Dandong

Dandong (丹东; Dāndōng; formerly Andong (安东)), is a city in Liaoning Province, China, right next to the North Korean border.

Visitors usually come to Dandong for its close vicinity to the North Korean border.

Situated at the confluence of the Yalu River and the Yellow Sea in the southeast of Liaoning Peninsula, facing the North Korean town of Sinuiju across the Yalu River, small Dandong enjoys its reputation as the largest border city in China.

The geographic setting and the rich natural resources of Dandong account for its recent development into a city characterised by the light industry, silk industry (every late May, Dandong is the venue for the Oriental Silk Festival), and also Xiu Jade is famous for sea products and special products, such as Ginseng, hawthorn and chestnut.

The quiet riverside city is most famous for the pockmarked Yalu River Bridge spanning distressingly over the river. The bridge survived the bombing during the Korean War, a time when the city still had its old name Andong. Now it is open to the public to commemorate "the defeat of the American Aggression" and is the first choice for a glimpse of North Korea.

• North Korean Border. As the boundary between China and North Korea, the Yalu River flows over 300 km between the countries. Yalujiang Park is the best place to view North Korea, see the public sculptures, the swimming platforms (Warning: do not swim into North Korea), and possibly take a fast boat ride up and down the river along the border. There are remnants of an original railroad bridge across the river, bombed and destroyed by the Americans, a few km north of the Friendship Bridge, with a large stone-carved book inscribed in Chinese as a monument onshore.
• Yalu River Broken Bridge. This bridge reaches only halfway across the river, the other half having been disassembled by the Koreans. The remaining half was strafed by fighter planes in the Korean War. One can walk out to the end of this half-bridge. ¥30.
• Cenotaph of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. A large museum and monument built on a hill overlooking central Dandong and the Yalu river. The many, well-labeled bilingual exhibits venerate the courageous Chinese Volunteers Army, and offer a Chinese perspective on the history of the Korean war. As of December 2014, this is closed for renovation.
• Hushan Great Wall. This Ming Dynasty section of the Great Wall of China, which travels parallel to river, was restored to decent condition. The section is steep so watch your footing. Buy a ticket at the long distance bus station for ¥6.5 and the trip takes about 40 minutes. The bus driver will drop you off at a T-intersection right by the Wall. You can hike along the Wall one way and then return to the beginning on a walkway along the bottom of the mountain. You can climb on top of the tower at the highest point and see the Yalu River, and look into North Korea. There is an old wire fence that separates North Korea from China. North Korean guardhouses are 300-400 metres in the distance. The actual border is a small stream-river along the base of the mountain. Don't cross the water. To return to Dandong, return to the T-intersection and wait for a bus that will take you back to the long-distance bus terminal for ¥3. Confirm with the bus driver that the bus is going to Dandong. ¥60.
• Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge. The official crossing into North Korea. Passage is only by vehicle or train. Travellers are not allowed to walk across this bridge.
• New Yalu River Bridge. This massive, double arch motorway bridge was built by the Chinese government for about ¥2.2 billion and was intended to replace the old Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, as the North Koreans made promises to turn South Sinuiju into a Special Economic Zone and build a connecting road; neither has ever happened, so the bridge is ending in a dirt road among rice fields on the Korean side of the border. It's another example of a huge Chinese infrastructure project which didn't go as planned; also look for the vast, deserted immigration complex on the Northern side of the bridge.
• Yalu River Park. Riverside park regarded as having some of the best views into North Korea.

North Korean Border. As the boundary between China and North Korea, the Yalu River flows over 300 km between the countries. Yalujiang Park is the best place to view North Korea, see the public sculptures, the swimming platforms (Warning: do not swim into North Korea), and possibly take a fast boat ride up and down the river along the border. There are remnants of an original railroad bridge across the river, bombed and destroyed by the Americans, a few km north of the Friendship Bridge, with a large stone-carved book inscribed in Chinese as a monument onshore.

Yalu River Broken Bridge. This bridge reaches only halfway across the river, the other half having been disassembled by the Koreans. The remaining half was strafed by fighter planes in the Korean War. One can walk out to the end of this half-bridge. ¥30.

Cenotaph of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. A large museum and monument built on a hill overlooking central Dandong and the Yalu river. The many, well-labeled bilingual exhibits venerate the courageous Chinese Volunteers Army, and offer a Chinese perspective on the history of the Korean war. As of December 2014, this is closed for renovation.

Hushan Great Wall. This Ming Dynasty section of the [[Great Wall of China]], which travels parallel to river, was restored to decent condition. The section is steep so watch your footing. Buy a ticket at the long distance bus station for ¥6.5 and the trip takes about 40 minutes. The bus driver will drop you off at a T-intersection right by the Wall. You can hike along the Wall one way and then return to the beginning on a walkway along the bottom of the mountain. You can climb on top of the tower at the highest point and see the Yalu River, and look into North Korea. There is an old wire fence that separates North Korea from China. North Korean guardhouses are 300-400 metres in the distance. The actual border is a small stream-river along the base of the mountain. Don't cross the water. To return to Dandong, return to the T-intersection and wait for a bus that will take you back to the long-distance bus terminal for ¥3. Confirm with the bus driver that the bus is going to Dandong. ¥60.

Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge. The official crossing into North Korea. Passage is only by vehicle or train. Travellers are not allowed to walk across this bridge.

New Yalu River Bridge. This massive, double arch motorway bridge was built by the Chinese government for about ¥2.2 billion and was intended to replace the old Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, as the North Koreans made promises to turn South Sinuiju into a Special Economic Zone and build a connecting road; neither has ever happened, so the bridge is ending in a dirt road among rice fields on the Korean side of the border. It's another example of a huge Chinese infrastructure project which didn't go as planned; also look for the vast, deserted immigration complex on the Northern side of the bridge.

Yalu River Park. Riverside park regarded as having some of the best views into North Korea.

• Cross into North Korea. It is possible to cross into Sinuiju, North Korea by train from Dandong, and then change trains to get to Pyongyang. Numerous local tour groups can sort out the paperwork without referring to Beijing and arrange a relatively budget-friendly visit to Pyongyang for Chinese and foreign tourists. The cheapest deals involve joining a large group and can go as low as around ¥2000 for a three night/four day package for Chinese nationals. Foreign nationals should expect to pay at least 560 euros. Bargain hard. Of course, the usual restrictions apply (see North Korea for details).

Cross into North Korea. It is possible to cross into [[Sinuiju]], North Korea by train from Dandong, and then change trains to get to [[Pyongyang]]. Numerous local tour groups can sort out the paperwork without referring to [[Beijing]] and arrange a relatively budget-friendly visit to [[Pyongyang]] for Chinese and foreign tourists. The cheapest deals involve joining a large group and can go as low as around ¥2000 for a three night/four day package for Chinese nationals. Foreign nationals should expect to pay at least 560 euros. Bargain hard. Of course, the usual restrictions apply (see [[North Korea]] for details).

Most shops offer products at low cost and North Korean cigarettes can be purchased at many places, especially along the Yalu river.

Along with products from North Korea, many South Korean goods are sold too. If you're specifically looking for something to take home from the North, check the packaging – North Korean products use simple and/or poor packaging designs, and perhaps most strikingly, do not feature internet addresses in the smallprint, which products from the South almost always do.

Dandong is a great place to get your hands on North Korean currency, the won (which supposedly is not allowed to be taken out of the country). Street vendors sell sets of bills in different denominations, which may or may not include some additional coins; prices start at ¥25 per set.

The town, because of the location, has a lot of Korean restaurants with most congregating on the street facing the river. Give the shiguo Banfan, stonepot rice, also known as bibimbop in Korean, a try as well as the huoguo, hot pot. There are also a few North Korean restaurants in town, owned by the North Korean government and with North Korean waitresses, which are recognisable by the Chinese and North Korean flags over the entrances. There are also restaurants run by ethnic Koreans, not part of the North Korean government, that serve Korean food. A good dish to try would be ginseng chicken, which consists of a whole chicken immersed in a ginseng broth, served piping hot.

True Love Club is 2 minutes' walk away from the station. Westerners are not frequent, so they are likely to be called on stage to participate in beer races with the DJ and be interviewed in Chinese, no knowledge of the language required. This is usually very comical for the Chinese club patrons, but foreign revelers who speak little Chinese should take care. The on-stage interview portion can be very mean-spirited - on one recent visit, an English man was made to badly repeat phrases in Chinese such as "I am very poor and have no money." Of course he had no idea what he was saying and the crowd found this to be very funny.

• North Korea - If you are interested in paying a visit to North Korea, you´ll usually have to wait for weeks for your visa application to be processed. But you can still learn a lot about North Korea on the streets of Dandong, where vendors sell North Korean stamps and propaganda posters and frequently you´ll see Korean writing on boards over shops. In the hotels you can watch North Korean TV - the city is so close to North Korea, you can feel the strong influence of Korean culture everywhere. Recent reports speculate that travel restrictions have been somewhat eased, and visa processing faster for some nationalities.
• Dagu Mountain. Several Tang dynasty Taoist temples occupy the mountain site.
• Changbaishan Nature Reserve- from Dandong, you can easily get to the Changbaishan Nature Reserve in Jilin Province.
• Fenghuangshan National Park — 52 km northwest of Dandong, 840m high mountain dotted with Tang, Ming and Qing dynasty temples, monasteries and pagodas.
• The historic city of Shenyang
• The city of Dalian and its wonderful coastlines

Dagu Mountain. Several Tang dynasty Taoist temples occupy the mountain site.