Fangchuan Scenic Area

The main goal of my 2023 winter trip to China was to visit the Fanchuan Scenic Area - which is where the borders of China, Russia & North Korea meet. I’ve always had a surface-level curiosity about borders in general, and found this particular tri-point when playing around on Google Maps. It was especially interesting that it involved, what the “west” seems to consider as three of the most “dangerous” countries, geopolitically.

I came into Hunchun via a train from Harbin, which took ~4 hours. The train went past quite close to the North Korean border, thought it just looked like barrenm, empty land and mountains - though it was winter with temperatures below zero.

Hunchun is a small “city” , with everything spread wide but within a relatively small geographic area. I was staying at a branch of the Donglong hotel, which seemed very newly built and quite nice.

Being such a small city, an app like Didi is almost a neccessity for getting around. The Hunchun Railway Station is at the northeast corner of the city, standing alone - and with signage in Chinese, English, Korean And Russian. In fact, most shops will probably have a Russian & Korean name, but not an English one!

Hunchun Railway Station in four languages!

After getting checked into the hotel, I wanted to make the most of the daylight and check out the North Korean border, “unofficially”. Basically, Hunchun is just a few kilometeres from the Tumen river, and I was extremely interested to see what the border would actually look like. So a quick Didi to kind of nowhere, and I was less than 500 metres from the river.

Getting close to North Korea

Getting of the cab, a tunnel under the highway led the way towards the river, so of course I walked in that direction. I came across a warning sign regarding illegal crimes such as human trafficking, smuggling and illegally crossing borders. I was just planning to take a look so I figured I was in the clear.

Underpass towards Tumen River

Stuff you shouldn't do

Howerer, proceeding further, I saw a slightly scarier sign just before a barbed wire fence over a very slight slope:

Via Google Translate, it reads:

Comply with border laws and regulations to maintain a safe environment
In order to strengthen the management of personnel in border areas, according to relevant border laws and policies, personnel in border areas must abide by the following regulations:
1. Actively cooperate with the border defense forces to maintain border order. When foreign-related incidents occur, they must be reported to the border defense forces immediately. 
2. When conducting activities in border areas, you must carry a "Border Operation Permit". It is strictly forbidden for unregistered personnel to conduct activities in border areas without authorization. When carrying out official business, surveying and other activities, you must report to the border defense forces and proceed only after approval. 
3. It is strictly prohibited to move, damage or dismantle border defense facilities such as border signs, barbed wire, warning signs, and monitoring front ends.
4. Taking photos, filming, shouting, or throwing objects toward the DPRK is strictly prohibited.
5. Swimming, boating, fishing, frying fish, poisoning fish, electrocuting fish, and other activities are strictly prohibited in the boundary river.
6. It is strictly prohibited to engage in smuggling, drug trafficking or provide convenience for smuggling activities.
7. It is strictly prohibited to fly drones, floating balloons or other flying objects or conduct aerial photography activities.
8. It is strictly prohibited to cross the border to engage in gathering, hunting, farming and other activities.
9. It is strictly prohibited to fund, harbor, shelter and employ persons from neighboring countries who illegally cross the border.
10. It is strictly prohibited to engage in other acts that endanger border order and security.
If the above provisions are violated, administrative penalties and criminal liability will be imposed in accordance with relevant laws. Those who promptly discover and report violations
of the above provisions will be rewarded.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army 32116 troops announced
Report hotline:7654010 ★★

This seemed a lot more serious, and so I decided its probably best not to continue, though the barbed wire fence has a gate which was completely open and looked very inviting, especially since the slope meant I had no idea what was on the other side (military with shoot on sight orders???).

Wonder whats on the other side…

In terms of typical touristy-sightseeing, theres not much to do in Hunchun itself. It seems to cater to two main kinds of tourists:

• Local Chinese Tourists - These would take the train in during the morning, take a bus or taxi down to the Fangchuan Scenic Area (tri-border point), and then come back to the railway station and leave. In fact, in the tour bus I took from Hunchun to the border area, I was the only person living in Hunchun! (Well, other than the driver). Everyone else was just on a day trip.
• Russian Tourists - Due to the proximity to Russia, it’s one of the closest cities for a large amount of Russians to visit, and they can come in via car or similar. However I didn’t run into many while I was there - possibly because I went in late December, whereas summer would be more popular for casual trips.

When it comes to visiting the Fangchuan Scenic Area (aka the tri-border point), there is a company running tour buses to take you there. They had an advertisement at the Hunchun Railway Station but it was all in Chinese, and even with Google Translate I didn’t quite know how I’d talk with them if I managed to contact them. So, I just went to the tour groups transport “hub”, a small building near the larger Hunchun bus terminal.

The tour bus group’s main hub, I think

From here, I just kinda went in and asked about the “Fangchuan bus”. A little lost in translation, but they got the general idea. However, I don’t think they were used to foreigners. They asked which country I’m from, and when I said India, they tried to figure out if it was safe to take me. I should clarify - “safety” here meant whether they would get in trouble for taking a foreigner to this border area, which could potentially be against some kind of national security law or whatever. At least that’s what it seemed like. After the guy made a few calls, he confirmed that yes, I could go in the tour bus, but only to the viewing tower, not the actual border. This was a win in my book.

