Dandong-North Korea

Sunday I went with the BCA girls on another excursion to Dandong. It's a border city right on the China-North Korea line. Danny, our director, rented a van and picked me up at my place at 6:20 in the morning. It's a three and a half hour drive, during which we mostly slept.

When we arrived, we were at a riverbank, staring at a barren strip of land across from us. I joked, Please tell me that's North Korea...and it was! We took a boat ride up and down the bank a bit, and it was crazy because on our left we saw Dandong- skyrises, apartment buildings, restaurants, cars, colors, life, etc. On our right we saw North Korea- a barren wasteland of dead trees, one or two abandoned buildings, and loads of old decrepid boats lined up next to each other. These looked like fishing boats from the 1920s, like the tugboats you'd see in old cartoons. We even saw some North Koreans fishing and others washing cabbage for what we can only assume is going to be kimchi. We were only about 50 feet away from them as well in the boat; I can't imagine how painful it must be living there and staring at Dandong constantly.

Then we walked on the bridge over the river that was bombed by the US in 1950. The end was still pretty mangled but it looked redone; like they'd smoothed the edges and repainted the bridge. Next to it was the newer bridge that still goes over to North Korea, but not surprisingly there was no one crossing it.

We had lunch at a delicious Korean restaurant next to the river, then trekked over to the "Memorial Hall of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" -or what we refer to as the Korean War. The museum was pretty cool, there was the general museum stuff such as artillery, propaganda, old pictures of soldiers...but what made it really neat was the viewpoint. Just like the name of the museum, everything there- all the captions, the summaries- was written in a very pro-China, anti-American voice. The US was referred to as "the US imperialists" and the propaganda they had displayed from the US side was even pro-Chinese. 

The propaganda was actually my favorite part; they all perpetuated the idea that the Koreans and Chinese were 'lenient with POWs' and seemed to even be pushing soldiers to be captured and 'end this useless war.' There were magazine clippings saying things like "Mrs. Johnson is happy now because she knows her husband is safe in a Chinese POW camp" and "Stop your mother from worrying about you. Think about it!"

After the museum we headed back home, arriving about 7:30. We'd only spent about six hours in Dandong but I think it was definitely a very productive trip.

 China--Bridge--North Korea

Also, a completely irrelevant sidenote- It started snowing today in Dalian!

Productive start to August

Sadly, today I have spent entirely on uploading pictures to facebook. I finally finished the week of May Holiday, and am now only three months behind on photos instead of four, wooo! Though I'd like to clarify it only took so many hours because the computer I'm using is incredibly slow, Not because I'm a moron. Plus I make sure everything is in chronological order, tagged properly, etc....I'd say my albums are pretty stellar.

Yesterday was much more exciting; Kelly and her parents took me to Zhouzhuang Village, an hour and a half outside of Shanghai. Though they'd all been there before, none of them recognized the place when we arrived because it's now become so commercialized; whatever was there previously (probably houses) has been replaced by stands of small stores, each selling the same touristy junk. Even after we passed through the official entrance, we still saw nothing for a while but crap shops and stands selling the famous local dish, pigs' hooves.

Once we actually reached the village it was pleasant enough to walk through; in older times it was a water-way town, think mini-Venice. Don't feel it was worth the 100 rmb ticket, but I guess it's a worth-seeing-at-least-once kind of thing. The bridges and streams and old houses were excellent for trying artsy stuff with my camera- working with different lighting and angles, black&whites, that sort of thing. I imagine it used to be incredibly relaxing to live there, along the water, before the tourists started coming (and being artsy all over the place). Then for dinner, they offered to take me to a really nice Korean restaurant since I mentioned I enjoyed Korean food after living in Dalian for a semester. I fell asleep in the car and when I woke up....we were outside Ben Jia!! I hadn't realized they were a chain, I just thought they only had the Dalian branch because of the Little Korea there....

After being dropped off at home I enjoyed a long, cold shower (out all day in the Shanghai heat, not pleasant), then went to The Hut to chill for a couple hours. Accurately described to me as 'the dive bar of dive bars,' it eased me back into the expat scene- which I sadly don't plan on becoming a big part of when I return to Dalian. Should've saved the shower for after The Hut though...I decided I'd walk home since the apartment was a few blocks away, but with the winds gone, even at midnight it was about 85% humidity, making it feel like 90 F (thank you, weather channel).

So I've got a few relatives here, who(m?) I've been somewhat ignoring all day; they're saying goodbyes to my eldest aunt and middle aunt who leave for the States tomorrow. Funny thing is I postponed my trip to Shenzhen so I could see the bunch, yet I've spent maybe ten minutes total in the same room as them (dinner) and then leave before they do tomorrow morning for the airport. I rationalize it that they'd be discussing people and things I don't know about anyway, and all in Chinese that's above my level. But to be honest, I also don't feel like talking about what my goals in life are and what I'm doing with my future because that's where the conversation always ends up. No surprise, they're the relatives on my dad's side. Plus my baby cousin is here and I really don't like children. They're always sticky, they're always throwing stuff, and they're so gosh darn needy.

As for Shenzhen, I leave out of Hongqiao tomorrow; got an 8:20 flight and E's picking me up at the airport at noon. My father got pissed cause he's a concrete planner and I'm a go with the flow-er, so after a week of arguing about travel ideas he told me I'm on my own and that I'll just have to "beg" for money from him when I return to Shanghai. I'm pretty sure I can make my 4500 rmb last eight days in Shenzhen, even with three or four daily trips into Hong Kong and saving some for my big weekend with Carol in Shanghai when I return. It's almost 650 USD, I think I've got bigger problems if I blow that much in a week.