Friendship Pass (Youyi Guan / Zhennan Pass)

Friendship Pass, historically known as Zhennan Pass, sits at the mountainous border between Pingxiang in Guangxi's Chongzuo prefecture and Vietnam, and has functioned as a guarded frontier crossing since the Han Dynasty, when Chinese administrations first fortified this route into the far south. The pass is best known internationally as the site of the Battle of Zhennan Pass in March 1885, a decisive Qing victory over French colonial forces during the Sino-French War that briefly checked French expansion in Indochina and led to the fall of the French government of Jules Ferry, even though the subsequent Treaty of Tianjin still ceded French control over Vietnam. The gate tower standing today is largely a 20th-century structure, rebuilt during the Republican era and again after 1949, since the original Qing-era fortifications were damaged by war and border conflict over the centuries, including the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War fought in this same border region. The site preserves a viewing platform and fortified gate structure styled after the historic pass, along with inscribed stone tablets and a small exhibition on the pass's military history from the Han Dynasty through the Sino-French War and into the 20th century. Because the pass remains an active, secured international border crossing, interpretation on site is limited and focused on the gate structure and battlefield history rather than an extensive museum collection, with the frontier character of the location itself forming much of the visitor experience.