Dandong is the small city that people go to so they can catch a glimpse of the Border between The PRC and DPRK. While not the most exciting place in the world, it provides a nice break [you know how I love those city breaks] from normal life and a chance to see something new. If you count staring a strip of land that you wouldn't know was a different country if someone hadn't posted half an army there as something 'new'. It's a nice little place though, and at only 4 hours away from Dalian, hardly an arduous trip by China standards.
 |
| The place towards which Martha is indicating is, indeed, North Korea |
 |
| The river that separates China from Korea, the city on the right hand side is Dandong |
Martha also, god knows how, persuaded me to climb the Great Wall, once again. Dandong boasts the most eastern part of the Wall, or as the sign said, 'The most furthest eastern part of Wall end', or something to that effect. Renovated just so you can climb up one side and down the other, it's only real allure is getting a better look at North Korea and getting some exercise. It was a lot easier walk than the Great Wall at Beijing I might add, despite being almost entirely uphill.
 |
| The Great Wall...again |
 |
| There aren't a lot of foreigners in Dandong, so we were quite the novelty |
We ate some dishes that were apparently of Korean origin. One was a type of 冷面 [lengmian, cold noodles] that looked like a bowl of pond water, but was actually quite tasty. Another was this suspiciously cheap sweetcorn broth thingy which also came with an assortment of Korean sides, like Kimchi and tofu skins. Good times. Martha also had a really suspicious snack thing that cost the equivalent of 10p, and lords knows you can't buy anything edible for 10p anymore. Needless to say, I didn't buy one.
And that's about it from my travels in the Northwest. The only other thing to add is we stayed in a dodgy motel down a dodgy side street for the night that cost about 3 pound fifty and probably used to be a brothel. But the landlady was really nice [probably used to be the 'madame' of the brothel] and gave us a discount because we were foreigners. All in all, a good trip.
Xxx
