Dāndōng - Take Two!

Alright, so recently, despite the cold weather my friends and I decided to venture slightly more north to the city of Dāndōng. You may recall that I’ve already visited this city - back in the summer time when my friends from home came to see me - but as it sounded fun and the plan this time was to see Dāndōng’s section of the Great Wall, I decided to go again!

Once again we went via a 4-hour coach journey – slight hiccup when we missed our 7am coach but as a couple of my friends actually speak close to fluent Chinese, we were able to switch tickets for a later one. Phew. After arrival, we checked in to our hotel (pretty snazzy – and it offered a free breakfast!) then headed out to the Wall! As there were so many of us, and taxis in Dāndōng are cheap as chips, we just jumped in a few of those instead of taking a bus to the entrance. It was about 60 RMB for the ticket on to the wall and compared to those just outside Beijing, this section was very short! But the main attraction was that it was RIGHT next to North Korea on the border. We didn’t spend too long up there as it was a relatively short section, we didn’t have a lot of daylight and it was bloody nippy! But it was still good! And following the Wall round to a certain point you are standing right on the border between China and North Korea – crazay. Post-Wall, we had to hang about a bit and hire a couple of minivans to take us back, but only at about 10 RMB each so not bad at all really!

The evening was spent eating, drinking and being merry, and then the next day we went to the Korean War Memorial Museum. This I had seen so wasn’t too fussed but went along anyway. With a little time to kill before catching our coach back to Dàlián, some of us paid the 30 RMB to walk along the Broken Bridge across the Yalu River. WELL WORTH IT! Firstly, unlike my first visit, it was a much clearer day so we could see more of the North Korean city across the way; but secondly, going along the bridge meant that we were (a more realistic) swimming distance from the North Korean shore! And we saw people! Actual North Korean people – men (we think) fishing in the river. Fascinating! We also witnessed a couple of minivans and buses crossing the functioning bridge – possibly for tourists? Who knows!

One thing I did notice during the evening of Day 1 in Dāndōng was how the Chinese side of the river was all lit up and neon-y, whereas the North Korean side was pretty much pitch black. It was very bizarre. The neon, rainbow lights on the functioning bridge also seemed to stop midway along – presumably signifying the border. No electricity for them!

Here are the photos:

Walking up to the Wall entrance

Group pic!

The Wall

Is it just me, or do I look like a miniature
person here? Damn it.

THE BORDER! Had I ran across that frozen stream,
I'd have been in North Korea (but I'm not mad)

North Korea

The functioning bridge - all half lit up

Sculpture in front of the entrance way of
the Broken Bridge

The entrance to the bridge!

Very bright day! China on the right, North Korea
on the left

NORTH KOREANS!!!
They didn't respond to our calls of 'Ni hao'

North Korean city across the way

Minivans crossing the bridge!

Where the bridge 'broke'!

And that’s a wrap really! Just a ‘weekend’ trip, so didn’t have a huge amount of time – but I don’t think you really need to in Dāndōng. But getting out of the city and doing something exciting has inspired me to actively plan my visit to Hā'ěrbīn and the annual Ice and Snow Festival next month – so stay tuned for that one!

I’ll be seeing ya

xoxo

My Chinese Holiday - Part 2: Just a hop, skip and a jump away from North Korea

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:

Our slightly dingy room!

Steps up to the Korean War Memorial Museum

Sculptures outside the museum entrance

Mao Zedong and Kim Il-Sung

Near the entrance, a dedication to the
soldiers

Photos of 'biological warfare' during the Korean War. Creepy crawlies infected
with a disease (can't remember what it said). Did this happen?

Pyongyang - North Korea's capital city

Pretty intense sculpture inside the museum

At the end of the museum was a stairway up to this HUGE panoramic battlefield scene
and here are a couple of shots from 

 First attempt to see across the river - very
cloudy

Interesting sculpture on the boardwalk!

NORTH KOREA!
The sign just says that it's the border

NORTH KOREA!
Left: functional bridge; Right: historic bridge

View from Jĭn Jiāng Shān Park

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