Jiangqiao Fort West Bank Blockhouse

The Jiangqiao Fort West Bank Blockhouse stands as a heavy, unyielding mass of stone and reinforced concrete on the edge of the Nenjiang River. Its foundation, built to withstand artillery fire and the relentless current, anchors a cylindrical upper level pierced by a continuous array of firing holes. The Russian Empire constructed this fortification between 1898 and 1901. As engineers laid the tracks of the Chinese Eastern Railway across the Manchurian landscape, they built twin blockhouses on either side of the river to guard the strategic railway bridge. The structure was designed for absolute control, offering defenders an unobstructed view of the steel tracks and the water below.

In the autumn of 1932, the blockhouse became the center of a desperate defense. Following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, General Su Bingwen declared independence from the puppet state and rallied the Northeast Anti-Japanese National Salvation Army. Using the river's terrain and these railway fortifications, his small force of fewer than two brigades held off over 30,000 heavily armed Japanese troops for nearly two months. The concrete walls absorbed the shock of a modern, mechanized assault.

The Japanese eventually overwhelmed the defenders, seizing the railway to extract the region's resources. The West Bank Blockhouse survived the occupation. It also survived the natural forces that claimed its counterpart. A massive flood in 1998 undermined the east bank blockhouse, leaving it a fractured ruin in the mud. Today, the surviving western fort remains intact. Recognized as a provincial cultural heritage site, it anchors the landscape—a permanent, physical record of colonial ambition, fierce local resistance, and the heavy passage of time along the Nenjiang River.