HEIHE, Heilongjiang Province, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- After 28 years of talks between China and Russia, construction has finally started on a modern highway bridge connecting China and Russia across the Heilongjiang River, the first between the two countries.

The main span of the bridge is 1,283 meters and links Heihe to the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk.

"The bridge is an important international link, and part of the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor. It will strengthen cooperation between the neighboring two regions," said Qin Enting, communist Party chief of Heihe City.

Costing 2.5 billion yuan (about 360 million U.S. dollars), the bridge will open in October 2019.

Passenger flow between the two cities is expected to reach 1.5 million a year by 2020, double the current figure. Cargo volume will reach three million tonnes by then, ten times today's figure.