A letter from the Sino-North Korea border

The Story of You, Part 2.

Jay K.



[Only the half of the bridge is Chinese territory and the other is North Korea's]


Ep31. A letter from the Sino-North Korea border


I left Ha’erbin and took a 16 hour-long hard seat train ride to Tumen. Tumen is a very small town located at the border of China and North Korea. It was the first town in China where I couldn’t find any McDonald’s or KFC. I was surprised by the fact that every billboard in the town was bilingual of Chinese and Korean. A number of Korean minorities live around this region. I also met lots of Korean minorities on the train. They mostly spoke Mandarin but randomly spoke some Korean words. It was interesting to watch them.

The reason why I visited this small town was to see North Korea. Tumen was one of the border cities that give visitors an opportunity to glimpse the most closed country in the world: North Korea. The most famous tourist spot in the town was the China-North Korea friendship bridge where the half of the bridge is Chinese territory and the other is North Korean. Although the guidebook says because of North Korea, Tumen is a famous tourist city, when I went there I felt I was only tourist in the town that day. Tumen unlike any other city in China was very quiet and not crowded.



[A Chinese visitor and a Chinese soldier looking at the borderline]




[Me at the border]

I got there around 8am and walked straight to the bridge. The bridge was only 10 minutes walk from the railroad station. I soon got to Tumen River which is the natural boundary between two countries. The bridge was of course guarded by Chinese soldiers. I thought I had to show my ID and register to visit the bridge, but however I didn’t need them. I just had to buy the ticket—that was actually funny. I walked on the bridge with other Chinese visitors and soldiers. We stop at the half point of the bridge. There was a line drawn at the half point, however due to the snow, it was hardly visible.

Taking just one more step, I could enter the most closed nation on the world and the territory of the only official declared foe of South Korea. If you are a South Korean citizen, you can get arrested by just visiting North Korea (whether the visit was allowed or not allowed by North Korean). It is the same as how it is illegal to visit Cuba as an American citizen. I just looked over to the other side of the bridge. It was so close from where I was standing. Growing up in South Korea, I thought North Korea is very far away from where I live, but it was right there. It was right there.

After visiting the bridge, I walked along the river. The river was unguarded and frozen, so I could easily cross the border—obviously I didn’t try that. To be honest, I was a bit scared of visiting the border, because there were a number of historical accidents at the border such as kidnapping or murder. However, the border was very peaceful and quiet. It was even beautiful with white snow. To tell the truth, this peaceful border tempted me to crossover.

[Me]

I sat on the river side and started to write the journal. China is so huge that I had to ride a train for hours to get point B from point A. Compared to China, Korea is so small, but why are we divided and fighting for this tiny land? Why is that? Again, there was only a question, but no answer to the question.

I had to walk away from the river reluctantly because I had to leave the city that afternoon to visit another Sino-North Korea border city, Dandong. Tumen is located at the east end of the border and Dandong is located at the west end of the border line. After stopping over at Shenyang, I arrived at Dandong after sunset.

[You can walk over this frozen river, and you can enter North Korea. Tempting!!]

[Everything is bilingual]

[I wrote "The unification" on the snow]

[Looking over North Korea from the Tumen border tower]

The hostel I was going to stay at was unfortunately out of business, so I had to walk around the city looking for a place to sleep. It was the last stop of my winter trip and I was almost out of money. I didn’t bring my bank card because I was afraid that I would lose it. I didn’t have enough money to pay hotel deposit. At last, I found a hotel where I could stay. It was a fancy hotel. It was the most expensive place I stayed during my trip. I slept on train for preceding two nights, so I had a nice and comfortable night at the hotel; it was amazing!

The next morning, I started the day early because I only had a day in Dandong. I first climbed the farthest east part of the Great Wall (namely Tiger Mountain Great Wall) which was 40 minutes away from the city by bus. Chinese government claims this wall to be the farthest east section of the original Great Wall built during the Ming dynasty, nonetheless Korean historians claims this wall to be built by Koreans in order to fight against Chinese invasion. I won’t say who’s right and wrong, I just climbed the wall. It was much shorter and lower than the parts of the Great Wall I climbed before. It was early in the morning, so I was only one who was climbing at the time. It was really nice to breathe fresh air at the top of the Wall.

