We arrived in Dàlián in the early morning, and
then went back to my apartment to chill out for a while. Initially, we’d
planned to go to Dāndōng over the weekend, but changed our minds and decided to
spend just the one day in my city before leaving for Dāndōng the next morning. We
went via coach, which took about 4 hours to get there (but then 6 hours to get
back for some reason). For those who have never heard of Dāndōng, the most
notable thing about the city is that it lies on the border with North Korea.
And what with China and North Korea being ‘friends’/trading partners, there is
a functioning bridge (as well as the historic bridge) that goes from China into
this mysterious country over the Yalu River.
So we arrived in the afternoon in very
dreary weather, and because Dāndōng isn’t particularly touristy, there aren’t
any hostelworld hostels available so securing our accommodation for the night
was priority number one! According to the Lonely Planet guidebook we were
using, there were a couple of budget hotels about so we set off on foot in
search for one and (as always) Lonely Planet delivered and we were sorted for
the night. Calling the place we stayed a ‘hotel’ would be generous, but beggars
can’t be choosers now can they, and it really wasn’t that bad at all. Just a
bit musty. As we didn’t have a huge amount of time left together, we decided
that two days and one night in Dāndōng would be enough.
After resting a spell, we headed out to the
Korean War Memorial Museum to make it just before it closed. If you Google this
particular tourist attraction in the city, you’ll see a lot of ‘anti-US’
comments attached to it – and having now visited the museum, I’d say that’s
fair!
The museum itself commemorates the Chinese soldiers who fought to aid North
Korea in the Korean War against the UN in the early 1950s (if you want a proper
history lesson, you know where to search!). Told from
the Chinese perspective, this museum was a particularly interesting visit
because of the way it retold events with incredibly biased language. Now maybe
I’ve just never noticed this sort of thing in museums at home before, but I
would definitely say that the language here was much more emotional –
for lack of a better word. For example, all of the
exhibition labels referred to the United Nations as ‘the enemy’, which I feel
doesn’t happen at home – museums tend to refer to the nationality/name of the
opposing force right? Also, phrases such as ‘the enemy was still swollen with
arrogance’ appear frequently throughout the museum exhibitions. Another
interesting observation was that the number of Chinese or North Korean casualties
was never mentioned; only rough figures of the UN forces that had been ‘wiped
out’ appeared. All in all, an interesting visit!
After the museum, the weather was still
pretty rubbish, but we decided to take a little wander along the boardwalk on
the border. I have to say how surreal it all felt there; despite it being
pretty foggy and cloudy we could see across the river into North Korea. LIKE
ACTUAL NORTH KOREA. North Korea! So very strange. We didn’t stay too long but
then headed to a supposedly North Korean restaurant for dindins. According to
our Lonely Planet guidebook (and various internet sources) apparently, North
Korean women are sent over into China to work as waitresses and the like
because they earn so much more compared to what they would earn in North Korea.
Also APPARENTLY to spy on the North Korean businessmen who are sent out of the
country. But who knows! Anyway, the restaurant we went to had waitresses
wearing traditional Korean attire and good food!
Day 2 we were up early because we really
wanted to get a better look across the river into North Korea. Once again, we
wandered along the boardwalk and as luck would have it, it was a bit clearer
than the day before. We stared for a while trying to make out what we could see
on the North Korea side of the river – I wish we’d had binoculars! According to
Google Maps, across the border from Dāndōng is a North Korean city and we could
make out what appeared to be a Ferris Wheel (an amusement park?) and various
buildings. We also saw some moving vehicles and cyclists! But little else I’m
afraid. There were the options of walking along the historic bridge, or taking
a boat ride along the river to get a better view, but we opted not to do these.
After leaving the boardwalk, and still
having a little time to kill, we headed over to Jĭn Jiāng Shān Park. Similar to
many Chinese parks I’ve seen, it was very pretty and had traditional
architecture about the place. Pretty much after this we had to skedaddle to the
bus station and buy our tickets back to Dàlián!
Part 2 in photos:
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| Our slightly dingy room! |
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| Steps up to the Korean War Memorial Museum |
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| Sculptures outside the museum entrance |
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| Mao Zedong and Kim Il-Sung |
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| Near the entrance, a dedication to the soldiers |
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| Photos of 'biological warfare' during the Korean War. Creepy crawlies infected with a disease (can't remember what it said). Did this happen? |
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| Pyongyang - North Korea's capital city |
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| Pretty intense sculpture inside the museum |
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| At the end of the museum was a stairway up to this HUGE panoramic battlefield scene and here are a couple of shots from |
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| First attempt to see across the river - very cloudy |
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| Interesting sculpture on the boardwalk! |
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| NORTH KOREA! The sign just says that it's the border |
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| NORTH KOREA! Left: functional bridge; Right: historic bridge |
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| View from Jĭn Jiāng Shān Park |
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| Having a great time! |
Thus concludes part 2! I’m really glad I got
to visit Dāndōng, and going with my friends was much better than going alone
would have been!
Until next time readers
xoxo
