Seeing North Korea

Like I said earlier, Dandong is the biggest city on the Chinese border with North Korea. Smartly enough, Dandong has done everything in their power to capitalize on this fact- they have turned peeping at North Korea into a tourist trap. For example, in the picture to the left is a boat tour you can take. I wonder what the North Korean people think about this. Can you imagine your lifestyle being something that people travel long distances to get a glimpse of?





There are two bridges that go across the Yalu River (this is the river that separates Dandong from Sinuiju). One bridge goes all the way across the Yalu River into North Korea, and the other one only goes halfway. The one that goes all the way across is called the Sino(China)-Korean Friendship Bridge (see right). According to Wikipedia, it is "one of the few ways to enter or leave North Korea, it carries automobile and rail traffic. Pedestrians are not allowed to cross." In fact, we saw several cars traveling across the bridge to and from North Korea.





On the other hand, the bridge that only spans half the river is set-up for tourists. This bridge is called the Yalu River Broken Bridge (1911) and it is just on the other side of the Friendship Bridge. The reason that it's 'broken' is because it was bombed by us during the Korean War to cut off traffic and supplies between China and North Korea. According to Wikipedia, "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." I'm not totally clear on why we they thought we would deny that, but I guess they have their reasons. On the right is the entrance to the bridge, and below on the left are some brave-looking Chinese people going to help the N. Koreans during the war. Unlike some other parts of the attraction, I guess this time they made sure to put the sign in English- it says "For Peace" at the foot of the monument. I will talk about the Museum of American Aggression in a later post, but there was so much Chinese propaganda in there it was ridiculous. Below on the right they left part of the damage that was done to the bridge.














Along the bridge they had a few things to read and they were even projecting a video but none of it was in English. Once you get to the end of the bridge you can see the remaining stone piers which continue onto the N. Korean shore. Directly in one's line of vision with the stone piers, the North Koreans have erected a big, colorful, fun-looking ferris wheel...when I first saw this ferris wheel something definitely seemed off with it. Not only did it not fit in at all with the bleak landscape around it, it also just looked really fake, like an enormous toy. It was kind of eerie seeing it sit there so motionless. I looked around on the internet a little and it seems like it is indeed real (although rarely used), but when I looked through a telescope the carts looked pretty 2-D to me. At any rate, that ferris wheel sure made me think that N. Korea seemed like a fun place to be!! It's not likely that you would miss it either way, but I love that they built it right in front of the bridge to be 100% sure you wouldn't miss it...

In order to get a better look at North Korea, they have high-powered telescopes set-up at the end of the bridge. I wish I could have taken pictures through it- there were so many things that could not be seen through the naked eye going on there. There were a bunch of military guards walking around with guns and a bunch were talking under a tree. Some of the buildings didn't have glass in the windows and I could see more guards pacing in them. There were also all these colorful made-in-China looking animal statues that, like the ferris wheel, I think were supposed to make the shore look more appealing and fun. The worst part was seeing the normal N. Korean citizens walking around the shore. Well, I'm not sure if walking is the right word, because this was not like strolling on the beach. Most of the people I saw looked pretty aimless- hands clasped behind their backs with their heads down, moving very slowly. They all looked so sad. You can't tell from the pictures but there's actually quite a bit of debris on the shore and I saw a father and his very young son picking through it and pulling out things they wanted. There were also a few people wading out into the water but I saw this after we got off the telescope so I'm not really sure what they were doing.

I was reading some other person's blog about N. Korea who took the speed boat ride, they said this- "There are two or three young guys on the navy cutter, dressed in humiliating striped sailor suits with Donald Duck caps. They’re built somewhere between scrawny and emaciated, puffed up at attention to project an air of malice." Very strange. He talked quite a bit about how skinny the people looked. It was a little cold when we were there and people were dressed warmly so I couldn't really tell. The blog author also described his first view of a person there as seeing "a real live North Korean." It sounds really bizarre and kind of degrading but it is a rare chance to be able to see this. Obviously some sort of zoo or rare animal reference comes to mind...

I think this picture sums up the experience best. On one side you have a very nice boardwalk with food vendors, restaurants, KTVs, hotels, office buildings, bridges, a real amusement park (I'll get to that in a later post)...and on the other you have, well, pretty much nothing- a few desolate buildings, debris, dirt/mud, barren trees, smokestacks, military ships, and some mountains which for some reason really creep me out (see first picture). They look like somewhere you go and never return...lol. It's hard to believe that just a small river separates these two very different ways of living.




Finally, here is a really nice S. Korean couple that we met while we were walking around the boardwalk. They currently live in China (Jilin, I think) and are operating an English school there. They were clearly highly educated and had even lived in Seattle for a while. They fluently spoke Korean, Chinese, English, and I think they also said French. Boy are they lucky to have been born on the side of the line that they were. It makes me sad to think about all the wasted potential and opportunities that their northern neighbors will never have.