Borderlands

Visiting the North Korean border was something I'd been thinking about for a while. Then, four Chinese men were shot trying to cross it. Since then it has been hard to convince anyone to come with me. So I ended up going to Shenyang for a day, then to the border, on my own, against Mum's advice.

The train from Shenyang to Dandong, on the border, takes three and a half hours, so no beds. I was seated across from a retired couple (visiting Dandong, as tourists, for the second time this month) and a Japanese couple. The train was full, and no Chinese people seem to have any misgivings about going to the border. So, I wasn't too concerned about safety. They would probably be aiming at the Japanese anyway.



On arriving at the Dandong international train station, I immediately went to buy my return ticket to Beijing, and was lucky enough to get a sleeper. I had a look at the Mao statue greeting visitors in the station courtyard, then went straight towards the Yalu river, which defines the border. Dandong is quite small, so it didn't take long to walk there.


One of many sculptures on the Yalu riverside.

The weather was somehow fitting - foggy and surprisingly cold, even near noon. The visibility was poor enough that I couldn't see across the river to the North Korean side, but that made the bridge across look all the more eerie.



Dandong's riverfront is quite well-developed, a bit like Wuhan's or even Dalian's coast, so if not for the signs, you wouldn't know there was an evil dictatorship on the other side. It seems to be a popular place for a walk, even for the locals, even in the rain.



I found a Korean seafood restaurant for lunch. Not actually North Korean, the staff were Chinese, but the food was described as "chaoxian". Chaoxian means Korea, but while in the west, that defaults to South Korea, in China it defaults to the North. You can say north chaoxian or south chaoxian to be specific, but the South has its own, entirely distinct name in Chinese (hanguo). Anyway, I had my soup, which was mostly mushroom, with a Yalu River beer, which was mostly water.



I made my way back along the river to the bridges. There are two bridges over the Yalu, one connects China and Korea by rail and probably road (I saw nothing on it all day), and the other stops in the middle. This second bridge, the broken bridge, from what I can gather, was attacked by the US during the Korean war. The Koreans took down their half, but the Chinese didn't bother, leaving a bridge extending from the Chinese side, abruptly stopping halfway towards Korea. It is now a major tourist attraction.



To get on the bridge, you have to climb a stone structure, which is topped with a sculpture of Chinese soldiers marching forward, towards Korea, presumably to aid them in fighting off US aggression. The bridge itself runs close to and parallel with the larger, complete bridge. The fog was such that I couldn't see the end of either bridge from the coast.


They won't get far. The writing below the commander reads "For Peace".



Walking to the end of the bridge, the fog still obscured my view of the DPRK. All I could see were support columns left behind by the Koreans fading into the distance. The bridge at this end is bent and twisted, from either American bombs or Korean demolition equipment. I couldn't see China from here either, because of the fog, so it was a bit strange.







The bridge has signs explaining the history of the bridge, almost all in Chinese. One technically interesting aspect of the bridge, according to the signs at least, is that the bridge had a revolving span to let ships through. The mechanism for this is still part of the bridge and on display.

After the bridge, I kept walking along the riverfront. I wasn't game to go on a boat ride, which apparently would take you up a branch of the river into North Korea, and give you a close enough look at the border guards to chat with them. I could hear a loud banging sound from the other side of the river, and at one point saw a boat which may have been North Korean. One wonders what the North Koreans at the border think, when the weather is clear, looking at the riverfront apartments on the Chinese side, lit up at night.





The riverfront seemed endless and there was nothing left to do on it, so I went to the Museum to Commemmorate US Aggression. The Chinese view of the Korean War is, unsurprisingly, very different from that in the west. It is known by the unwieldy name of the "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea", which pretty well sums up their side of the story. The museum itself is at the top of a hill, with a huge obelisk, 53m tall to commemmorate the year of the armistice.



