Hunchun

Hunchun (Chosŏn'gŭl: 혼춘; Hangul: 훈춘) is a county-level city in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, far eastern Jilin province. It borders North Korea (North Hamgyong province) and Russia (Primorsky Krai), has over 250,000 inhabitants, and covers 5,145 square kilometers. The site of the eastern capital of the Balhae Kingdom between 785 and 793, Donggyeong, was located here.

The city's name Hunchun comes from Huncun in Manchu language. .

The city and the village Fangchuan is located near the point of junction of the borders of China, Russia, and North Korea; provided with an observation platform, it is a popular tourist attraction.

Administrative divisions
Hunchun has four subdistricts, four towns, and five townships.

Subdistricts:
 * Xin'an Subdistrict (新安街道 / )
 * Jinghe Subdistrict (靖和街道 / )
 * Henan Subdistrict (河南街道 / )
 * Jinhai Subdistrict (近海街道 / )

Towns:
 * Chunhua (春化镇 / )
 * Jingxin ( / 경신진)
 * Banshi (板石镇 / )
 * Ying'an (英安镇 / )

Townships:
 * Hadamen Township (哈达门乡 / )
 * Machuanzi Township (马川子乡 / )
 * Mihong Township (密江乡 / )
 * Sanjiazi Manchu Ethnic Township (三家子满族乡 / )
 * Yangbaozi Manchu Ethnic Township (杨泡子满族乡 / )

Economy
Since the early 1990s, the Chinese government invested significantly in transforming Hunchun into a regional economic center, thanks in large part to the influence of the former Jilin governor Wang Zhongyu, whose work with Zhu Rongji allowed him to become the first head of China's State Economic and Trade Commission. On 9 March 1992 the Chinese parliament approved to set up Hunchun Border Economic Cooperation Zone. The national government and Jilin provincial government have invested in succession over four billion yuan in Hunchun through the 1990s.

On 16 March 2013, a joint agreement to export textiles to North Korea was announced. The textiles would be made into up to 8,000 shirts in North Korea and exported back to China.

Hunchun Border Economic Cooperation Zone was approved to be national-level border economic cooperation zone in 1992, with a planning area of 24 km2. In 2002 and 2001, Hunchun Export Processing Zone and Hunchun Sino-Russia Trade Zone was set up in it. Being located in the junction of China, Russia, and Korea, it enjoys a strategic location. The city focuses on the development of sea food processing, electronic product manufacture, bio-pharmacy, textile industry and other industries.

Hunchun Export Processing Zone is located in 5 km2 area in Hunchun Border Economic Cooperation Zone. Its planned area is 2.44 km2. It enjoys good infrastructure and policies as its parent zone does.

Transport
In the early 1990s, Jilin province government constructed a railway and improved the highway to Hunchun. The Tumen River Bridge connects between Hunchun and the North Korean village of Wonjeong (원정) in Sonbong. The bridge was built during the Japanese occupation in 1938. In 2010 the bridge was renovated as part of an agreement between North Korea and China to modernize the Rason port in North Korea. In addition, a new railway line was constructed which links Hunchun and Makhalino (a station on the Ussuriysk-Khasan line, 41 km before Khasan) in Russia and began operating in February 2000. Hunchun port is 42 km from Posyet and 63 km from Zarubino port towns of Russia.

The Jilin–Hunchun intercity railway, a 250-km/h high-speed passenger rail line from Jilin to Hunchun via Tumen (吉图珲铁路客运专线), began construction work in January 2011, and was scheduled and finished at the end of September 2015. The railway has been described as "Dongbei's most beautiful railway" (due to the terrain it runs through) and "the fastest way to Vladivostok" (4 hours by train from Shenyang to Hunchun, plus four hours by bus from Hunchun to Vladivostok). Reflecting the border location of the city, the train station has its sign in four languages: Chinese, Korean, Russian, and English.



Sister Cites
Rason, North Korea