At the top, I could have a clear view of North Korea. The long wall is stood along the river, which is also the natural boundary between two countries. The name of the river is also well known to you guys who studied U.S. history before—Yalu River. As you guys know, the US and UN troops advanced to Yalu River during Korean War and encountered millions of Chinese red army rushing and had to retreat back.

[Tiger Mountain Great Wall]

[Indiana Jones' looking bridge next to the border]

[North Korea]

[The border]

I walked along the border line. The border was silent. It was also unguarded like the border at Tumen, in which I could crossover. I could, but didn’t. I came back to the city at noon and visited the riverside. Yalu River is wider than Tumen River so that North Korea is farther away. There was a functional bridge connecting the two sides of the river, which is used for trades. I saw few trucks coming from and going to N. Korea. Parallel to that bridge, there was a broken bridge. The bridge was bombed by US airstrike and cut in half during Korean War. The bridge is well preserved by CCP for the historical evident showing that the Americans invaded Chinese territory during the war. It is now a tourist site where you can pay to enter.

I walked to the broken part of the bridge. North Korea was closer at the end of the bridge. When I was crossing the bridge, it started to snow. Dandong was as cold as Ha’erbin whereas Tumen was much warmer. The snow made me to imagine the bloody war that happened here a half century ago. It was also freezing and snowing hard when they were battling at this edge of the Korean peninsula. The Koreans, Americans, Chinese and multinational army were all here and fought to death. Some soldiers died not by enemy’s bullets but because of the unreasonably cold weather.

I also took a boat cruising around Yalu River. I met a group of Korean college students travelling. When I was planning the trip, I thought there would be many Korean tourists at the borders, however there weren’t many, maybe because of the weather. The boat went right up to the other side of the river. Unlike Tumen’s opposite side, the city across from Dandong is considered to be one of the big and flourishing cities in N. Korea. I could have a glimpse of N. Korean people working at the riverside. It was the first time that I was actually seeing N. Koreans.

[North Korea]

[The broken bridge]

[The functional bridge on the left and the broken one on the right]

[I don't know this is the actual bomb that cut the bridge in half]

[Yalu Broken Bridge]

The boat ride was short and I soon had to come back to China. After visiting two border cities and taking a close look at N. Korea, I realized how difficult the unification of my nation will be. I felt that North Korea was geographically close but at the same time the nation was extremely closed so that it seemed far away. I don’t know how to describe this. I felt N. Korea to be very close to me, but also very far away from me. I was depressed thinking about this and walked away from the bridge and Yalu River.

The last place I visited during the winter trip was the Museum to Commemorate US Aggression. It was a memorial museum for Korean War. The museum was full of propagandas saying that imperialistic America invaded Korea and threatened people of CCP. Thus, it was just for China to help N. Korea, but that’s exactly contradictory to what S. Koreans think and what I learned. If China didn’t help, two Koreas could be united easily at the end of the war.

I don’t want to give you a lecture on Korean War and the history of Korea. Anyway, the museum was decent and owned many photographs and other stuff from the war. It was also larger than I thought. I also have visited the Korea War memorial located at Washington DC. The Chinese memorial had a very different atmosphere from that of the States. What I realized from seeing the museum was that during the war China only cared about how it proudly could fight against America and Western imperialists, but it didn’t care about Korean peninsula and its future.


[The two great leaders]


[North Korean working at the riverside]


[The war memorial]


[N. Korean ship]


[N. Korean bulding and the propaganda saying Our Great Comrade Kim Il Sung Will Be With Us Forever (Kim Il Sung is the current N. Korea dictator's father who founded N. Korea, died more than 10 yrs ago)]

[The part of the war museum]



[The city of Dandong: it is very developed]

What is a nation? I had to ask myself again as I was leaving the museum. Why do people fight against each other and why are we divided? To be honest, I am very nationalistic and patriotic, but I know for the better future, it is not a good thing. I hope all boundaries between nations perish one day. I hope in the future, people can be different but at peace with each other. For now, I don’t have any solution for that, but just have hope.

