Michael Schuman, Trade Hopes Still Frozen; Border towns yet to feel China-Russia thaw. New York Times, Dec 16, 2015.
(a) Excerpt in the window of print: Waiting for the Russian market to pick back up.
(b) Quote:
"In 1900, after China’s imperial troops shelled Blagoveshchensk, Russian officials forcibly expelled the Chinese from the town, causing thousands to drown in the Amur. [Closed during the Cold War] Trade between Heihe and Blagoveshchensk reopened in 1986
"The only way across the Amur River is a pricey ferry ride in a cramped motorboat (except in the middle of winter, when vehicles can drive across the frozen waterway). That bottleneck greatly limits the volume of people and goods that can travel from town to town. * * * next year, construction will commence on a $240 million bridge linking the towns, financed jointly by the two countries.
(c) Note:
(i) Blagoveshchensk: "its name means settlement at the mouth of the Zeya River [1,242 km long, a northern tributary of the Amur River 黑龙江] in Russia" Wikipedia
Chinese calls the city 海兰泡. Why? It is unclear. But en.wikipedia.org says the palce was known in 1644 as Hailanpa.
(ii) For Carnegie Moscow Center, See Carnegie Endowment for International Peace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca ... International_Peace
(formed in 1910 by Andrew Carnegie; headquartered in Washington DC and has centers in Beijing, Beirut, Brussels and Moscow)