The city of Dandong lies on the border of China and North Korea separated by the 900-meter wide Yalu River. Taking the China-North Korea Friendship Bridge would take you right into Sinuiju, North Korea, if you have the right permission.
However, word has it that there’s a place upstream of the Yalu where it is only three or four meters across. The place is known as Yibu Kua (“a step across”) due to the fact that one could easily step into the other country by walking across the stones in the river. RocketNews24‘s Kuzo went to check it out.
Our reporter was driven for about 30 minutes outside of urban Dandong to Yibu Kua near the end of the Great Wall of China, one of the major tourist attractions of the area.
Approaching his destination Kuzo found the area to be quiet and lonely with some people selling Chinese chestnuts and souvenirs on the side of the road. A path was made overlooking North Korea that you could walk along to a point.
During his stroll Kuzo came across a pair of binoculars with a sign reading “2 RMB (US$0.32) per person.” Looking through them, Kuzo could see a group of North Korean soldiers guarding the border.
From what he could see the three men were very young; in their teens or early 20s. They were going in and out of their guard box as you might expect on a cold day like that was.
As Kuzo returned home he could feel assured that not only Yibu Kua exists but that even in spite of all North Korea’s proclamations of war, border patrol is universally boring.
Original Article by Kuzo
[ Read in Japanese ]