It was getting dark and I had to head the train station in order to catch my train for Beijing. I want to apologize for this lengthy letter talking about so many random thoughts. I will write more about my trip in the next episode. It will be the last one for my winter trip. I am now with my grandma in Korea.

[Mao is saying goodbye to me as I'm leaving Dandong]

What is a nation?

The Story of You, Part 2.

Jay K.




Ep.30 What is a nation?

Yesterday Obama Barak was sworn into the office. He made many promises for America. He will fight for his country, the United States of America. Many people outside of U.S. also celebrated his inauguration together, but in the end, Obama is the president of USA which means he is only accountable for his own country, not others (of course, his policies can affect other countries and sometimes benefit others, but that’s not his ultimate purpose).

What is a nation? The word “nation” is from the Latin word “natio” which is derived from the word “natus sum” meaning “I have been born”. The word “natio” was used when even the modern concept of nation-state didn’t exist. It meant a group of foreigners. Although there wasn’t a simple concept of nationalism among the Romans, yet there were still differences and demarcations between peoples and people differentiated themselves from others on criteria of blood, place of birth, culture or religion.

Why am I talking about this nation shit instead of talking about my winter trip? It’s because the question “what is a nation?” was the question I repeatedly asked myself during this winter trip. I first asked the question to myself when we visited the Japanese Germ Warfare Experimental base, known as the 731 division. During WW2, the Japanese army set up this research base where they could test many germ weapons and other researches on real human subjects—mainly Chinese and Korean prisoners.

[The administration building of the 731 division, now it is a museum]

When this base was uncovered in the 80s, it became a hot issue among East Asian countries. According to the record, over 4000 people were exterminated at this base. I don’t want to describe how disgusting and inhumane the tests were. You can simply think what Nazis did to its prisoners. The 731 division base, which is the museum now, actually looks like a concentration camp. It was really grim and gloomy.

One interesting thing is that I visited this base with a Japanese guy—Zheng chun whom I slept with one the same bed. He is actually one who really wanted to visit this site. He didn’t directly answer to my question why he wanted to visit the base, but he said the 731 division is famous even in Japan although it is not on textbook. After watching the base, I thought, how people could do this kind of stuff on other human beings? So cruel and inhumane. I think it was only possible because they were doing that for their “country”. A single reasonable human being cannot carry this kind of torturing on other human beings, but a single reasonable nation can do this kind of things on other nations. It is called “the mob psychology”. A nation or nationalism is definitely a human invention, but sometimes it goes beyond human control and reason.

I coincidentally visited the Jewish synagogue the next day. The city of Ha’erbin is located right next to Russia, so that a lot of Russians Jews immigrated to Ha’erbin during WW2. The city has the largest Jewish population in China. This old temple is restored by CCP and now it is used for Jewish historical and heritage museum. I wasn’t interested in this museum, but Jeremy, who is Jewish and one of my travel companions, wanted to have a look. We visited the synagogue after seeing the Church of St. Sophia.

[A lunch at a Russian restaurant]

The museum was nice. I think that Jewish community donated lots of money to this museum. Visiting this museum again threw the same question to me; what is a nation? When I visited the museum, the war between Israel and Hamas was still going on. I knew that Jeremy supported Israel. I asked myself, why couldn’t they just stop fighting and live in peace? Of course, it’s not easy to answer that question. In my opinion, it is easy to say who first instigated the conflict between Israel and Palestine and whose fault it was, but nowadays it is not easy to tell who’s right and who’s wrong. There will be no genuine ceasefire until all countries perish on Earth. If there is no country, there will be no war as John said before.

On the last day in Ha’erbin, I was left alone because all of my five companions flew back to Beijing that morning. I also planned to leave Ha’erbin that night in order to get to my next destination. After checking out, I walked to Korean minority heritage museum. The museum was having a special exhibition. The exhibition was on one of the most respected figure in Korea, Ahn Joong Geun.

I was familiar with the city of Ha’erbin even before I came to China. The city has a very special meaning to Koreans and many Koreans like me are familiar with the city. The city is famous because of Ahn, who assassinated Ito Hirobumi, the former governor of Korea which was then colonized by Japanese Empire. Ito was one of the highest government officials in Japan and he was one who led the fascist Japan to the World War. He was regarded as the axis of evil in East Asia.

