Huitong and Hongqi: Two Bridges Across the Nu

A 2022 Yunnan Chang’an online feature places Huitong Bridge on the former Burma Road and describes it as the only crossing linking the two banks in that account. It recalls the bridge’s destruction in 1942 to stop the Japanese advance west of the Nu, interrupting a route through western Yunnan.

The bridge was later repaired. The report’s photographs preserve successive moments: the wartime structure, its repair and its present relation to the canyon. Huitong is a material trace of a transport corridor whose importance grew under wartime pressure. Its history is not only military: the bridge also formed part of the route connecting the valley to wider networks.

Hongqi Bridge opened in June 1974, about 400 metres from Huitong. The report links its opening to the establishment of a border checkpoint and describes bridge guards as part of the crossing’s later history. The structures record different periods: wartime interruption and postwar infrastructure and border management.

The two bridges preserve different stages of the corridor’s history. Huitong belongs to the wartime road and its repair; Hongqi, opened nearby in 1974, belongs to postwar infrastructure and border management.