The construction of the Chinese section of this gas transmission artery began. In Moscow, Beijing and Heihe, China and Russia held a grand commencement ceremony by video connection. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli attended the ceremony.

According to the preliminary design, the Sino Russian East line natural gas pipeline starts from Heihe City, Heilongjiang, passes through 9 provinces, autonomous regions and cities of Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong, Jiangsu and Shanghai, and ends in Shanghai. It is planned to be completed and put into operation in 2018.