China-Russia border trade booms

China's northeast border province of Heilongjiang's trade with Russia climbed 154 percent year-on-year to 18.99 billion U.S. dollars last year, local authorities said Thursday.

The volume was 24 percent of total bilateral trade of the two countries, said Kang Hanqing, deputy chief of the provincial commercial department.

The growth has continued this year, with foreign trade of the province surging 24.7 percent year-on-year to 2.45 billion U.S. dollars in January. Russia made up 67 percent of that total, said Kang.

Heilongjiang shares a 3,000-km border with Russia, with 25 trade ports.

China and Russia aim to increase their bilateral trade to 100 billion U.S. dollars by 2015, and to 200 billion dollars by 2020.