Friendship Pass


Friendship Pass, also commonly known by its older name Ải Nam Quan, is a pass near the China-Vietnam border, between China's Guangxi and Vietnam's Lạng Sơn Province. The pass itself lies just inside the Chinese side of the border.
Vietnamese National Route 1A starts at the border near this pass, which lies less than 5 km north of the town of Đồng Đăng in Lạng Sơn Province, ending in Năm Căn in Cà Mau Province. China National Highway 322 runs from here to Guangxi Province and Hunan Province. This is one of the busiest border trading points of Vietnam.
It was built in the early Ming dynasty with the name of "South Suppressing Pass". In 1953, its name was changed to "South Watching Pass". In 1965, its name was changed again to the current Friendship Pass, reflecting the close political, military, and economic ties between the People's Republic of China and North Vietnam during the then-ongoing Vietnam War.

History

Traditionally, the pass served as the exact border between China and Vietnam, hence there is also a Vietnamese historical saying: "Nước Việt Nam ta trải dài từ Ải Nam Quan đến mũi Cà Mau," translated as "The Vietnamese nation stretches from Ải Nam Quan to Cape Cà Mau". However, recently the pass has been in Chinese control and well within Chinese territory, in Pingxiang, Chongzuo County, Guangxi Autonomous Region, since the early 1950s, and the official border between the two nations is beyond this pass. The new border was later confirmed by Chinese and Vietnamese communist officials by a border treaty enacted in June 2000, with Vietnamese officials stating that some Vietnamese territory along the Sino-Vietnamese border, namely in Cao Bằng Province and Lạng Sơn Province had been ceded to China. This concession was unpopular among the Vietnamese populace.