Inside the museum are the sort of Korean War relics rarely seen in the west. North Korean medals and awards to Chinese soldiers, letters from Kim Il-Sung to Mao Zedong, equipment used by the Chinese in the conflict, and banners and propaganda from the Communist side. Very interesting to see this sort of thing from the other side. The descriptions, in Chinese and English, made plenty of criticism about the US-led "United Nations Forces" (always in quotes), America's "imperialist running dogs". No mention was made of Australia or New Zealand, even indirectly (we weren't even included in a display of the roundels of air forces participating in the conflict). The enemy wasn't really the focus of the museum though (apart from a few displays of captured equipment), most of it was about the Chinese assisting Korea with their struggle for peace. Dioramas throughout depicted Chinese and Korean soldiers breaking into enemy command posts, chasing American soldiers, and carrying supplies to the front with big smiles.






Letters from Kim Il-Sung to Mao Zedong, in Chinese.

This is the sort of thing the Chinese make really good museums for, and the final display was an impressive panoramic diorama of battle scenes. Of course, Americans were the only enemy depicted here.



Down the hill a bit from the museum is a "National Defence Education Park", which I imagine is a place where students are taken to learn about military history as part of their compulsory military training. This was open and free for anyone to go in, and had an area full of larger relics from the war, which presumably wouldn't fit in the museum. Dozens of anti-aircraft guns and a big radar dish were at one end, and at the other, aircraft dating from the war (presumably, used in it). Nothing I hadn't seen already, except for one decaying MiG-15 with North Korean markings.





There didn't seem to be anything left in Dandong that was still open and worth seeing. The weather hadn't cleared at all, so no point going back to the river. I went back to the train station with an hour and a half to kill, walked around for a bit (lots of Korean supermarkets selling South Korean goods), had some dinner, and talked with the people selling food outside the train station. I also got rid of the rest of my small change buying North Korean souvenirs.



The K28 train from Dandong to Beijing starts in Pyongyang, so while most passengers were Chinese, there were a few North Koreans on the train too, wearing their Kim Jong-Il badges. They didn't bother me, and I didn't bother them. I settled in for the night, and got back to Beijing in time for my second class of the morning. I showed my classmates my own Kim Jong-Il badge. One South Korean was not amused.

The Shen

Duanwu, or the Dragon Boat Festival, is on as I write this, which means dragon boat races, Zongzi (glutinous rice and other things wrapped tightly in leaves), and more importantly, three days off. Duanwu falls on a Wednesday (I don't know whether or not it always does), so our 3-day holiday is made by moving the previous weekend forward two days. So, we had school on Saturday and Sunday, and get Monday through Wednesday off. I've not done anything interesting for a while it seems, so I decided to make the best use of this time to go travelling. Nobody else I could find was interested, which in my mind removed the more popular destinations from my list (Xi'an and Qingdao), and on a whim I decided to spend some time in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province.


Sculpture outside Shenyang North station.

Shenyang is an overnight train ride from Beijing, and since I couldn't get a ticket for the Sunday night, I left late Monday night and arrived early Tuesday morning. I had a few ideas about what might be worth seeing, from the internet and Lonely Planet, but no firm plans. The first thing I did was to get a map and some breakfast, and figure out what to do. I decided that Beiling park was within walking distance, and it was, barely. The walk let me get a bit of a feel for Shenyang, a typical Chinese city much like Wuhan. It is a large, spread-out city, with a subway under construction, and huge but uninteresting buildings everywhere. After a while, I made it to Beiling park.


A lake in Beiling Park.

Beiling means "north tomb", the park is in the northern part of the city, and contains an imperial tomb. The tomb is in the centre of the park, and the park is big. Before reaching the tomb, I walked among steles, stone lions, and old people waltzing on "Sweetheart Island".






Not very clear, but Manchu is visible on this stele.

The park was also crawling with soldiers. Not in a bad way, though. They were all in uniform and on duty, but just there to have a look around the park. Marching as well, but they didn't do that for long.



I had to pay again to get into the tomb, but that's normal here. The tomb was pretty cool, not least because there were very few people there, being early morning and Shenyang not being a popular tourist destination. The tomb is surrounded by a complex, much like a temple. The tomb itself is a mound of earth with a tree on top, surrounded by a semicircular wall and guard towers. There are very few imperial tombs outside the Great Wall, this is one of two or three.




The animal sculptures here represent real and mythical creatures, resting here with the emperor.




If the Egyptians didn't have stone, the Pyramids would've looked like this. Beneath this is the underground palace, where the emperor rests.