As I mentioned earlier, everyone else in the bus was fresh from the railway station, just in for a day trip. Thankfully, there was a very helpful girl from Hubei province in front of me who spoke English, and helped translate some of the things the bus driver was telling us - pointing out areas of interest along the border as we drove.

Our first stop was at one of the bridges connecting China to North Korea. This was one of the places where my passport limited me - the Chinese citizens were allowed to go into the port area and all the way upto the mid-point on the bridge, whereas I had to stay behind where the bus was parked.

Entrance to the bridge to North Korea. I was not allowed in.

Trucks lined up to go to North Korea, presumably carrying some goods.

As I was taking photos of the trucks and the general area, one of the border control guards (Military? Not sure of the right term) must’ve found me suspicious and came up to question me. A few more of his colleagues followed. He tried to question me a bit in some broken English, and then asked for my passport. Unfortunately when flipping through he only managed to find my Chinese visa from 2019, which was meant for a single entry (and long expired). Thankfully he let me flip it to the right page with the current, valid visa. One interesting thing was that he took photos of several pages of my passport, but seemingly only ones which has some kinda stamps or visas which included Chinese characters. So he took photos of my (old) Hong Kong visa, my Taiwan (!) immigration stamps, and even my Japanese Visa - which is where I got the Chinese character theory from - since he skipped my UK & Norwegian Visas (among other stamps).

I was able to point to the tour bus, which has some relevant branding on the side, from which I think he understood that I had come along with a group for sightseeing, and was just left behind since I am not allowed on the bridge to North Korea. At least that’s what I assume - for all I know I am now registered as an Indian spy in their database (I promise I’m not one).

A warning of all the stuff not allowed

Shortly after that little incident, the rest of the group returned, and we continued on. We next stopped at some large Museum area, focused on Chinese history of the area. We only stopped for ~15 minutes, mostly for a souvenir store - not nearly enough time to check out the Museum anyway.

The store has a lot of Russian and North Korean goods for sale. There were definitely some interesting items available.

Some kind of watter bottle

Even though I don’t smoke, I ended up purchasing some Russian and North Korea cigarettes. The Russian pack looked kinda cool with the Cyrillic alphabet, while the shopkeeper claimed the the North Korean cigarettes were the ones that Kim Jong Un smokes - supposedly smuggled out of North Korea.

The afformentioned cigarettes

We then carried on towards the viewing tower. After getting there, I once again had to get off, while everyone else carried on through the security checkpoint, to the physical border with Russia. (Note: I am not sure exactly how far along the bus went - and whether they went into Russia. I should’ve asked them but I thought that would make me seem even more suspicious). This was actually kinda nice, because I got to visit the tower area while it was quite empty, including going to the typical photo spots without any queue.

The bus leaves me behind to continue on to the Russian border

It’s a petty impressive and massive tower, and from what I can tell, it is built purely for tourism - the tower does not serve any military purpose (at least none that I can tell). There is an elevator to take you straight up to the top, from where there are pretty impressive views of North Korea, and using a pair of binoculars it is possible to spot a few buildings, but not much else.

I was also able to see the Korea–Russia Friendship Bridge, which is the only land connection between Russia and North Korea. The bridge has a railway, which is used to transport goods between the two countries. The Russian side visible from the tower was mostly just barren land, didn’t seem to be much going on.

The tri point between Russia, China and North Korea. The bridge in the distance serves as a connection between Russia and North Korea, over the Tumen river

North Korea across the Tumen River

After spending about 15 minutes at the top just looking around and stuff (and buying a fridge magnet), I decided to head back down. There is a museum somewhere in the middle of the tower as well, though I wasn’t too interested. After waiting for the rest of the group to turn up, we began our uneventful journey back. Everyone seemed a bit tired, and I don’t blame them considering they even had an early morning train rice into Hunchun. The bus dropped everyone (except me) off at the railway station so they could head back, while I rode back to the tour group’s hub in the middle of town.

Driving back on the wide, empty roads

The rest of the day was spent exploring Hunchun despite me being tired and the temperature well below freezing. They have surprisingly large malls, and there was an interesting Pink Panther photo spot. Maybe it was because I went in on a random Friday afternoon, but the mall was very empty, though all shops were open and staffed well. It looked newly opened, and some of the workers were excited to see me and wanted to take photos, which was nice.

Some Pink Panther thingy in the mall

After drinking at a few spots around the town, and singing some of Faye Wong’s songs at the bars, I headed back to my hotel for the 8 hour train ride to Beijing next morning. Hunchun was a super fun city to visit, especially since it is so remote. A great mix of Russian, Chinese and Korean culture, with friendly people that are super welcoming. And of course, the proximity to Russia and North Korea is what also makes it so interesting. I’d definitely recommend visiting it if you’re a bit adventurous, and doing so during the winter is even cooler!

Even all the way up here, they have high-speed rail. The “G” variant of the CR400BF is designed for cold weather and a cruise speed of 350km/h

Miscellaneous Photos