Goods from Jilin and Heilongjiang, provinces in China’s northeast that do not have access to the sea, will be able to be transported through the Russian port of Vladivostok, the closest maritime outlet.
As of June 1, the port of the city located in the far east of Russia will be open for the shipment of goods from Jilin and Heilongjiang to a Chinese port, the Asian country’s Customs Administration recently informed in a statement.
Entities from the two provinces will not need to resort to the port of Dalian, in Liaoning province, which, despite being the closest Chinese port to Jilin and Heilongjiang, is, in some cases, more than 1,000 kilometers away.
The port of Vladivostok is less than 100 kilometers from the border with China and about 500 kilometers from the capitals of Jilin and Heilongjiang – Changchun and Harbin, respectively.
Vladivostok, the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, was until the mid-19th century a territory of China. The bay was known as “Haishenwai”.
China, then ruled by the Qing dynasty, lost territory to Russia under the Treaty of Aigun, one of the “unequal” treaties signed between China and Western powers.
Since then, two of China’s three northeast provinces, Heilongjiang and Jilin, have been landlocked.
Despite the historic disputes, the leaders of China and Russia, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, last year proclaimed a “boundless friendship” between the two nations.