[The owner is beating his sled dog]

[A sled dog]

Ahn, who was working for independency of Korean peninsula at that time, found out Ito was coming to Ha’erbin to meet Russian officials and planned the assassination. In 1909, exactly a century ago, at the Ha’erbin railroad station, he successfully killed Ito with his handgun. He was soon arrested by the Russians and handed over to the Japanese. He was jailed and immediately sentenced to death by the Japanese.

To the Koreans’ point of view, Ahn is a hero of the country who bravely took an honorable revenge on the enemy of his own people. However, to the Japanese, he was a mere terrorist. The exhibition for Ahn wasn’t very impressive, but it was worth visiting. It also gave me a time to think about the question of nationalism. I don’t agree with Ahn’s method—assassination, but I agree with his cause.

[Ahn]

[The Assassination]

[Snow!]

From the Japanese germ base to Ahn’s exhibition, I kept thinking about the same question over and over again. Ha’erbin which is now a beautiful city of snow and ice has a grim history. I don’t know why there is so much hatred between people. Why do we have a war in the first place? I once wrote a short fiction about that topic, but I still don’t know why. Whether I found the answer or not, I had to leave Ha’erbin and move forward; the question lingered onto my next destination and kept haunting me.

[The Dragon Tower in Ha'erbin]

Welcome to the coldest place on Earth!

The Story of You, Part 2.

Jay K.


Ep.29 Welcome to the coldest place on Earth!


[Welcome!]

On the second day in Ha’erbin, we visited Ice Lantern Festival in the evening. ILF is the main tourist attraction of Ha’erbin today. There were marvelous ice castles and ice sculptures. They were so pretty! The whole city was built on ice! If you think about it, it is only possible because the temperature in Ha’erbin is always below “0 Celsius degrees” which means it is freezing. You can see many other beautiful ice sculptures all over the city.

The second day in Ha’erbin was unusually cold, although local people I asked said it wasn’t that cold. I don’t know how people can live there; I guess people can get used to anything. Tourists won’t come to this bitterly cold city if there is no ILF. ILF’s amazing ice city attracts people from all over the place.


[The main shopping street in Ha'erbin, "Zhongyang Dajie"]






[Ice piano! It's so pretty!]


Actually, ILF was more than ice sculptures and buildings. I didn’t know that ILF was organized by Disney. Yes, that Disney with Micky Mouse and other weird animals. There were ice slides, bumping cars and other fun stuff. I felt I was in an amusement park—a very cold amusement park. It was fun to see how very American culture, Disney, intruded into China. However, it wasn’t same. It had very different atmosphere from Disney in the States.

We wondered that ice city about 5 hours. It was really tiring. My camera couldn’t bear the ridiculously low temperature and almost got broken. If I took my gloves for a second, my hands just turned to red and purple. It was literally freezing that night. I was in the happiest, no, coldest place on Earth. However, it was really beautiful, worth visiting.





[Slide]









[The main castle]



[Crazy ice slide... I actually tried this!]









[Chinese clowns.. waiting and smoking]









[The giant Micky]









[Fireworks]







The next day, we visited the Church of St. Sophia. This gorgeous Orthodox Church was built by the Russians in 1907 and restored by the CCP. I saw many churches in the States, but it was very different churches I’ve seen. It was also fascinating to see how this church was standing in the middle of Chinese urban surroundings. The inside of the church was unfortunately a museum of the city of Ha’erbin. It displayed the B/W pictures of the city history, but it wasn’t interesting.

The Church was pretty so I visited it again that night. It was even more gorgeous at night, even colder. I enjoyed taking pictures of the church in the cold weather.



[The Church of St. Sophia]

[The Church at night]

It snowed in the morning. I think all cities are most beautiful in the morning. The city was white—snow white. It was so lovely! Living in California for the last four years, it had been a while since I walked on snow. It’s so fun to walk on snow, so soft and warm!

The city of Ha’erbin, in my memory looking back, is a very cold and icy city, but also a bitterly beautiful city. The city of ice sculptures and snow! The memory of four days and three nights in Ha’erbin will be frozen and left in my brain forever.

Ps. this episode is shorter than others in order to show more pictures to you guys.