Suifenhe.

In winter, tourists will be interested in the ski base, located 15 km from the city. Many people like our ecological garden "LanYan" and the temple and monastery complex Guangming, where large-scale restoration and restoration work is currently underway. In the warm season, in Beihai Park, on the lake, a light and music fountain works for an hour from 19.00.

We all know that Suifenhe is an outpost of Russian-Chinese trade in Primorye, but do you have any industrial enterprises or factories?

Certainly. In addition to three special zones: complex duty-free, cross-border technical and economic cooperation and cross-border economic cooperation (the latter was established in 1992), which account for about 10% of the total volume of Russian-Chinese border trade, we are also developing our own production.

Mostly processing, we produce furniture, mixed fodder, soybean oil (from Russian raw materials) at our factories. We have a timber company engaged in the import of wood from Russia, its processing and processing, including deep processing - fuel briquettes are made from production waste. The products of our brewery are also in demand.

- Since ancient times, the Celestial Empire was considered an agrarian country, now the locals are engaged in crop production?

Very small areas are allocated for crops, orchards, but sufficient to provide themselves with vegetables and fruits. But woody black mushrooms are grown by farmers primarily for sale.

- How many kindergartens, schools, hospitals in your city?

Two public gardens and more than ten private ones. There are five elementary schools, four middle and two senior schools, about 20 thousand children study in them. We have five hospitals, the largest is Narodnaya, it is well equipped, staffed by doctors of various specializations, high-class professionals. In addition, each of the 10 city districts has its own points for the provision of medical services (analogous to Russian polyclinics - author's note), where people go if they have a slight ailment. And in serious cases, they go to the hospital.

- Are there any streets with Russian names in Suifenhe?

Yes, Ussuriysky Prospekt. It stretches between Behai Park and Guangming Monastery, and is named so because it is a direct road to the customs crossing and the sister city of Ussuriysk. The ties between our cities are long-standing and are getting stronger year by year. We are glad to see Russians as our guests and we say to everyone: “Welcome!”

Suifenhe

The Suifenhe checkpoint is located in the northeast of Heilongjiang province. As already mentioned, one of the two railway lines connecting China with Russia passes through it. This railway is the main route from China to the Russian Far East, which has rich forest resources. At present, a passenger railway connection has been established between Harbin (the administrative center of the Heilongjiang province) and the cities. Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, the route of which passes through the city of Suifenhe.

Since 1998, Suifenhe has had two Class 2 Customs offices, one for rail transport and the other for road transport. Despite the proximity of the location of these two customs to each other, the customs authorities decided to separate them on a functional basis in order to more accurately identify the cargo flows passing through the railway and highways.

heihe

Heihe is also an important checkpoint on the Russian-Chinese border, located approximately in the middle of the Heilongjiang section of the border. Cross-border trade at this point is very active, despite the lack of rail links. Since 1999, the Russian-Chinese timber market has been operating in Heihe, contributing to the development of trade in this area. Covering an area of ​​17 hectares, this timber market is the largest on the 4,000-kilometer border between China and Russia. In recent years, the volume of supplies through this checkpoint has also increased significantly - from 1.923 m 3 in 1996 to 98.675 m 3 in 1999. This checkpoint is not yet large in terms of the absolute volume of traffic, but it has great potential for growth.

Hunchun

The city of Hunchun is located on the section of the Russian-Chinese border, passing through the territory of Jilin Province (Girin). China at this point borders on the southernmost corner of the Russian Far East. Trade in timber and other goods is not very active here, partly because of the remoteness, partly because of poor transport options (lack of rail links). Hunchun Customs has a rank of 2nd class and is subordinate to the 1st class customs in Changchun (the capital of Jilin Province). Data on imports of Russian timber through the Hunchun customs are included in the statistics of the provincial customs administration, after which they are reported to Beijing.

Erlian

Erlian is one of the main checkpoints, the only one on the border between the PRC and the Republic of Mongolia, located near the middle of the border with Mongolia, passing through the ARIM. Here is the only railway connecting these two countries. Another passenger train Moscow-Beijing, passing through the territory of Mongolia, crosses the border here. Erlian is an important point through which indirect trade between China and Russia is carried out. In this capacity, Erlian ranks third among the checkpoints in terms of Russian timber supplies. According to international practice, the country of origin is indicated in the statistics of import operations, therefore, despite the fact that the purchased timber passes through Mongolia, it is still counted as Russian. There is a Class 2 Customs in Erlian, subordinate to the Class 1 Customs in Hohhot, the administrative center of the IMAR. In total, under the control of the customs of the city of Hohhot, there are two customs offices of the 2nd class - in the city of Erlian and the city of Baotou. The latter is a small customs office away from the border.

