A sign of friendship? Dummy border guard on the frontier between Russia and China

It is one of the world's great borders, with Russia and China sharing a 4,209.3 kilometre frontier. Soon at this point on the Amur River, a new railway crossing from the Russian city of Nizhneleninskoye to Chinese city of Tongjiang is due for completion.

It is a symbol of the close friendship between the two countries, with ties warming as Russia pivots to the east. And this fake border guard appears to symbolise the new bonds, which, through history, have not always been as close. 

A journalist from Huanqiu used a telephoto lens to discover that the patrol at the watchtower was less human than he expected. One Chinese Internet user noted that the picture did not tell the full story. 

'Everything is fine, because there is a 'visible post' and secret post',' he said. Another user added:  'This shows the confidence of the Russian side.'

Construction of the new bridge is going apace on the Chinese side, having started in February 2014, and now reported to be 60% completed. Less of the new 1,886-metre bridge is on the Russian side of the border, but the construction is not yet fully underway. 

To Russians it will be called the Amur Bridge, to the Chinese the Tongjiang Bridge.

It's construction comes as trade and tourism ties are rapidly deepening between the countries amid Russia's strains with the West over the Ukraine crisis. 

In 2012 Russian actor Alexander Mikhailov was quoted saying that on the border with China in the Trans-Baikal region were 'a huge number of dummies'. The FSB security service insisted that the country's border guards were 'very surprised with an unexpected statement'.