We took the night train to Dandong on Thursday night and spent Friday tromping around in the rain, visiting a bridge that used to cross the Yalu River to North Korea, but had been bombed during the Korean War, attending a Manchu dance and drum performance (which was unfortunately cancelled half-way through due to the rain), eating a fire-roast lamb and making s'mores (in the rain) over the same fire. These were some epic s'mores though: lemon, apple and orange flavored marshmallows with dark chocolate and digestive biscuits. Super delicious!
The next day we took a boat ride on one of the lakes up there and saw some beautiful scenery as well as a thousand-year-old tree and some Buddhist landmarks (and climbed some super steep stairs. I mean seriously, who planned that? China must have awful civil engineers. I mean, I know I'm climbing a mountain, but if you're going to install stairs, try a little harder, mk?) That night we had a free evening in the city (relatively small by China standards, but still quite large by American standards) and we spent it restaurant-hoping (I ate dog), KTV (karaoke, which is super swank in China, btw), watching about 100 people dance in a city square (sort of impromptu, everyone knows the moves and it's like watching a musical or something) and wandering along the river comparing the pitch-black North Korea to the brightly-lit China. Never before had China looked quite so well off.
This is China. |
This is not. |
After dinner at a Korean restaurant with an odd show involving women dressed in Korean-wear and playing electric guitars, we headed off the take the train back to Harbin, arriving around 4 am. Pretty memorable birthday weekend!
Oh hey, North Korea. WAT UP. |
Also, I apologize that my blog has gotten progressively less cute with fewer fun things to click due to a) my lessened amount of time, and b) internet problems. Sorry!
P.S. I'll be back in the States in less than a month. Um. What?
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