It should be pointed out that according to information received in a telephone conversation from a customs officer in Hohhot, 100% of the timber trade data refers to the Erlian border crossing point, since this is the only border crossing point with Mongolia. It follows from the statistics that Erlian ranks third in terms of the amount of Russian timber passed after the cities of Manchuria and Suifenhe. In 1999, 21.7% of the total volume of timber purchased in Russia was imported through this checkpoint (and in total the three largest checkpoints pass more than 90%).

Alashankou

Alashankou is an important checkpoint on the border between China and Kazakhstan, a former republic of the USSR. It is located in the north of China's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The railway connecting the two countries passes through Alashankou. Alashankou Customs belongs to the 2nd class and is under the control of the customs of Urumqi, the capital of the XUAR. In total, Urumqi Class 1 Customs manages ten Class 2 customs, mainly located along the Chinese border with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Through Alashankou, indirect trade with Russia is carried out.

Other small checkpoints in prov. heilongjiang

In addition to the four checkpoints mentioned above, through which direct and indirect deliveries are made, there are ten other smaller checkpoints and second-class customs through which Russian timber is imported. All of them are located in Heilongjiang province.

Based on the volume of imports and species distribution of wood in 1999, these checkpoints can be divided into three groups. The first group will include the only checkpoint (Fuyuan), through which a relatively large amount of coniferous wood was imported from Russia only in 1999. The second group (Tongjiang, Dongning, Hulin and Fujin) - checkpoints through which more than a thousand cubic meters were delivered per year during the period 1995-99. The third group includes five checkpoints (Lobei, Zhaohe, Mishan, Jiaying and Xunke), through which in 1999 very small quantities of timber were imported, not exceeding a thousand cubic meters. These checkpoints, except for Mishan, began to work with Russian timber since 1998. Through Xunke and Jiaying, located in the northern part of Heilongjiang, mainly coniferous species are imported, and through the rest of the checkpoints of this group, mainly hardwood round timber.

On April 27, the State Council Approval of the Plan for the Establishment of the Suifenhe-Dongning Priority Experimental Zone for Development and Opening up of Heilongjiang Province (Document No. Guohan (2016) No. 70) was published. According to this document, the creation of this zone is expected, the project implementation plan will be developed by the State Committee for Development and Reform.

According to Chang Xiuze, a researcher at the Institute of Macroeconomics of the State Council for Development and Reform, the Suifenhe-Dongning Experimental Development and Opening Zone, located on the Chinese-Russian border, in addition to cross-border economic cooperation, will greatly stimulate the development of bilateral trade. “As for the details of further development, it all depends on the construction of facilities.”

Prior to this, the Suifenhe Border Economic Cooperation Zone had already been established. Nowadays, the timber processing and e-commerce industries are developing there. In the future, a specific plan for the experimental zone will be finalized.

According to the correspondent of the newspaper Economics of the 21st Century, the creation of many similar experimental zones in the country has now been confirmed, in particular, Dongxing of Guangxi Province, Menla (Mohan) and Ruili of Yunnan Province, Erlianhot of Inner Mongolia, Manchuria and others.

Stimulation of Sino-Russian trade

The border with the Far East of Russia stretches along the eastern part of Heilongjiang Province, and the Suifenhe-Dongning zone is located in the southern part of this border area towards Jilin Province. The area is considered an important transport hub for the international corridor in Northeast Asia and an important window of China's opening to Russia. Not far from here is the famous port city of Vladivostok.

In this regard, the construction of the experimental zone here is due to the advantages of the location. According to the State Council, the construction of the pilot zone should open up the strategic opportunities for the construction of the Belt and Road, fully deploy the comprehensive advantages of Northeast Asia's openness and cooperation, so that the pilot zone becomes an important platform for China-Russia strategic interaction and open cooperation in Northeast Asia. This zone should become a comprehensive communication hub and an important point of economic growth in the border areas, as well as a pilot zone of good neighborliness. This will allow to accumulate valuable experience that will be useful in the future in the course of the development and development of border areas.

Approval requires careful planning for the construction of the experimental zone and the development of a special program. It states that it is necessary to identify rules, optimize the geological location, protect the ecological environment, save and rationally use resources.

