Enclaves, a special phenomenon of human geography, refer to land that belongs to an administrative region but is not contiguous to that administrative region. Because the administrative regions of the two places do not want to be connected, they cannot take their own administrative areas to achieve exchanges between the two places, and can only "fly" over the administrative areas of others for exchanges, so they are called enclaves.
Enclaves can exist not only between provinces, but also between countries. China's more famous provincial enclaves are The Dihu Township of Guizhou, which is surrounded by Hunan on all sides, which looks like the land in Hunan is undoubtedly under the jurisdiction of Guizhou.
This status quo is caused by many complex historical reasons, but both Guizhou and Hunan belong to China's major administrative plan. Although Dihu Township is an enclave, the local residents have not been greatly affected.
In contrast, there is a village in Jilin in China that is much more aggrieved. It is an inter-state enclave at the junction of China, Russia and North Korea. It was not originally an enclave, but was connected to a river embankment less than 10 meters wide in the motherland. After a flood, the 10-meter-wide embankment was washed away, and the village became an enclave.
It is the most aggrieved fangchuan village in China, and it is not difficult to see from the map that it is located on the small corner extending out of Jilin Province, which looks quite isolated. Moreover, after becoming an enclave, the neighboring countries did not let the people of Fangchuan Village return to China by way, which can be described as quite miserable. Of course, this is a modern thing, and today's Fangchuan Village has returned to the embrace of the motherland. So, how did it become an enclave?
It must also be said from the Tang Dynasty period, because Fangchuan Village is the mouth of the Tumen River flowing to the Sea of Japan on the border between China and North Korea and Russia, and its strategic location in the Tang Dynasty will be the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road.
The Tang Dynasty has a vast territory, and the northeast region includes the entire Sakhalin Island, and Fangchuan Village is not on the border of Our country at all, and naturally there is no such thing as an enclave. However, in modern times, especially after the Second Opium War, Tsarist Russia began to invade the northeast of our country and occupied a large amount of territory, and the village of Fangchuan, which was originally in the interior, suddenly became a border village of our country.
After that, the Japanese came to tohoku again. In 1938, the Battle of Zhanggufeng broke out between Japan and Russia in the area of Fangchuan Village, and the Japanese lost this battle, but they poured their anger on the heads of Chinese. They not only drove out all the Chinese villagers in Fangchuan Village, but also blocked the Channel of the Tumen River, leaving only a river embankment of less than 10 meters for them to connect with Jilin Province. The Soviet Union also took advantage of the situation to push down the Tumen River, and the village of Fangchuan could be described as a tiger's eye.
It was not until the end of World War II, when the Japanese were driven away, that the village of Hokawa was recaptured. In order to allow the permanent population of the village, our government also deliberately relocated 18 households and sent troops to garrison them, with the aim of preventing the Annexation of the Soviet Union. In 1957, a sudden flood destroyed the only connection between Fangchuan Village and Jilin, making it an enclave. After that, if the villagers wanted to go in and out of the village to return to China, they had to borrow the Soviet Union.
But it was precisely at a time when relations between the Soviet Union and our country were tense, and naturally they would not accede to this demand. It was not until 1983, when Sino-Soviet relations were normalized, that the problem of travel in Fangchuan Village was completely resolved. The embankment that was washed away in the past has also been rebuilt, and now it is a defense highway with a length of 888 meters and a width of 8 meters, which is quite stable and no longer has to worry about flooding.
Now Fangchuan Village has become a famous tourist attraction, known as the "first village in the East". Local residents are also unimpeded and no longer have to worry about borrowing roads from neighboring countries. All this reflects the strength of China's national defense and military forces, and only when the country is strong can it have enough say in the face of territorial issues.