Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge

The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, or China–North Korea Friendship Bridge, is a bridge across the Amnok River on the China–North Korea border. It connects the cities of Dandong in China and Sinuiju of North Korea, by railway and roadway but pedestrians are not allowed to cross between either side. The bridge serves as one of the few ways to enter or leave North Korea.

Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge
The bridge (on left side) viewed from Dandong, China. The Yalu River Broken Bridge is to its right.
Coordinates40°6′54″N 124°23′33″E
Carriesroad and rail traffic
CrossesAmnok River
Locale
Official name
  • 中朝友谊桥 (Chinese)
  • 조중우의교 (Korean)
Other name(s)Sino-Korean or China–Korea Friendship Bridge
Characteristics
MaterialSteel
Total length940.8 m (3,087 ft)
History
Construction startApril of 1937
Construction endMay of 1943
Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge
Aerial photograph taken in November of 1950 during air attacks by US Air Force bombers, with damage to the two Amnok River bridges showing.
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese中朝友谊桥
Traditional Chinese中朝友誼橋
Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl조중우의교
Hancha朝中友誼橋

It was renamed to its current name from the Yalu (Amnok) River Bridge in 1990. The bridge was constructed by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) between April 1937 and May 1943 during its occupation of Korea and its puppet state of Manchukuo (now northeast China). Further downstream, construction work on the New Yalu River Bridge began in October 2010.

Background and history

Approximately 100 m (110 yd) downstream of this bridge are the remains of an older bridge, now known as the Yalu River Broken Bridge, which was opened to traffic between China and Korea in October 1911. This was later supplemented with the more-modern bridge which became operational in 1943. Both bridges were attacked and bombed by American military aircraft throughout most of the Korean War. From November 1950 to February 1951, the United States Air Force (USAF) used B-29 heavy bombers and F-80 fighter-bombers to repeatedly attack and destroy the bridges in an attempt to cut off the flow of Chinese military and troop supplies to the badly-weakened North Korean armed forces as well as their own forces fighting alongside them there. Despite the serious difficulties present, the bridges were repeatedly repaired (largely by China). The older bridge from 1911 was left in ruins following its destruction at the hands of the USAF (with North Korea allegedly claiming it would serve as a piece of hard evidence of the US military's destruction of the bridge) and only the newer bridge from 1943 was repaired once again and put back into use at the end of the war in 1953.

Tourism
View inside the bridge in 2012, with railway and roadway but no sidewalk

The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge and the Broken Bridge are flanked on the Chinese side by parks and promenades which make up the Yalu (Amnok) River Scenic Area. This is a major tourist attraction in China and is rated AAAA on China's national tourist scale. Tourist boats leave from the side of the bridge, allowing visitors to view both bridges and the Dandong riverfront, and pass close to the North Korean waterfront.

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See also

Other Sino-Korean border bridges:

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