At present, the Suifenhe Border Economic Cooperation Zone has already hosted facilities in the e-commerce, timber processing, food and textile industries. In the future, when a pilot zone is built throughout Suifenhe, bilateral investment and trade are expected to increase further.

According to Wang Ke, head of the Development and Reform Committee of Suifenhe City, the construction of the Experimental Development and Opening Zone is different from the previous construction of the Suifenhe Border Economic Cooperation Zone. The cooperation zone basically only covers the area, the pilot zone covers Suifenhe City and Dongning City, since Dongning is subordinate to Mudanjiang City, in the future, it is expected to establish a high-level coordination body focused on maintaining the functioning of the Suifenhe-Dongning Zone, perhaps it will be the Management Committee.

The creation of an experimental zone allows further development of the infrastructure of the area. “A railway line will be built between Suifenhe and Dongning. For docking with Russia, further agreements are to be made.”

You can be sure that this pilot zone will stimulate the bilateral trade development between China and Russia to a large extent. At present, transactions in rubles can be made in Suifenhe, and there are duty-free shops, although there are still few of them. Against the backdrop of a sharp devaluation of the ruble last year, the Chinese began to switch to purchases of duty-free Russian goods in yuan.

In addition, the possibility of assigning the Suifenhe-Dongning Pilot Zone the status of a free trade zone as a duty-free zone of China and Russia is also being considered. According to the correspondent of the "Economics of the 21st Century" newspaper, the possibility of developing Sino-Mongolian electronic commerce in the experimental zone of development and openness in Erlianhot is also being considered.

According to Song Kui, director of the Institute for the Study of Sino-Russian Regional Economics in Heilongjiang Province, cooperation between Suifenhe and Vladivostok makes it possible to create a cross-border duty-free corridor and a free port.

Search for bilateral trade cooperation

Yu Guangjun, rector of the Economic Research Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences of Inner Mongolia, said that the pilot development and openness zone is oriented towards neighboring countries. It is seen as an outpost for seeking opportunities for free trade agreements in international trade with neighboring countries, that is, a type of free bilateral trade between China and Australia. The Erlianhot Experimental Zone of Inner Mongolia was created on the basis of the joint construction of a cross-border cooperation park with Mongolia, the development of border trade and infrastructure facilities to maintain contacts with Mongolia.

“The experimental zone is responsible for conducting experiments, and what will come of it will become clear after the experiment,” he said.

Previously, the "State Council Regulations on Certain Policy Measures to Maintain the Development and Opening up of Important Border Areas" (Legislation (2015) No. 72) stated that the important pilot areas for development and opening up will create important platforms for deepening China's cooperation with neighboring countries and areas.

These regions should strengthen the openness of border checkpoints in every possible way, and increase the level of simplification of the processing of trade transactions. It is necessary to update the model of control and supervision at the checkpoint, transfer those operations that are considered not necessary when crossing the checkpoint by introducing management and providing appropriate services and subsequent checks in the competent authorities, etc.

In addition, it is necessary to increase the level of simplicity of processing transactions in the course of investment, expand the scope of investment, taking into account internationally generally accepted rules, and support the territories of border regions that have the necessary conditions. They should take into account and repeat the experience of Shanghai in establishing and operating a pilot free trade zone, and experimentally introduce the "affordable civil rights and restrictions" model of foreign investment management.

In addition, the simplification of procedures in personal exchanges should be promoted. It is necessary to provide employees of important investment facilities with an optimized check-in and check-out system, and allocate a green corridor for the entry of personnel involved in state-level cooperation projects. It is necessary to promote the facilitation of transport procedures, for example, to promote the process of mutual recognition of licenses for cross-border transport, which will affect the optimization of formalities and increase the guarantees for the passage of vehicles involved in cross-border transport.

It became known that at the moment, China with neighboring countries and regions have established many important experimental zones of development and openness. According to experts, the approval of new experimental zones is expected. The purpose of their creation now is to provide such a zone to each border province in the future.

Suifenhe(绥芬河; Suífēnhé) is a township in Heilongjiang Province. Located on the border with Russia, it is a kind of checkpoint from China to Vladivostok. Every year, a lot of Russians living in Primorye and the Khabarovsk Territory go to Suifenhe for shopping and for a little rest. If you also want to go there, then this article will help you get used to it a little.

Briefly about Suifenhe

The weather in Suifenhe is characterized by warm summers and very cold winters. This is due to the fact that the village is located on a hill. The thermometer from December to January does not rise above -15°C.

Suifenhe on the world map and China:

The main language is Mandarin Chinese. In the village you can meet many Russian speakers. There are practically no English speakers.

