CHINA-Vietnam Red River Bridge, jointly designed and built by the two countries over the border, opens to traffic September 1, Xinhua reported.

The CNY69.3 million (US$10.1 million) bridge, is located at the confluence of the Red River and Nanxi River, joining China's Yunnan province at the north and Vietnam's Lao Cai province in the south. The four-lane bridge is 295 metres long.

The bridge is expected to relieve heavy traffic pressure on the existing China-Vietnam border bridges and shorten travel time from Yunnan province capital Kunming and Vietnamese capital Hanoi to 13 hours.

The two countries signed an agreement on building the bridge back in February 2006.