Great Wall in Dandong

Dandong is the home to the Eastern-most portion of the great wall. My overwhelming first impression was...hmmm.. for an ancient landmark, this looks really new. I asked my driver about it, and his reply, with the little English he knows, was "every year, they repair, and it becomes new".
Rebuilt or just well preserved, either way it was still pretty cool. Some really steep steps to get to the top, but an amazing view once I got there.

From the top tower you can see well into North Korea. And its a pretty desolate place. Frozen mud fields and farmers sawing big blocks of ice out for frozen rivers

After walking the length of the wall, we stopped in the adjacent little museum and woke up the curator, who then turned on the heat and lights and showed us around. Lots of spear points and weapons, but nothing too remarkable. Until we stepped outside and I asked my driver what was written on a small sign near a pathway leading away from the museum. He said, " It says that the North Korean border is just a couple of meters in this direction". So we started down the path, me anxious to check off my first visit to the axis of evil. Not far down the path we came to these large, T-shaped structures covered in barbed wire...which I was sure represented an unguarded portion of the border

I bravely stuck my foot beyond the fence and took a picture, certain I had struck a blow for freedom and democracy.

And then discovered another sign on our way back, that when translated, ready "North Korean border 100m"...sure enough, across the canal and through the trees we could see a white 10' high wall. At which point I recognized that the story of my brave infiltration of the hermit kingdom was to be a little less impressive than hoped.

The Museum of American Aggression

Here I am, freezing my tail off, standing on half a bridge. The other half is at the bottom of the Yalu river, sent there by a few well-placed bombs dropped by American jets during the Korean war. The bridge used to extend from the Chinese city of Dandong to North Korea. Since then, they've rebuilt a bridge (to my right), but left the old one, with remaining edge all twisted and gnarly like the day it blew up, as a monument.

At the end of the bridge was a little hut with an old lady selling north Korean money and junky souvenirs. And for 30 cents you can look through some binoculars across the river and try and spot citizens of the hermit kingdom. Oppressive regimes and abject poverty weren't enough to drive the locals outside on a day like this...only the big American (and his reluctant driver) were dumb enough to leave the shelter of their house or car. I'm surprised my eyelid didn't freeze to the binoculars, Christmas Story-style

It was interesting, though. On the Chinese side, the riverfront of Dandong has modern glass and steel highrises. On the North Korean side, single story, dumpy looking buildings. And, for some reason, a ferris wheel. Bizarre

And while the bridge serves a reminder to the locals of what the Imperialists are capable of, the museum on the tallest hill in the center of town gives the rest of the details of the victorious resistance against American aggression

Lots of murals and dioramas depicting war scenes, US pilots surrendering, and pieces of American jets that were shot down. It was fascinating to see the other side of the story. A large carving that my driver translated for me described how the American army has only been defeated twice, and both time it was when the Chinese military intervened in the conflict.


Here's the piece of the downed US jet

And here's a quick video panning across a field full of equipment left over from the war.

Labor Park at New Years

It was a cold, clear Saturday in early January so I decided to check out Labor park in downtown Dalian...on previous trips I've stayed in the hotel across from the park, and couldn't see through the haze to the other side. Bonus this time was they were setting up for the upcoming New Year's party, so the rare blue sky wasn't the only eyecandy.

I've heard legend of some significance of the local soccer team in Dalian...some previous conquest or championship. Whatever it was, it was reason enough to build a giant soccer-ball shaped building in the park
Here's a 360 view around the park

As I'm standing at the soccer ball I can hear music and some thumping beats...and through the trees I can see - skiing. In the middle of the city. I was dying to give it a shot, but after trying briefly to fake my way through some equipment rental with hand signals and no clue how to say "size 12 boot" in Mandarin I gave up. Odds are good there wasn't anything approaching big American foot sizes anyway. Gotta love the improvised fake snow though.

For those without the cash for the ski rental, there's always the tiny wooden sled-for-two with matching tiny poles to slowly scrape your way across a frozen pond. After watching this for several minutes I was unable to understand where the fun came in...these guys were barely moving. Maybe there's a zen-like peace to the whole thing a westerner just can't grasp.

Jin Mao Tower

If you've got a few hours to kill in Shanghai, for a couple of bucks you can ride the express elevator to the 88th floor of the Jin Mao tower (on the right), which was the tallest building in Asia once upon a time. On our way there we tried to get into the other building on the left, which is the Shanghai World Financial center...and discovered that we were the only ones not in tuxedos in the lobby. We made it all the way to the elevator before security decide three Americans in dripping raincoats didn't quite fit the profile of the black tie invite list for the Grand Opening for the second tallest building in the world....and escorted us out. You can't tell by this shot but its way taller than the one on the right.
So we settled for tall, but not epic tall, and went to the top of the Jin Mao. And the view would have been amazing if I had gone one day earlier when the traditional Shanghai smog had lifted. But here's what it looked like from the top with the pollution intact. Check out the steady stream of barges on the river.


And here's a shot looking down the central shaft of the building

A couple of classic signs on this trip too. Check out this one below from a busy six-lane surface street. Only in China can you turn left across three lanes of traffic.

There's a lot of gloom and doom articles that have been written in recent years about the zillions of engineers and scientists graduating from Chinese universities, and the coming competition for the American economy. Now, apparently, they've found a way to accelerate business degrees as well...although for some reason they chose to feature a western looking kid for their kindergarden master's degree