The Amur River at Beiji Village is the actual border between China and Russia, and the Russian shore is close enough to see clearly. The trees on both banks are the same boreal species; the silence is the same silence. In summer, the river runs brown and swift; in winter it freezes solid and the ice creates a flat white expanse where the water was. For a few weeks each year, before the ice is judged too thin or too soft, local vehicles occasionally drive across to the Russian side through authorised crossings further east.
The northernmost point monument stands near the river, marking the most northerly inhabited location on the Chinese mainland. It is a modest structure — a stone marker rather than an elaborate monument — but the coordinates inscribed on it are 53°33′N 122°20′E, and standing there you can do the geography yourself: Mongolia is almost directly south, Siberia directly north, and the nearest large Chinese city is Harbin, well over 1,000 kilometres away.