Cột mốc biên giới số 41

The No. 41 Boundary Marker stands inside the National Gate Scenic Area at Manzhouli and is one of the most photographed objects on the Chinese side of the China-Russia border. The granite marker, set up in the early 1990s as cross-border trade expanded and a new road port was built, faces toward the Chinese side and marks the precise line of the international frontier between the great National Gate and its Russian counterpart.

The marker is a rectangular granite obelisk, roughly two meters tall, bearing the number that identifies it on the formal border treaty between the two countries. The location was previously an older crossing used for mixed passenger and freight traffic, and the construction of the dedicated highway port allowed the marker to be set and the frontier to be more clearly formalized. Today it is the focal point of the patriotic and cultural tourism that draws Chinese visitors to the National Gate Scenic Area, and photographs at the marker are a standard part of any visit.

The area around the marker is laid out to give visitors a clear view of the boundary, the National Gate, and the broader border zone, and the granite obelisk itself is the most tangible expression of where China ends and its northern neighbor begins. The contrast between the modest size of the marker and the enormous symbolic weight it carries is part of what gives the site its atmosphere, and the steady flow of visitors who come to take photographs at its base testifies to its importance within the domestic tourist circuit.

For travelers, the No. 41 Boundary Marker is most naturally visited as part of a wider circuit of the National Gate Scenic Area, where it complements the gate, the viewing tower, and the exhibition halls. A short stop here is enough, but it is one of the moments that most clearly defines what a visit to Manzhouli is about, standing at one of the great overland frontiers of Asia.