After exploring the tomb, I decided to try to make my way to the north gate of the park (I entered from the south). There were a lot more paths than the map on the back of my ticket suggested and I spent a good hour trying to find my way out. I found more soldiers, and they gave me directions, after taking some photos. This part of the park was very green, unlike much of Beijing or indeed the rest of Shenyang.






This is what the world's largest standing army looks like.



Once out, and on the side of a busy road, I made my way to an interesting-sounding place I found on the internet - the aviation museum. The museum appears to be run by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, and judging by the sounds I heard, and Google Earth, it was adjacent to an active air force base. Entering the museum, before they even charge you, you can get a very close look at some Chinese fighters. They had the J-8B here, which wasn't present in the Beijing military museum, but nothing else I hadn't seen before.




Shenyang J-8B Interceptor

After paying, you are allowed into a museum building which guides you through the history of the Chinese aviation industry, technology used in aircraft and the production thereof, and to the centrepiece, a scale model of the J-11, a Chinese version of the Su-27 produced by Shenyang. There is a strong military focus throughout, with a lot of displays about Chinese experience in the Korean war. Everything is presented quite well, but all the explanations are in Chinese.


Shenyang J-11


At the height of the Korean war, even the Thunderbirds were recruited.

It was almost lunchtime, so I took a cab to a dumpling place I'd heard about. It was in the opposite corner of the city, but so were a lot of other interesting things. People warned me that taxis in Shenyang are dodgier than in Beijing, but I didn't have any trouble - although, in every taxi I caught, the permit they are required to display was not there, or the photo didn't match the driver. The dumpling place was on Zhong Jie (Central Street), and had supposedly been in business since the early 19th century.



The dumplings were very good, despite the wait (service in general is no better here than Beijing). They served me some tea as well, with flowers in it. I had a good meal and a good rest, and planned what to do next.



After lunch I had a walk along Zhong Jie, which is to Shenyang what Nanjing Road is to Shanghai, or Rundle Mall is to Adelaide. Not much interesting here, except that I discovered a Chinese cola, called "Future Cola" in English, but "Feichang kele" in Chinese, which means "extremely happy" (Coca-cola is "delicious and happy").



Much like Rundle Mall, there are some old buildings near Zhong Jie, unlike Rundle Mall, they are part of the Imperial Palace. The Imperial Palace in Shenyang is one of two from the Qing dynasty in China, the other being Beijing's Forbidden City. This may be where the Qing governed from before moving to Beijing, or where the emperor lived when there was trouble in Beijing, I'm not entirely sure. The palace complex is huge, but not as big as the Forbidden City. However, I found it a lot nicer than the one in Beijing, mainly because there weren't too many other people there. Signs are in Chinese, English, and Japanese, but don't explain things in much depth (they want you to pay for a tour guide).









Exploring the palace took up plenty of time, so afterwards I decided to check in to my hotel. Another taxi across the city. I had a shower and a bit of a rest, then went out again. I'd already ticked off most things on my list, so I went to Zhongshan Square, which supposedly has China's largest statue of Chairman Mao.



The statue was pretty cool. Chairman Mao, surrounded by heroic peasant worker soldiers, surrounded by banks and expensive hotels. A great place to take ironic photos.







I then decided to take a walk. Guided entirely by Lonely Planet at this stage, I thought I'd be able to make it to Korea Town for dinner. But, walking around, I couldn't find any traces of anything Korean, north or south (unfortunately I missed getting a photo of a hotel flying flags of both Koreas earlier). I walked all the way to Government Square (walled off to build the Shenyang Metro) and from there checked my book for eateries. I ended up at Xiao Tudou (little potato), which serves nice, heavy potato-based dishes. Cheap, though the interior appeared to have been chosen by Glenn Quagmire.




Even better than it looks!

While eating, an old man outside waved at me. I waved back. This happened a couple more times, then he came inside and started talking to me in Russian. As it turns out, he was a Russian of Chinese descent. He had also been drinking a bit, and wandered off after a short conversation.

I went back to my hotel, and finished the day watching a TV show about the war against Japan, on a channel from Qinghai, dubbed in Tibetan. I turned in early because I had to set off early the next day - I had a ticket to a town called Dandong, on the border with North Korea.