We arrived in Dandong around noon on a Saturday. The
area had a population of 2.4 million, and the city seemed smaller than Dalian.
It had a lot more bicycles and trees lining the streets though. A giant
statue of Chairman Mao Zedong towered over the square in the center of
town.
The “Yalu River Broken
Bridge” went only half way across the river. We paid 15 yuan
to walk on it. The bridge, constructed in 1909 by the Japanese
during their occupation, was “broken” because the U.S. bombed it during
the Korean war in 1950 to impede China’s support of North Korea.
At the end of the bridge, we could see some twisted metal, but most of
the damage had been removed.
We went to "The Museum to Commemorate US
Aggression." In Chinese, the Korean war is known as “The war of
resistance against America and in support of Korea.”
Views of North Korea
These photos were taken from
Dandong, China across the Yalu River (May 2005)
We went to the Yalu river
again where we could see North Korea. The river was not very wide, and
narrowed considerably upstream. We took a speed boat ride nearly
to the banks of North Korea. We couldn’t see much, since many boats lined
the shore. But we waved and smiled to some North Koreans. They
all wore plain clothes with no color.
