China Picture of the Day: 23 September 2010 ~ North Korea

After climbing the Great Wall over the peak of Tiger Mountain, Nancy and I found ourselves at the Hushan Great Wall History Museum. Everything was written in Chinese, so we were unable to get the full gist of the story, but we came across some beautiful murals that made for fun China Pictures of the Day!

A map of the Great Wall.

Here we are at the eastern most section just north of Korean Bay.

An artist's rendition of what the Great Wall looked like before it was rebuilt.

Steppin' out on the Great Wall!

Yep, we did it!

Our good friend Brandi (who had taken this same trip with her family last October) informed Nancy and I before we left that there was a boat back along the Yalu River. We like this idea much better than climbing all the way back up and over Tiger Mountain. Coming out of the museum, we asked a few people standing around, "Boat?" and they pointed down toward a dirt path along the river. It was a beautiful walk, but we had little faith that we were going in the right direction or even if there was a boat out here in the middle of what looked like nowhere! A group of four young Chinese girls and a young couple came along who looked just as lost as we felt. With their limited English and my even more limited Chinese, we communicated that we were all heading in the same direction and looking for the boat. We walked together for quite a distance when I finally pulled out my cell and called Brandi. She reassured us that even though it didn't seem like it, we were indeed headed in the right direction. I then tried to communicate this to our new friends, but no one believed me...even when I pointed at my phone and said, "My friend...boat...this way!" But off they all went back from where we came. Guess they didn't trust us Americans. Nancy and I took one look at each other, giggled, and kept going...

...until we came across this sign and realized we were awfully close to North Korea! We had heard stories about how close we would come, but didn't realize it would be this close! We assumed that the small boat ramp with the banner above was were we needed to be, but we were still a bit on the unsure side.

"That's North Korea, Nancy!!"

"Sure is, Kimberly!"

We didn't know it yet, but this was another option back to the beginning of our journey...a picturesque trail that hugged the cliff. Next time!

We waited and waited for a boat to come, reading and rereading the sign and sitting in quiet reflection to the reality of how close we were...

Another group of people walked up, pulled out a cell phone, called the phone number on the banner above the boat ramp, and before you knew it we could hear the wonderful sound of a boat engine...

Just as we were about to cast off, the group of young girls we met earlier came running down the trail and hopped on too. They were all smiles and finally believed me! : )

A great shot of Nancy looking out over North Korea.

You may have heard about all the flooding a few weeks back in the northern part of China. This area was all under water during that time...

More of the trail back...

I learned later that this narrow branch of the Yalu River is called Yibukua (One Step Crossing). One could cross easily if it were not for all the warning signs and the metal fences recently installed on the DPRK side of the riverbank. And my camera is not on zoom folks...this is actually how close we came as we cruised along in the boat. Spitting distance!