You can get to Suifenhe by daily buses from Harbin, minibuses from Mudanjiang, as well as trains, including a train that runs through Suifenhe twice a week to Vladivostok. The journey on this train will take approximately 8 hours and tickets can be booked a few weeks in advance.

From the Russian side, buses and trains cross the border (about 20 km. of the neutral zone), following to Ussuriysk (4-hour trip). When crossing the border, the wheels of trains are changed, which takes a certain time.

By bus

The bus station, which is located directly opposite the train station, serves only domestic routes. The international bus station, from which buses leave for Vladivostok, is located elsewhere. You can get to it by taxi, which, depending on your ability to bargain, will cost 10-20 yuan. The last bus to Russia leaves in the afternoon, so the terminal will be closed from approximately 4 pm. Tickets can be purchased on the morning of departure.

The terminal may look like a store, covered with corrugated iron bars, don't be fooled - buses leave from the inside of a large building.

Not all buses go directly to Vladivostok, so you may need to change trains in Russia.

If you're lucky, you might be picked up by Russians who are returning from shopping and have parked their cars on the other side of the border.

If there are no problems with documents, crossing the border will take you no more than 5-10 minutes. Customs officers at the Chinese border speak English fluently and are often surprised to see a non-Chinese or Russian passport.

When crossing the border, do not leave your belongings on the bus - they will be carefully examined. Be prepared to wait for other buses or cars to be checked.

By train

The night train from Harbin (Hall 4) departs at 20:30 and arrives at 7:00. Sleeping area with air conditioning costs 77 yuan.

Near the place from which the trains depart, there is a building with a large Cyrillic inscription on the top.

The train departs in the direction of the Pogranichny stop in Russia (44°24′N, 131°23′E) (in Chinese - GeCheng) at 9:00. The Border train arrives at 11:00 (14:00 Russian time). The trip will cost you 130 yuan (15 yuan for the white voucher that will be collected from you, plus the cost of the ticket).

The price often changes, which may seem suspicious to those who often travel this route.

Chinese border crossing points open at approximately 8:30. The majority of those who use this route are those who regularly travel to China for goods.

Try to get an entry card while still on the territory of Russia on the train, as the queue of merchants at customs is frightening (more than 40 minutes).

After leaving the station, do not forget to set your clock forward three hours. To get to the bus station, cross the railway tracks on the steps that will be on the left. The bus to Vladivostok leaves at 15:55 (12:55 Chinese time).

The trip from Pogranichny, including customs clearance and buying bus tickets (about 2 hours in total), takes approximately 4 hours.

The trip from Harbin to Vladivostok by this route by train and bus took me less than 21 hours. The train journey through the countryside was incredible!

Shopping in Suifenhe

You can pay for purchases in yuan and rubles. ATMs are located mainly on the main square and accept VISA and MasterCard cards. Some require a six-digit pin code. If you come across one like this, try entering two zeros in front of the four-digit pin code for your card.

It is possible to exchange dollars, but it will take time (you will need a copy of your passport, which can be done right on the spot for free).

As in all border towns, here you can find a wide range of various goods.

Restaurants in Suifenhe

Going up the stairs in front of the train station and turning left in front of the bus station, you will find a street full of restaurants.

• Breakfast Buffet Place. A crowded restaurant with tables filled with food, which is organized on a buffet basis. Large selection of Chinese pies, breaded and deep fried, soups, Chinese salads, egg dishes. Everything is very tasty and cheap. A couple of pies, a cup of soup and a bowl of salad will cost 4-5 yuan. Bring food to your table, the waitress will come and check you out.
• California Beef Noodle King. Chinese restaurant chain.

Hotels in Suifenhe

Hotel Shun Feng Hotel Address: 电力街68号 (68 Electric Street), next to Fen River City. Located in the center of Suifenhe, close to Beihai Park and very close to the museum and swimming pool. The hotel was opened on September 9, 2007, in 2009 it was reconstructed. In total - 54 rooms.

Room price from 128 yuan. The hotel only accepts advance payments in cash. Both Russians and the Chinese speak well of him. Breakfast is included in the price, the Internet is not very stable, but it is also available. For a room with a desktop computer and the Internet, you will be charged 148 yuan. An extra bed can be added for an additional daily fee of 50 RMB.

When checking into the Shun Feng Hotel, you can exchange currency, leave valuables at the front desk, use an ATM. Laundry, beauty salon and business center services are also available. There is a restaurant for 400 people in the hotel building.