20250824, Sunday, August 24, 2025 DanDong, Yalu River Broken Bridge.

20250824, Sunday, August 24, 2025 DanDong, Yalu River Broken Bridge. 

Today was supposed to be river rafting but there were severe thunderstorms in the mountains that canceled the rafting activity. So we switched gears and instead drove about 3-1/2 hours to the city of DanDong, on the border with North Korea on the Yellow Sea. 

It was raining heavily as we drove southeast through the mountainous area. The driving rain and clouds couldn’t completely obscure the incredible scenery. 

About 2/3rds of the way there, we made a bathroom stop in Fengcheng at a highway rest stop. The rain had largely stopped by then. The rest area was modern and reasonably well maintained but in this part of China, squat toilets are the rule. We saw a praying mantis on the glass in the entryway. 

We made a lunch stop in Dandong at the Bianjiang Iron Braised Fish restaurant. This place takes hot pot to a whole new level. In the center of an enormous round table are three huge cast iron wok-like hemispherical pots in a central lazy Susan. These were used to make an incredible feast for us before our very own eyes. 

The main courses were a whole fish that probably weighed close to 8 pounds and looked like it could have been a Bassa, or Vietnamese catfish, pork ribs, and goose, all braised in the giant pots. After each protein was put in the pots, braising liquid was added and the burners were lit. Each probably were at least 150,000 btu, and once all three were going, the room heated up quickly, overwhelming the air conditioner. Veggies, noodles and cornbread dumplings were added after each pot had been furiously boiling for a while, and then giant steamer baskets filled with clams, oysters, shrimp and scallops were placed atop each pot. Several side dishes including a tofu dish and seafood salad came out with drinks and the shellfish were scooped onto serving dishes and the fires put out for serving the meal. 

It was an incredible meal experience. The meats were all falling off the bone tender and incredibly flavored.   We were completely stuffed and satisfied. 

After that lunch feast, we walked a relatively short distance to the “War to Resist American Aggression and Assist Korea” war memorial museum, dedicated to what we Americans would refer to as The Korean War. 

This was a massive and incredibly busy museum. We had to submit our passport information and pass through security before we could go into the museum. 

The museum’s main galleries had exhibits telling their narrative of the war from an entirely different perspective than we have ever heard. They describe it as a spectacular victory expelling American aggressors. To reinforce that narrative, there are exhibit explanations in Chinese, Korean and English. 

In their eyes, the Armistice agreement was a humiliating American defeat, but technically, North and South Korea have been at war continuously since then with a politically frozen front line. But no matter how you frame it, war is hell for the people on both sides. 

The museum and war memorial are situated at the top of a fairly high hill. We had to climb hundreds of marble stairs to reach the museum and memorial at the top. We imagined that was symbolically intentional so that visitors would have to be put through some degree of suffering to reach peace at the top of the mountain. 

The exhibits were all very well done and showcased military and cultural artifacts from both sides of that war. There was a pro-military and patriotic undertone that made the place a great recruiting tool for the Peoples Liberation Army. 

The place was packed with school aged children. While South Korea is experiencing a severe downturn in birth rates, there is no evidence of anything of the sort in Dandong. 

We Americans would be highly foolish to believe going to war against China would ever be a good idea. The indoctrination these young Chinese receive creates highly motivated and dedicated soldiers who would be very hard to defeat in a war. 

Climbing those stairs up to the memorial at the top of the hill and walking through the huge museum’s galleries clocked out steps for the day at over 9,000. 

We took a short bus ride to the Yalu River Broken Bridge in Dandong. This is a very important historical and cultural heritage site for people in the region as it represents a permanent reminder of the War to Resist American Agression and to Help the Korean People.  

It was the first iron bridge across the Yalu River, which separates China and North Korea. It was built under Japanese occupation in 1911, and bombed by Americans during the Korean War.

The China half of the bridge remains standing, while the Korean half is gone. There is a replacement bridge adjacent to the Broken Bridge. We walked to the end of the bridge, which was packed with Chinese tourists. 

We also took a river cruise that showed the stark contrast between development, population and activity between the Chinese and North Korean sides of the river. While there is a thriving metropolis on the Chinese side with modern high rises, busy streets and crowds of people, on the North Korean side, while there are what appear to be few modern apartments and a pair of construction cranes on the skyline, there are very few lights visible in any of the buildings and we saw fewer than a dozen people anywhere along the shore. One man was operating a large dipnet fishing from the shore with little apparent success and one motorcycle carrying two people on a street along the river. There were 3 barges anchored in the middle of the river flying North Korean flags engaged in dredging, and one excavator transferring spoils from a barge to a pile on shore. 

North Korean side

China side

One of the souvenirs sold aboard the river cruise boat was a folding folio containing a month’s average North Korean’s salary in North Korean bills and coins, sold for ¥50, or $7USD. 

It did start raining on the ride back to Shenyang, and it may look like rafting will be canceled again tomorrow, so maybe we’ll get a dedicated shopping day instead. 

We did make a stop at the airport to pick up DaQing’s son Hu Ben-Shan.  He is 14 years old, but several inches taller than BenChen and his dad.  The bus driver was probably a bit grumpy because he had been hired for an 8 hour day, but he has been driving us for over 14 hours.  He will get a generous tip.