中国 Journey Through the Middle Kingdom 中国: Dāndōng

It seems it is a rite of passage for newly arrived expats to Dàlián to make a trip North up the peninsula to visit the city of Dāndōng. I think this is mostly because after a week or two of settling in, everyone gets a little restless and this is the first easy journey outside of Dàlián and into a bit of the country side. Plus, there is the allure of peering over the Yalu river into North Korea. The other added bonus was that you can also visit the most far Eastern end of the Great Wall - how could you pass that up? Given that, about nine of us that had recently (plus 4 of our drivers) arrived decided to make the 4 hour trip North to check it out.

Along the way, we made a pit stop at a rest area. This is a view of the Dōngběi country side from behind the rest area:

Just inside the city, there is a huge monument to the Korean war. It's too big to get a decent picture that captures what it looks like but this is a picture overlooking the city from atop of the structure.

Here's a man having a bit of a rest (xiūxi)

Along the Yalu river that borders North Korea, there is the "Broken Bridge" that crosses over to Korea. Apparently, it was bombed by the U.S in 1950. The bombed out bridge still remains and so is a bit of a tourist attraction.

View of the Broken Bridge from the China side looking over to North Korea. Obviously, we could not go over to the other side.

Another Monument to the war. I think there were some slogans about American Imperialist. As might be expected, The Chinese and the Koreans have a slightly different perspective of the war than we do.

After lunch, we headed up to the Hushan (Tiger Mountain) section of the Great Wall. This section has been reconstructed so it looks newer than what you might find outside of Běijīng (but that will be another trip).