Dandong

We returned last night from a lovely two day trip to Dandong, China.  It's a smaller city on the Yalu River and the border of China and North Korea.  We saw a lot in two days and I've got the pictures to prove it.  Here we go!

We arrived at our hotel, the Crowne Plaza, in the early afternoon and checked in to a room on the 25th floor.  It was a lovely room with a big king bed (we brought an air mattress for the boys) and we really liked it until we looked out the window.  We had a great view of the city but what we wanted was a view of the Yalu River and North Korea so back down to reception I went and we changed rooms.  Here is the view from the first room:

This is us leaving the first room.

And here is the view from the second room on the 26th floor:

This little island is part of Dandong but the area beyond that is North Korea.

The Rainbow Bridge leads to the Moon Island Hotel.

At night the bridge is lit up like a rainbow, hence the name.

The boys with North Korea in the background.

After getting settled in the hotel we left in a taxi for Peter's Coffee House.  This restaurant on the waterfront street is owned by a Canadian although we never did see him.  We heard about it from other expats and Trip Advisor as it's the only restaurant in Dandong that is listed there.  After going in and finding a table I wasn't sure we should stay after I saw this sign:

In China restaurants are graded by what I assume is their governmental health department.  They can receive an A (very happy face), B (smiley face) or C (very angry face).  Despite the really angry face, we decided to stay and give it a go.  Interestingly, as we were waiting for our food, the health inspector people showed up and the sign came down.  I figured we lucked out by having inspectors reviewing the place while our food was being prepared.

We switched tables before we ordered so we could sit by the window.  We saw this couple getting pictures done and they came into the restaurant to eat after.  Nicholas kept calling her 'the queen'. 

The atmosphere in the place was nice but overall the food was pretty lousy.  Tim's burger and milkshake were okay but the rest wasn't so great.

After our meal we crossed the road and strolled along the waterfront for a bit.  It was really pretty but, as usual, we found that we had to keep moving or we would be surrounded by people wanting to look at the kids or get pictures.  A few girls even followed us for a while, giggling the whole time.  

It is becoming very difficult to get pictures of the boys together, especially if I want them to just smile and not do a ninja or superhero pose.  You can see from these pictures by the waterfall:

This one's not so bad.

Cigarettes anyone?

We stopped in this area of vendors and bought some North Korean money for the boys.  I don't know if it's real or not (the 1 bill does say "copy" on it but the rest don't) but for all we paid I'm not worried about it.

From the waterfront we caught a taxi back to the hotel.  Nicholas and I tried going for a swim in the hotel pool but it was too cold.  They claimed it was 30 degrees but I think that was an exaggeration.  Also, there were several Chinese people swimming and they have a nasty habit of going to the edge, coughing up their lung contents and spitting them into the grates that surround the pool.  I'm pretty sure that water gets recirculated and it's pretty disgusting.  Just listening to it makes me want to gag.  The next day we tried again but instead of going into the big pool, Tim and the boys went for the "hot tub" that wasn't hot.  It was perfect for the kids but Tim was less than enthused. 

Friday morning we were up and out early for our visit to the Great Wall.  We grabbed a taxi and had an interesting thirty minute drive along the river to get to the site.  

First we saw a wedding party and, although I've seen this in Shenyang, I've never gotten a picture before.  As the couple drives around the city, a videographer gets the whole drive on film from a car in front of them. Sometimes they sit right on the tailgate of the car.

A little further out of the city we could see more of North Korea.  I know I've mentioned that country a lot and it is just a piece land, but there is definitely something mysterious about it.  I suppose it's because they are so secretive and cut off from the rest of the world.

Finally we could see the Great Wall in the distance.  Here is a very brief description of the section we visited from a China travel website:

Hushan - 'Tiger Mountain' in English, is so named because the two towering peaks are like two tiger ears pricking up into the sky. It covers an area of four square kilometers (1.54 square miles) and its main peak measures 146.3 meters (1,080 feet). In history, the mountain was always regarded as an important fortress because it guarded the safety of Dandong City in Liaoning Province and is the eastern gate way to China. So logic dictated that a section of Great Wall along Hushan Mountain be built to take up the commanding heights.

The Hushan Great Wall, lying on the Yalu River, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Dandong City, Liaoning Province, and facing North Korea across the river, was built to strengthen the frontier defense in the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and was the eastern starting point of the ten thousand li Great Wall. However, due to the collapse of many parts of its structure, people took Shanhaiguan Pass to be the eastern-most point of the Great Wall. The excavation of 600-meters (0.4 miles) of ruins in 1989 proved it to be the real one. In 1992, the government invested a huge amount of money to restore this section. The renovation of 1,000 meters (0.6 miles) of the principal part was completed in 2000.

