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Passenger traffic between Blagoveshchensk and China fully resumed

The border-crossing was possible only for organized tourist groups over the flood since August 3

Photo ITAR-TASS/Olga Yegoraeva

Photo ITAR-TASS/Olga Yegoraeva

BLAGOVESHCHENSK, September 11 (Itar-Tass) - The passenger traffic between the city of Blagoveshchensk, Russian Far East, and Big Heihe Island resumed fully on Wednesday. The first motorship set out from the Amur river bank at 08:50 local time (02:50 Moscow time, 21:50 GMT on Tuesday). Three motorships from Russia and the same number of motorships from China are shuttling on Amur River.

The border-crossing was possible only for organized tourist groups over the flood since August 3.

“The height of the mooring wall is over nine meters; we could work amid the flood. The mooring is lower in China, they moved to work at the old building of the customs house, where the check of luggage and cargoes is complicated. Therefore, we agreed to put on the line only by two motorships from each side during the flood,” the deputy director general of the shipping company that is the passenger port AmurASSO explained.

The freight customs service was suspended over the flood since August 17 and resumed on August 29. “The customs service failed to bring about 360 million rubles in the Russian budget over the emergency situation, fulfilling only 30% of plan for August,” the Blagoveshchensk customs service told Itar-Tass.

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