Geographer Hu Huanyong drew a line in 1935 from Aihui, now part of Heihe, to Tengchong in Yunnan, showing that 96 percent of China’s population lived on just 36 percent of its land; the line is now usually named for Heihe.
地理学家胡焕庸于一九三五年画出一条从瑷珲(今属黑河)到云南腾冲的线,揭示了中国百分之九十六的人口居住在仅占百分之三十六的国土上;如今这条线通常以黑河命名。
The line was first called the Aihui–Tengchong Line and later the Heihe–Tengchong Line, stretching roughly 4,000 kilometres at an angle of about 45 degrees. Aihui itself, a Qing garrison town, lies about 30 kilometres south of Heihe’s city centre.
这条线最初称”瑷珲—腾冲线”,后改称”黑河—腾冲线”,全长约四千公里,倾角约四十五度。瑷珲本身是一座清代军事重镇,位于黑河市区以南约三十公里处。
According to China Science Popularisation, recalculation from the 2000 census puts 94.1 percent of the population and 43.8 percent of the land on the line’s south-eastern side, and the county of Aihui became Heihe city in 1983.
据科普中国介绍,根据二零零零年人口普查数据重新计算,线东南侧占全国国土面积的百分之四十三点八、总人口的百分之九十四点一;瑷珲县于一九八三年改称黑河市。
Aihui, 1858 and 1900
瑷珲、一八五八年与一九零零年
Aihui began as a Qing military post. General Sabsu built a garrison on the Amur’s east bank in 1683 and moved it across to the west bank in 1685, and it was the base for the Yaksa campaigns against Russian forces; the Heilongjiang General’s headquarters left for Mergen in 1690, according to The Paper.
瑷珲起初是一座清代军事据点。据澎湃新闻报道,一六八三年,将军萨布素在黑龙江东岸修筑驻防城,一六八五年迁到西岸,这里成为雅克萨之战的前进基地;一六九零年,黑龙江将军衙门迁往墨尔根。
On 28 May 1858, with Russian gunboats anchored on the river, General Yishan signed the Treaty of Aigun there, ceding more than 600,000 square kilometres north of the Amur to Russia, while preserving a special arrangement for the Chinese settlements known as the Sixty-Four Villages east of the Zeya, according to The Paper. Russian troops killed Chinese residents at Blagoveshchensk and in those villages in July 1900, according to the same source, and burned Aihui, leaving only the Kuixing Tower; the town was rebuilt from 1907, according to the Aihui district government.
据澎湃新闻报道,一八五八年五月二十八日,在停泊于江面的俄军炮舰威胁下,黑龙江将军奕山在此签订《瑷珲条约》,黑龙江以北六十多万平方公里土地划归俄国,同时为精奇里江以东被称为”江东六十四屯”的中国村屯保留了特殊安排。据同一来源,一九零零年七月,俄军在海兰泡和江东六十四屯杀害中国居民;据爱辉区人民政府介绍,俄军还烧毁瑷珲城,仅剩魁星楼,一九零七年起瑷珲城得以重建。
A Bridge and a Grid across the Amur
横跨黑龙江的一座桥与一张电网
The Heihe–Blagoveshchensk road bridge, 1,284 metres long with two lanes, was started at the end of 2016 and joined in May 2019, but did not open to traffic until 10 June 2022. Before it opened, travellers crossed by hovercraft during periods of drifting ice and by a temporary ice crossing supported by floating pontoons in winter, and the crossing worked only about 240 days a year, according to People’s Daily; the road is 19.9 kilometres in all, 6.5 of them in China, and the project cost ¥2.47 billion.
黑河—布拉戈维申斯克公路大桥全长一千二百八十四米,双向两车道,二零一六年底开工,二零一九年五月合龙,直到二零二二年六月十日才正式通车。据《人民日报》报道,通车前,流冰期靠气垫船过江,冰封期靠浮箱固冰通道过江,全年有效通行只有约二百四十天;全线长十九点九公里,其中中方境内六点五公里,总投资二十四点七亿元。
In Heihe, across the Amur from Blagoveshchensk, stands the 500-kilovolt Heihe back-to-back converter station. Since 1 April 2012, it has linked the Russian and Chinese electricity grids through the Amur–Heihe line, with a capacity of 750 megawatts.
在与布拉戈维申斯克隔江相望的黑河市,建有五百千伏黑河背靠背换流站。自二零一二年四月一日起,它通过阿黑线联通中俄两国电网,容量为七十五万千瓦。
The station had imported 30.1198 billion kilowatt-hours by September 2023, according to Beijixing Electric Power News, and from October 2021 its full-load running time was raised from five to 16 hours a day to ease a local shortage, according to The Paper.
据北极星电力网报道,截至二零二三年九月底,该站累计进口电量三百零一点一九八亿千瓦时;据澎湃新闻报道,自二零二一年十月起,为缓解当地供电紧张,该站满负荷运行时长由每天五小时增至十六小时。
According to Heihe’s 2025 statistical communiqué, GDP reached ¥74.23 billion, up 4.4 percent, with the primary sector at 31.3 percent, the secondary at 14.1 percent and services at 54.6 percent. Foreign trade passed ¥30 billion in 2024, 4.3 times the 2021 level, according to the government work report, and the permanent population was 1.211 million at the end of 2024, down from 1,286,401 at the 2020 census.
据黑河市二零二五年统计公报,全年GDP达七百四十二点三亿元,同比增长百分之四点四,三次产业占比分别为百分之三十一点三、百分之十四点一和百分之五十四点六。据市政府工作报告,二零二四年外贸进出口总值突破三百亿元,为二零二一年的四点三倍;二零二四年末全市常住人口一百二十一点一万人,二零二零年人口普查时为一百二十八万六千四百零一人。
Heihe has no high-speed rail. The fastest direct train from Harbin, the K5165, takes 10 hours 31 minutes, according to Qunar, and Heihe is one of the last Heilongjiang cities still without a high-speed line, according to Huxiu.
黑河尚未通高铁。据去哪儿网时刻表,从哈尔滨出发最快的直达列车K5165次需十小时三十一分钟;据虎嗅报道,黑河是黑龙江省仅剩的几个尚未通高铁的城市之一。
The line that Hu Huanyong drew in 1935 is commemorated today at Heihe’s Aihui–Tengchong Park, according to Sina.
据新浪报道,胡焕庸一九三五年画出的这条线,如今在黑河的瑷珲腾冲公园里得到纪念。
