A brand-new cross-border tourist train made its maiden trial run on 18 July, linking Suifenhe in Heilongjiang with Russia’s Pacific port city of Vladivostok. The service, operated jointly by China Railway Harbin Group and Russian Railways, covers 240 km in just under five hours and will be extended to Mudanjiang during the peak summer season. Soft-seat carriages, bilingual onboard announcements and duty-free shopping cars have been added to appeal to leisure travellers from both countries. For China, the rail link is another building block in its strategy to diversify entry points along the 4,300-km border with Russia. Suifenhe already handles more than three million passengers a year by road and rail, and local authorities forecast that the dedicated tourist service could add 120,000 international arrivals annually once regular operations begin in September. Chinese tour operators are bundling the overnight train with cruise excursions in Vladivostok and eco-tours in Heilongjiang’s forest parks, aiming at middle-class families looking for short-haul, visa-light holidays. Russian tourism authorities are equally bullish. Since China extended its 30-day, visa-free policy for Russian citizens to the end of 2027, outbound bookings have climbed sharply. Vladivostok International Airport reported a 42 % year-on-year jump in Chinese arrivals in H1 2026; the new train is expected to further ease capacity constraints during the July-August peak. Regional governments on both sides have promised simplified customs and immigration checks using e-declaration kiosks and pre-clearance of tour groups to keep total border formalities under 30 minutes. For multinational companies, the service offers a practical alternative to crowded flights on the Chongqing-Moscow and Harbin-Khabarovsk routes. Electronics makers operating in Heilongjiang’s free-trade zones see the train as a way to move engineers and samples quickly to Russian partners without relying on time-consuming air-cargo screening. Logistics firms are already exploring dedicated baggage cars for small-parcel e-commerce traffic. If the pilot proves successful, China Railway and Russian Railways plan to add through services from Harbin and Changchun to Vladivostok and Ussuriysk in 2027. Analysts say the project fits the two countries’ broader push to deepen people-to-people exchanges and could become a model for similar leisure trains between Manzhouli and Chita or Hunchun and Zarubino.
Source: Xinhua (German Service)