We will climb to that tower you see on the top of the mountain.  Yikes!

The boys ran most of the way up to the top and back down.

The steps started to get pretty steep at this point.

This is where the legs really started to get a workout.

View from the very top!

Tim and Ryan went to the very, very top while Nicholas and I waited just below.  My legs were feeling like jello and we still had to go back down all those stairs.

Cookie break!

Running flat out back to the bottom.  I wish I had his energy.

Map of the section we walked.

This is where we started and finished.

An ice cream is in order after that walk/climb.

These nice people were blowing bubbles for the boys to chase.

Aside from the Wall being very cool, we thought it amusing that we met up with another Michelin family on the way back down.  You never know where you might run into people!

We returned to our hotel and had lunch at The Waterfront restaurant.  I found this statue in the center of the buffet rather interesting.  I got a kick out of the looks on the dolphin's faces.

We had a very nice meal and afterward the boys had their swim.  When they went to play ping pong later on I escaped for a walk all by myself.  I left the hotel and headed up the boardwalk along the river to the Yalu Bridge.

Our Hotel

The view of the boardwalk from our room.  Older men use large paintbrushes to write traditional Chinese characters on the boards with water.

In the last picture you are looking at two bridges.  Here is a description of both:

The Sino-Korea, Sino-Korean, or China-North Korea Friendship Bridge (renamed from Yalu River Bridge in 1990) connects the cities of Dandong, China and Sinŭiju, North Korea, along the China-North Korea border. It was constructed by the imperial Japanese between April 1937 and May 1943, during their occupation of Korea and Manchukuo, to span the Yalu River. One of the few ways to enter or leave North Korea, it carries automobile and rail traffic. Pedestrians are not allowed to cross.

About 60 m (66 yd) downstream are the remains of an older bridge constructed between May 1909 and October 1911. It was an iron truss bridge of 12 spans on stone piers. The total length was 944.2 m (3,098 ft). The fourth span could be opened with a 90° horizontal rotation to allow easy navigation for tall ships. Both bridges were bombed by American aircraft during the Korean War. From November 1950 to February 1951, the United States used B-29 and B-17 heavy bombers, and F-80 fighter-bombers to repeatedly attack the bridges in an attempt to cut off Chinese supplies to the North Koreans. The bridges were repeatedly repaired. The 1911 bridge was left destroyed and only the newer 1943 bridge repaired and used at the end of the war. The North Koreans claimed that they did not want to rebuild the broken bridge so that the United States could not deny the fact they destroyed it. Four spans of the old bridge remained on the Chinese side of the river, giving it the name the "Broken Bridge" (断桥).

The bridges are flanked on the Chinese side by parks and promenades which make up the Yalu River Scenic Area. This is a major tourist attraction in China and is rated AAAA on China's national tourist scale. Tourist boats leave from the side of the bridge allowing visitors to view both bridges and the Dandong river front, and pass close to the North Korean waterfront. The four remaining spans of the old Yalu River Bridge were opened as a tourist attraction in 1993. Pedestrian walkways were constructed along the length allowing tourists to view the bomb damage close up. The Broken Bridge also allows good views across the river to Sinuiju on the North Korean side. In 2006 the Broken Bridge received protection as a key cultural relic by the State Council of China.

On this afternoon I purchased a ticket and walked out onto the Broken Bridge.  It was very cool to be able to do this and experience a little bit of the history.

The China Side

The twisted steel from where it was bombed.

The North Korean Side.  I'm not sure if that ferris wheel ever moves.

The Friendship Bridge on the left and The Broken Bridge on the right.

After our walk on the Great Wall and my 3 kilometer trek along the boardwalk I was pretty tired so I got a taxi back to the hotel then we all went for supper. 

For our last morning in Dandong I wanted to go to Jinjiangshan Park.  We didn't get to see a lot of the park because we quickly found the amusement area and spent most of our time there, but what we did see was beautiful.  

When we arrived at the amusement area the boys quickly found a game where you got to shoot balloons with a gun.  We said they could do it and paid the money to the lady.  It was only after they started shooting that we realized what it was they were shooting with - modified nail guns!  I couldn't believe it and even more startling was how many times the people who worked there ran in front of the guns while the boys had their fingers on the triggers.  I wonder how many times they've been shot with a nail.

We spent quite a while at the park and had a really nice time.  The boys enjoyed the rides and even more so the guns.  We let them try one more where they shot at cans.  

We left the park and went back to the Canadian coffee house one more time for milkshakes.  I took the kids back to the hotel in a taxi while Tim took his turn walking on the Broken Bridge and then back to the hotel.  By the time he arrived our driver was there and we were ready to check out and head home.  We had a really nice time and enjoyed the break from Shenyang.  Next time we will head off in another direction!