My next journey ended in Dandong beginning in the ever so busy Beijing Central Train station. To say that the station was crowded was an understatement. Pushing, shoving and hitting people with luggage is the norm as I walked inside.
My train was K27 which left Beijing train station at 17.27. I managed to see some of the other people in my tour group as I was standing in the heaving crowd. I knew I was in the right place. Once we had been given the ok to walk to the train platform pushing, shoving and queue skipping ensued. Once on the train I noticed we had a hard sleeper….it was open cabins with six beds in each cabin. This is a little different from the trains I had taken in Russia and Mongolia.
K27 – My train to Dandong…its final destination was Pyongyang in North Korea
6 beds….you can imagine how stuffy it gets in there!
Once on the train we stared out the window and we soon made our way to the dining carriage for some beer and food. This helped me to sleep for a little while on the train. The train was due to arrive in Dandong at 07.17 am but it was delayed by about 10 minutes. On arrival to Dandong station one of the guides Brooklyn and Dylan the owner of Lupine travel met us just outside the exit.
We checked into our hotel The Rising Dandong Railroad Hotel and we gave our passports and pictures to the guide so we could get our north Korean visas. Everyone had time for a shower before we started a day trip around Dandong which included the Tiger Mountain great wall, a boat ride on the Yalu River (the river that seperates China and North Korea), lunch, the Korean war museum and a trip to the broken bridge. This tour cost 500 RMB. I think that this was good value for money as most hostels in Beijing offer great wall tours starting at about 200-300RMB.
At 9.30 we all got on a bus which took us to the Tiger mountain great wall the drive only took about 30 minutes..The tiger mountain great wall is the most Easterly part of the great wall of China. It’s also very small but VERY steep! Once at the top viewing tower one can get a great view across the Yalu river at North Korea. It’s amazing to think such a turbulent country is so close, but also so far!
Tiger Mountain Great wall
Staring across at North Korea
Some parts of the wall cannot be walked on.
At about 12.30 we headed for a little boat dock about 10 minutes down the road. We were going on a speed boat ride down the Yalu river. It was great fun, but it was eerie to see the houses that looked in shoddy condition on the North Korean side. Soldiers also stood on the hill tops with very serious faces each armed with a gun. Halfway through the boat ride we were allowed to take pictures but there was not much to take pictures of.
We had to be told when to take photos….boring photo of North Korea
On the boat ride. Orange and purple the trend for next season!
After the boatride we were soaked to the skin due to a freak rain storm. We bundled onto the bus in search of food to warm our bellies. After lunch about 2pm we headed back for Dandong and we got caught in a bit of traffic on the way to the Korean war museum. The museum was open until 4 so we did not have time to really concentrate on the museum itself. In the time that I was there I found that the statues were beautiful and impressive pictures lined the walls with descriptions in both Chinese and English. I was sorry that I didn’t have more time to wander around the museum as it is a topic that interests me. As I had lived in South Korea for almost two years I find that the memories of the war is still fresh in the minds of the nation.
Our last stop for the day was the broken bridge which is a bridge that was bombed by the Americans and never replaced. It goes over a larger section of the Yalu river and on the opposite side the North Korean town of Sinuiju can be seen. Again it is crazy to think that North Korea is so close.
On the Broken Bridge…North Korea just behind me!
Exhausted we ventured out for dinner after and went to bed early as we had a big day ahead of us. Our train to North Korea was due to leave at about 10.30 the next morning. Visas had to be collected and bags had to be packed. Although I was tired I was pretty excited to see a country I heard such mixed reviews about.
My tour operator to North Korea. Lupine travel “Unique destinations at budget prices” http://www.lupinetravel.co.uk/
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