Trans-Siberian Railway because the swampy banks of the Ob River near it were considered inappropriate for a bridge. The railway was laid to the south (instead crossing the Ob at Novonikolaevsk, later renamed Novosibirsk); just a dead-end branch line connected with Tomsk, depriving the city of the prospective transit railway traffic and trade. In March 1890, the Tsarevich (later Tsar Nicholas II) personally inaugurated the construction of the Far East segment of the Trans-Siberian Railway during his stop at Vladivostok, after visiting Japan at the end of his journey around the world. Nicholas II made notes in his diary about his anticipation
Return of the Chinese Eastern Railway international trade with Russia and Eastern Europe. The two international railway interchanges with Russian Railways at Manzhouli and Suifenhe are heavily used with dozens of daily international freight and passenger trains. The CCR is also one of the main routes for Trans-Eurasia Logistics which connects Germany to China with daily container train service. On the passenger operations side, the "Vostok" (Russia Railway train 19/20, China Railways K19/K20) runs once a week from Beijing to Moscow via Harbin. In addition, the new Harbin–Qiqihar High Speed Railway, Harbin–Dalian High-speed Railway and the Beijing–Harbin High-Speed Railway parallel the CCR to connect those cities,