27 - 29 September 2013
After a good night's sleep in Dalian we woke up, conquered the bus system again (!) and took a bus to the bus stop for Dandong. Bought tickets and lunch and waited for our journey to begin. Late afternoon we arrived in Dandong after driving through an interesting mix of agricultural and industrial scenery. Found a hotel next to the fire station and were pleasantly surprised by the dirty walls, curtains, floor, sheets, etc. We took some time to acclimatize to our new stale smoke smelling surroundings and took it! We wandered along the riverside and saw for the first time (or rather didn’t see) the booming North Korean shore. We found a tasty place to eat and a beer and headed to bed.
Woke up early in eager anticipation of a cooked birthday
breakfast at Peter’s Coffee House – the only western/traveler cafe in Dandong.
Our first coffee since in China and reputedly “the best coffee on the border”.
We found our way to a local bus stop as the rain started and caught a short bus
to the Tiger Mountain section of the Great Wall which runs along the North
Korean border a little way. As we began to walk the rain ceased having done a
good job of keeping other tourists away and we enjoyed a lovely, if tiring
hike. Following a path which runs along the cliff of the mountain above the
Yalu River we came to within a stones throw of the North Korean countryside
(and the barbed wire and armed guards who protect it). As soon as our hike was done the rain started again and we
retreated back to the city to get changed and warmed up.
Peaking over the boarder into North Korea
(Notice the guard dive for cover at 0.38s when he realises we are filming!)
We headed out to a
seafood restaurant on the river front for a birthday meal of broccoli fried
baby squid and noodles! A suitably posh establishment for a birthday but we
concluded that the quality of the atmosphere, not the food, was what we were
paying for! Satisfied we returned to our ‘palace’ for a long sleep!
We treated ourselves to a lie-in before walking across town
to the ‘Museum to commemorate US aggression’ through a nice market. It was a
good museum (and free!) and taught us a lot about the 1950-53 war between
US-led UN-forces and Chinese/North Korean forces as a result of the Korean
Civil War. Unfortunately we are still curious to hear the story from the side
of the US-led ‘aggressors’ as the entire museum story focused on China’s
victory at every stage – it felt like we were walking through a big propaganda
machine! We wandered back to Peter’s Coffee House and shared the cheapest drink
on the menu as an excuse to use the free Wifi and secured our Beijing hostel
which we struck luck on since almost all were fully booked for the 1st
October public holiday. Another cheap noodle soup for dinner and we hit the
sack.
