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. 

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 1^st October public holiday. Another cheap noodle soup for dinner and we hit the sack.