Journey Along the Ten-Thousand-Li Frontier | Steadfast Watch Beneath Three Generations of National Gates
Steadfast Watch Beneath Three Generations of National Gates
■ Li Guodong, Yang Zhibo, PLA Daily Correspondent Zheng Maoqi
Soldiers of the "Model Company of National Gate Guardians" (国门卫士模范连) of a certain brigade of the Northern Theater Command Army execute a border patrol mission in front of the Suifenhe National Gate. Photo by Peng Xuri
Boarding a high-speed train in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province and heading east, the elevation rises sharply after the train passes Mudanjiang Station. Looking out the window, the reporter watches the outline of a border city built against the mountains gradually come into focus.
Suifenhe — this small city nestled in a corner of the northeastern frontier of the motherland — holds the reputation of a "century-old port of entry." A winding railway line threads together the past and present of this "city pulled into existence by the railroad." Walking to No. 38 Zhanqian Road in Suifenhe, a building with yellow-and-white exterior walls stands out conspicuously among the streets and lanes. This is the former site of the Suifenhe Railway Station, the easternmost terminus of the original Chinese Eastern Railway. The old waiting hall has been converted into the Chinese Eastern Railway Memory Museum, where more than 500 historical photographs on display quietly recount the deep and enduring ties between Suifenhe and the railway.
Proceeding from the Chinese Eastern Railway Memory Museum toward the National Gate, the rails at the Suifenhe port of entry carry a faint tremor, faintly mingled with the rumble of an approaching train — the signal that a China-Europe freight train is about to clear customs. Today, the Suifenhe port of entry is crisscrossed with railway lines, and loading and unloading operations at the freight yards continue around the clock. As an important overland gateway of the Belt and Road Initiative, this frontier city, relying on two national first-class ports of entry — one road and one rail — has become a genuine "border commercial hub" (国境商都).
On this day, the reporter accompanied soldiers of the "Model Company of National Gate Guardians" of a certain brigade of the Northern Theater Command Army on a border patrol mission. Political Instructor Yang Xuewen has walked this patrol route for twelve years.
The patrol vehicle moved slowly along the border road, and through the curtain of rain, three generations of National Gates appeared in succession before us.
The first to come into view was a cast-iron manual barrier less than ten meters wide — the first-generation National Gate, established in 1987. "Back then, the company's soldiers raised the bar by hand right here. In winter the iron bar was bone-chillingly cold, and you had to wear cotton gloves." Yang Xuewen pointed out the window and recounted the border-guarding stories of the company's soldiers of that era to new recruit Zhu Shufu. In those days the border road surface was unpaved; on rainy days it was all mud pits, and soldiers on foot patrol sank in with every step, their trouser legs caked in a thick layer of yellow mud, their shoes able to pour out half a shoe's worth of muddy water when they returned to the company. The reporter gazed at the first-generation National Gate standing silent in the rain and mist, and seemed to glimpse, across the decades, the silhouette of young soldiers raising the bar by hand against wind and rain.
Not far to the south, the gray-brick wall of the second-generation National Gate gradually came into view — a witness to Suifenhe's leap from a remote frontier town to a "border commercial hub." Yang Xuewen still remembers that when he first enlisted and arrived in Suifenhe, an old squad leader stood before this very National Gate and told him stories of the past: when heavy rain came, the rain canopy at the inspection post could not hold back the howling wind and driving rain; it rained heavily outside and drizzled inside the canopy, and within minutes you would be soaked through, your boots filled with rainwater. "Conditions were poor back then, but everyone understood: no matter how hard the rain fell, the watch at the National Gate must never slacken for a single moment (决不能松半分)." Yang Xuewen said.
Arriving before the third-generation National Gate, the patrol vehicle came to a steady stop. This new National Gate, put into use in 2014, stands 51.8 meters tall, with eight lanes of traffic flowing freely in both directions. The seven large red characters reading "People's Republic of China" (中华人民共和国) remain conspicuous even through the curtain of rain. Yang Xuewen issued the order, and the soldiers began their foot patrol.
From a simple barrier to a towering National Gate, the succession of three generations of National Gates is a microcosm of the development of the border port of entry, and a testament to the steadfast watch kept by generation after generation of "National Gate Guardians."
A long whistle sounded as a freight train slowly came to a halt. The soldiers quickly took their positions and, facing into the wind and rain, carefully inspected the perimeter of the train cars. Squad Leader Liu Shuye called out loudly: "Visibility is poor in the rain — keep your eyes on every corner and gap, not a single spot can be missed!" Inspection complete, the train started moving. Rainwater streamed down their faces, yet the soldiers stood motionless, their gaze sweeping like torches across every car.
After completing the full-line patrol mission, the reporter strolled through the streets of Suifenhe. Shop signs hung in neat rows; the pointed rooftops of old-style buildings were beaded with water droplets, looking especially vivid in the gradually brightening daylight. On the streets, a steady stream of pedestrians came and went — domestic tourists speaking in accents from across the country, as well as a good number of foreign visitors — and the entire border city was suffused with an atmosphere of peace and tranquility.
The heavy rain gradually subsided, and the cloud cover slowly broke apart. Sunlight crossed over the rolling mountains and fell upon the red characters on the National Gate. The reporter looked toward the third-generation National Gate in the distance, thinking of those young faces along the border line, and recalling Yang Xuewen's words: "The National Gate will be renewed and grow taller, but our hearts in guarding the National Gate are like boundary markers — firmly planted right here."
Reference Information
As an important overland gateway of the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor under the Belt and Road Initiative, Suifenhe City relies on two national first-class ports of entry — one road and one rail — to concentrate efforts on upgrading the quality of its interconnectivity system with Russia, continuously amplifying the radiating and driving effect of corridor economics, and achieving significant results in cross-border logistics, trade and economic exchanges, and industrial development, vividly writing a practical answer to how a frontier port of entry can deeply integrate into and serve the overall national framework of opening up to the outside world.
In 2025, Suifenhe's total import and export value reached 29.696 billion yuan. Among these, growth momentum on the export side was particularly strong, with exports maintaining double-digit year-on-year growth for three consecutive years beginning in 2023. In the first half of 2026, imports and exports grew 30.1% year-on-year, with exports growing 52.5% year-on-year. The resilience of foreign trade development has continued to manifest: in 2025, cargo throughput at the port of entry reached 10.436 million tons; the rail port of entry has consistently served as the primary transport capacity driver, while the road port of entry's freight potential has been accelerating its release, with cargo throughput growing from 583,000 tons in 2015 to 1.57 million tons in 2025 — an increase of nearly 1.7 times over ten years.