An Eerie Contrast

Once again, I must apologize about my delay. All students in the program along with their Chinese roommates left Friday evening for a weekend in and around Dandong, a smaller city (similar to Nashville) bordering North Korea.

After taking an overnight train to Dandong, we hopped in boat and sped over to Dalu Island. After spending Saturday there, including some interesting Chinese karaoke by some of my classmates, we got up the next morning and went back to the mainland and headed to Bingyugou, a touristy area where you can hike (by now, I was fully expected to lead the hike...which I did), boat, jet ski, and do this crazy zip line thing across the river, for which I happily paid the $4 for two rides.

After killing it at Bingyugou, we drove into the rural countryside to stay at a farmer's house. Being that this was a farming area, there were many farmhouses, so at any given time you can see random animals (dogs, ducks, roosters, horses) just roaming around. This wasn't your state-of-the-art farming facility--they didn't even have a refrigerator. It seems they get the work done with straight back-breaking work. When I got up the next morning to run at 5:30, they were already up and working.

Running through the mountains with cornfields interspersed and streams running parallel to the road I shared with animals, I realized it was a run I'd never forget. One farmer on the street even challenged me (I was already running at 6:00/mile pace). I told him, "Lai ba" which means "Come on." In the end I think I got him by a nose, but I'm not too concerned about it either way.

However, I think the highlight of the trip came on the final day as we headed toward Dandong, which shares the Yalu River with North Korea. We first stopped at the closest point to North Korea--yes that's me standing a meter from the the Hermit Kingdom. A friend of mine actually took a picture of me as I'm climbing the fence, but he hasn't yet sent it to me. After that quick stop we continued our surge toward Dandong, where we took a boat tour on the Yalu River. At risk of overdoing the economics aspect of China, I must say that the difference between the two sides of this river was the clearest example of capitalism (or at least an open economy) at work that I've ever seen.

The first picture is North Korea, and you can see a never-moving Ferris wheel and two pillars in the water. These pillars where the base of a bridge that existed until the '50s when North Korea dismantled the bridge to the river's midway point. China's half still exists, and is a tourist attraction. (A new bridge now stands and is used only for trade)

Looking at the next picture, which is China (6 cranes are visible), you can clearly see why this is such an eerie contrast. Dandong looks approximately like Houston, while North Korea looks like a farming village...in the '50s. As we were on the boat tour, snapping pictures of these harbor workers and boatmen staring back at us with glazed over looks, it felt as if the people themselves were tourist attractions--like they weren't actually individuals but test subjects in some sick experiment where very few enter or leave the confines of the country.

So in a few words, this trip was eye-opening. We returned to the campus the next morning at 4:00, and of course, we had classes that day. I slept for 4 hours, and then drug myself to class, which I think really had no use for anyone that day. I've been recovering ever since--getting things together, so the posts will be more frequent from now on. If they're not, demand a post, just like Gale did. Lastly, I must apologize for all the pictures in this post...I know you guys hate them.