Kazan Railway Station (CQNEWS Photo by Li Xiaoming)

CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- The news group of Media Tour along Yuxin'ou (Chongqing-Xinjiang- Europe) International Railway arrived in Kazan of Russia, attracting great attention of local people, "The Yangtze River in the east sends her regards to the Volga River."

Kazan, the first large city along the international railway in the Volga River Basin, lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka rivers.

Three famous cities, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow gather in the Volga River Basin with an area of 1.35 million square kilometers and occupy over 70% of Russia's GDP, according to local officials.

The Yangtze has grown closer to the Volga since the operation of Yuxin'ou. China's national development and reform commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2012 did a research on the development and promotion of the cooperation between the upper & middle reaches of the Yangtze and the Volga basin. The both sides also set up a cooperation system.

"The cooperation system covers 6 Chinese provinces & cities, including Chongqing and 14 federal subjects along the Volga," a responsible person with Kazan was quoted.

It is reported that Sichuan International Studies University in Chongqing has cooperated with National University in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, a federal subject of Russia crossed by the Volga River. The two exchange teachers and students,and the former runs a Confucius Institute in the latter.