Suifenhe 绥芬河市

Setting and landscape

The city covers 422 square kilometres and is ringed by hills. Its two main rivers are the Xiao Suifen River (小绥芬河) and the Hancong River (寒葱河), which flows into it, and the city government puts forest cover at 75.85 percent. The name Suifen comes from a Manchu word for an awl, after a snail with a sharp, awl-like shell that lives in the Suifen River.

History

The area became a border region after the 1860 Treaty of Peking. Russian railway builders first put their station at Sanchakou (三岔口) in Dongning County (东宁县), then moved it 50 kilometres north to the present site. Between 1903 and 1933 envoys and merchants from 18 countries gathered here, and the flags over the streets earned it the nickname "Flag Town" (旗镇). After the Japanese army took the town in 1933 the railway link was cut, and trade with the Soviet Union stopped in 1935. More than 50 Communist revolutionaries, among them Zhou Enlai (周恩来), travelled through Suifenhe to and from Moscow for the party's Sixth Congress. The State Council made Suifenhe a city in 1975 and named it one of the first border cities opened to trade in 1992.

What to see

The historic district runs along Zhanqian Road (站前路), Guanghua Road (光华路), Yingxin Street (迎新街) and neighbouring streets, mostly around the Big White Building (大白楼). It holds six buildings under national protection, among them the old railway station, the Orthodox church, the former Russian émigré school, the Chichagov tea house and the former Soviet consulate.

The station, begun in 1899, closed in December 2015 after 116 years and now houses the Chinese Eastern Railway Memory Museum (中东铁路记忆馆). People's Daily's weekly describes it as the only station building left on the line with a large-span steel-beam roof. The Suifenhe Museum (绥芬河市博物馆) occupies the old émigré school and shows more than 3,000 objects in history, nature, art and modern sections.

At the road port, the National Gate scenic area (国门景区) has an old gate finished in 1991 and a 51.8-metre new gate in use since late 2014. Near the rail border, Tunnel No. 3 (三号洞), built in 1899, carries a double-gauge track: Russian-gauge outer rails, Chinese-gauge inner rails, still in use. A Russian bread bakery (列巴坊) on Dazhi Road (大直路) dates from 1910.

Highlights

• Suifenhe historic district 绥芬河口岸城市历史街区: Qing and Republican-era buildings around the Big White Building, six of them under national protection.
• Chinese Eastern Railway Memory Museum 中东铁路记忆馆: In the 1899 station building, which closed in 2015 after 116 years.
• Suifenhe Museum 绥芬河市博物馆: In the former Russian émigré school; more than 3,000 objects.
• National Gate scenic area 国门景区: Old gate of 1991 and new 51.8-metre gate at the road port.
• Tunnel No. 3 三号洞: 1899 railway tunnel with a double-gauge Russian and Chinese track, still in use.