The China-DPRK Friendship Bridge is located on the Yalu River between Dandong, China and Sinuiju, North Korea. There are two large iron Bridges lying across the river, which are divided into the upper Bridge and the lower bridge, which are known as the China-DPRK Friendship Bridge and Broken Bridge.

 

The Lower Bridge was the first railway bridge built over the Yalu River in May 1909 (the first year of the Seonjeong Dynasty) when the Railway Bureau of the Japanese Governor General's Office in Korea converted the Anbong Line (Dandong -- Shenyang), a temporary light and narrow gauge military railway, into a permanent commercial railway. It was completed in October 1911 (the third year of Xuantong Dynasty). The bridge is 941.83 meters long and 11 meters wide, with 12 holes and curved steel beams. Among them, the No. 9 pier is the shaft of the rotating steel beam. Formed a transportation line through northeast China and the Korean Peninsula. After the completion of the upper bridge in 1943, the bridge was converted into a highway bridge, with large lanes in the middle and sidewalks on both sides. On the left is the passage to North Korea and on the right is the passage to China.

 

In April 1937 (26 years of the Republic of China), when the Japanese invaders built the Anbong double-track railway, it was jointly designed and built 100 meters upstream of Xiaiqiao by Japan Automobile Corporation and Japan Construction Corporation. It was opened to traffic in April 1943. The bridge is 946 meters long and has 12 holes. The six holes on the North side are flat string continuous Bridges, and the six holes on the Chinese side are double track railway Bridges with suspended string continuous Bridges, which can run a pair of trains up and down at the same time. After the bridge opened to traffic, it became the main channel for Japanese invaders to plundering China's resources. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the bridge was taken over by the Soviet Red Army. In June 1947, when Soviet troops left Korea, the river bridge was transferred to the joint administration of the Chinese and Korean governments. In January 1951, the double-track railway was dismantled and changed into a road, which became a railway and road bridge.

 

After the war began, the Yalu River Bridge and other Bridges jointly undertook the task of military supplies and transportation of the rear support front. It was from here that most of the first volunteers went to the front. During the war, large quantities of combat supplies and weapons were transported to North Korea through the Yalu Bridge. In order to cut off the military and material support of our volunteers, the United States Army mobilized most of its air power in October 1950 and began to carry out operations on the railway and highway Bridges on the Yalu River connecting the important traffic arteries between China and Korea. It vowed "with maximum force" to "destroy all international Bridges at the Korean end of the Manchurian border" and "all means of transportation, military installations, factories, cities and villages" east of the Yalu River. From November 8 to 21, the U.S. military carried out more than 600 sorties to carpet bomb all the Bridges over the Yalu River, as well as villages, military installations and transportation routes in northern Korea. The northern part of North Korea was instantly reduced to rubble, a sea of fire along the Yalu River. The lower bridge of the Yalu River was also destroyed by the blast. The eight-hole bridge on the North side sank into the river and the lower bridge was completely paralyzed. The rail on the opposite side of the upper bridge was blown, the bridge shifted and the deck caught fire. The Andong Railway Bureau organized more than 200 people to rush to the river bridge with sandbags filled with sand to build temporary piers, built on the sleepers to withstand the damaged bottom beams, so that the bridge was restored. In the baptism of the war, although its body left numerous bullet holes, but still standing on the Yalu River, known as the "destroy not destroyed, fried not broken" steel transport line, become the Chinese and Korean people - hand against the aggressors, defending the victory of the monument and set up a rainbow of friendship between the Chinese and Korean people.

 

After the victory, the DPRK side dismantled the wreck of the six-pass iron bridge that the Lower Bridge belonged to. The Chinese bridge remains intact with bullet marks. The fact that the Chinese side of the bridge remains intact is no coincidence, but has a profound historical background. During the Korean War, General MacArthur, the commander in chief of the U.S. forces invading Korea, was a famous "victorious general" in the United States. In the early stage of the war, he was carried away by the momentary victory. He ignored China and Korea and arrogantly tried to push the battle line to the Yalu River before Thanksgiving. The U.S. government has heeded repeated protests and dire warnings from the Chinese government, fearing that continued airstrikes would force China into the war. Therefore, when bombing the Yalu River Bridge, the US air Force had to strictly control the Sino-Korean line and only bombed the Korean side, but did not dare to bomb the Chinese side. The existence of the "broken bridge" on the Yalu River vividly demonstrates the pivotal position of new China in the international arena.

 

On October 17, 1988, Dandong Municipal People's government listed the broken bridge as a municipal cultural relic protection unit; On October 25, 1990, the governments of China and the DPRK agreed to name the upper bridge the "Friendship Bridge between China and the DPRK" (one end of the bridge is the "Friendship Bridge between the DPRK and China"), in order to commemorate the civil life and blood of the two peoples. In October 2000, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the volunteer Army's war against the United States to aid the DPRK, members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, - Vice Chairman - - Chang - - wrote an inscription for the lower bridge "Yalu River bridge broken"; On the eve of China's 80th birthday in 2001, the Propaganda Department of the CPC named the Broken bridge of the Yalu River as the "National Patriotism Education Base". In June 2006, the bridge was listed as a national cultural relic