Humanitarian cooperation is an essential element of "soft power". Nowadays "soft power" tools acquire new content, improve cross-country cooperation in the economic sphere, form unifying political institutions and communications. Unlike Russia, China uses "soft power" tools more efficient. Recently China has been using particularly active "soft power" tools for promoting its global project "One Belt -One Road". Today by popularity the Chinese language has become the second studied language after English. The article discloses the problem of humanitarian cooperation between Russia and China by example of the Primorsky krai. It reveals particular features in formation and development of the popular diplomacy in relations between population of the Primorsky krai and border regions of China. The mechanism of "soft power" promoting cooperation has been researched by results from mass online surveys of the Primorsky krai residents. The survey focused on the problem of studying the mutual perception of Russians and Chinese. Such important resources of the "soft" power are disclosed as culture and education. Taking into account the multiplication of tourists from China to the Primorsky krai in recent years, the work deals with the development of cooperation between two countries in tourism sector. For the first time the research of relationship between two nations raises the problem of attitudes towards mixed marriages. The work develops the idea of measuring "soft power" characteristics. The proposed approach is based on using qualitative characteristics to measure "soft power" elements.There are examples of possible new solutions to use this mechanism.