Dandong Xpat

Spring 2012

I haven’t written for quite some time; I blame it on the cold winter but there really is no excuse — after-all I don’t write outdoors!

Spring in Dandong is a great time. As of this week the grass is just beginning to show a bit of green; I don’t think that is the St. Patrick’s Day effect either. The Yalu River is showing signs of life too with a few ducks cautiously swimming out in the flow. There is still a bit of ice around on tributary rivers of the Yalu but not enough to walk on. By April 5, Ching Ming Festival we should see a lot of trees budding and quite a bit of green around.

This past week I also saw quite a few kite flyers along the Yalu with multi-coloured kites and some quite elaborate flying gear. Some of the kites were even stretched across the river above Sinijiu, North Korea; I wonder if they were seen as friendly across the river?

Spring is a great time here in Dandong as people come out of their self imposed winter hibernation and start to walk and exercise along the river banks. Each Morning now by 6 am there are joggers, dancers and even tree bumpers out in force along the river front. As the days get longer we’ll see people out even earlier. On the summer solstice when summer days are at their longest the sun rises here around 4 – 430 am — great for those early risers. No there is no daylight savings time in China —we’re all one happy time zone.

For me I’m content to stay indoors for now early in the morning, drinking coffee from Peter’ Coffee House (still my favorite place) and watch those inspiring people from my window.

For now…watching the sun rise over North Korea from my apt in Dandong near the Yalu River.

Winter is coming …and so are the coal trucks.

As you may know most of NE China uses coal fore heating and here in Dandong is no exception. Coal trucks are beginning to fill up the district heating plants in preparation for winter. Last year the heat kicked in around Nov 5. With the nights cooling off here on the Yalu River I hope it starts a bit earlier this year.

We very seldom see the tell-tale signs of coal use from our friends across the Yalu there in North Korea; no thick black smoke from any chimneys or heating plants. Our cross river neighbors may have coal but it doesn’t seem like they don’t use much for heating the common families home. Too bad.

The good thing about not using coal is that you don’t wake up to that fine layer of coal dust everywhere and your Kleenexes don’t’ turn back when you have a cold. Still I think I’d rather have the heat — winters can still get pretty get cccold even here on the Yalu, far south of the cold Siberian wastelands. And to that I’ll drink….a nice hot Latte please!

I haven’t written here for quite some time. A week off for National Day, or Golden week as it is also known, seemed like a good time to catchup.

Tourists. This week was a golden week for tourists here on the border. I’m not sure if the Dandong government is promoting Dandong more or if the mobility of people is increasing, maybe both and. Whatever it is it was quite a busy week around this here border town.

This week I saw cars from Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces as well as Beijing…and others I wasn’t sure. It was amazing to see the waterfront road packed from morning to evening with tour buses, cars and people. Restaurants were busy, tourist shops were doing a brisk business and the government run tour boats on the Yalu river were running full all day.

Why Dandong? Well I think you know it’s the only place you can really get up close to North Korea and North Korean people. We also have 8 or so North Korean restaurants here that attract tourists. Not so much for the food though it is pretty good, but for the fact that the staff are all North Korean young women. Around 7 pm every evening they toss their waitress uniforms to don gowns and other costumes to sing patriotic North Korean songs and dance. There’s really nothing like it.

People seemed to have quite a bit to spend during the holidays also.

As I sat in my favorite coffer shop (Peters Coffee House) I couldn’t help but notice people ordering steak dinners pots of Lavazza coffee and a lot of cheese cake—it was a lot more then a regular week.

Golden week is about over. There are still seem travelers around as evidenced by those out of town license plates but university starts up again soon and things are getter back to “normal”, though I’m never quite sure what normal is.

Oh ya, weather was great this week,…sunshine and almost no clouds. Truly a golden week!

Did you know that almost 70%, maybe more, of all trade with North Korea via China goes through Dandong. These are figures from Govt sources. Recent reports indicate that China/North Korea trade has jumped to 84% of all North Korean trade since sanctions have been imposed on North Korea.

We often see dozens of trucks lined up every night getitng ready for a morning crossing; many of these are North Korean trucks. I would say, from casual observation, that there are a lot more Chinese trucks that crossover though with goods to North Korea. Most often, again from casual observation, they come back empty.

There are a couple of trains a day that cross the Yalu Rover Bridge as wlel…mostly with raw materials from North Korea or passengers to/from.

Another phenomenon that I’ve noticed are Chinese tour buses crossing over the Yalu in the morning full and bringing tourists back in the late afternoon. I guess these are tourist visiting the Sinijiu area for the day, which foreigners are not allowed to do; what a shame.

The Friendship bridge between Dandong, China and Sinijiu, North Korea.

It’s true. I was walking down along the Yalu River road when all of a sudden I hear this loud roar..and then out of the blue come 50+ Harley Davidson motorcycles. And, they come with a Police escort. I was stunned; especially since most of them were being driven by Caucasians!

I would have taken pictures but I was too stunned just watching them go past – it really was quite amazing. Oh and the roar of their engines was too loud, I couldn’t think (that’s my excuse).

I wonder what our friends on the North Korean side of the Yalu River thought?

Who would have thought that I’d see Harley’s in Dandong. Wonders never cease.