PHOTO: Does scarecrow guard Russia-Chinese border?

Chinese reporters on a tour of a joint project building the Nizhneleninskoye-Tongjiang Bridge across the Amur River on the Sino-Russian border were surprised when they discovered a scarecrow in military uniform stationed at a Russian watchtower.

The scarecrow, which may have been previously undetectable to the naked eye from the Chinese side, baffled the group of reporters visiting Tongjiang, a city bordering Russia on Sunday.

A reporter from the Hunaqiu news website discovered the straw ‘guard’ by mere coincidence when he was taking out a photo lens to snap a picture of the watchtower on the Russian side, the Chinese People’s Daily Online reported.

The journalists had been invited to review the construction of the first bridge connecting the two countries along the Amur River. It’s not clear why the scarecrow was placed at the watchtower.

When completed, the bridge will be 2,215 meters long, with 1,900 meters in China and 315 meters in Russia. While the Chinese started the construction in February 2014, construction on the Russian side has been stalled.

The main body of the bridge is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2015 and it’s expected to open in December 2016.