…and the Great Wall.
One thing that is a MUST when you come to China is to see the GREAT WALL! David & I have been to many sections of this amazing wall. You know it’s not all one connecting wall right? And no it can’t be seen from space.
We wanted to provide opportunity for David’s boss Ron to see this. Since a stopover in Beijing where most of the famous wall sections are located wasn’t going to work, we decided that on our final weekend here we would take a VERY FAST train ride to nearby Dandong city. It is a 3.5 hour car ride which ends up being longer or a quick 1 hour train ride! We chose the train so he could experience traveling on a high speed train too!
First stop in Dandong, the GREAT wall at Hushan. Hushan Great Wall lies near the Yalu River in Dandong City of Liaoning Province, and faces North Korea across the river. It crawls on the Hushan Mountain which literally means “Tiger Mountain”, so named because the two towering peaks resemble two tiger ears pricking up into the sky when seen from afar. The Hushan Great Wall was built to strengthen the frontier defense in 1469 during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and is the eastern most point of the huge military defensive system.
After the wall we headed back to Dandong city. The Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, a railway bridge connecting Dandong with Sinuiju is the big attraction to see along the waterfront. The differences between the Chinese and North Korean sides are immense: Dandong is brightly lit, glitzy and filled with people. Construction equipment and modern cars are everywhere, hospitals and train stations are at the expected Chinese levels. Sinuiju, on the other hand, goes completely dark at night, looks run-down and if you ever do see construction activity it’s going to be manual labor with even basic tools seemingly in short supply. Border guard activities are similarly different: While on the North Korean side a lone soldier with an AK47 can be seen shivering in the cold in regular intervals, the Chinese side instead uses FLIR-like camera systems on large poles to keep an overview of activities along the river.
And just one more thing…
When in Dandong, many foreigners want to try what the locals call the “sweet meat”. Well, it’s not sweet, and this will be my third experience, But for Ron…we once again had DOG. It is a dish that is served in the Chinese Korean Restaurants.
Yes… stewed dog.
Ron has had many experiences and tasted many kinds of food this week!
Next…An afternoon coffee to warm up ( and erase the taste of lunch lol) and then to the train station to head back to Shenyang.
It’s been quite a FULL day!!! But I love the adventure .
Tonight we arrived back in Shenyang and just stayed in and relaxed for dinner. David ordered room service.
Goodnight!
BUT I had to get to Shifu Square ( Government Square)
And Today’s special EVENT was a Seafood hotpot with some members of the hiking group that we used to go out with on the weekend. 3 guys, 3 girls and me. They were thrilled to hear I was back in China and of course wanted to treat me to dinner. Sometimes I feel like I get invited to things like this just so they can have a foreigner sit with them at their table. Unfortunately the 3 ladies that were coming were traveling together and had a fender bender, very common on a day like this. I am so glad we took the subway rather than taxi. Anyway it ended up that I had lunch with the group leader (far right), my Chinese friend and another person I have never met from the club.
One thing I can not get used to is the mixed washrooms, side by side, at these restaurants.
On the way home I took more pics of the lovely snowfall before taking the subway which was sooooooo crowded. No pics of this because I was literally sandwiched between hundreds of people. I kept thinking if anything happened…explosion or whatever…I would never be found. SO MANY PEOPLE!!! That’s what happens on a snow day.
Everyday here is like a gift and I will treasure it in my heart for days to come…or at least until one day I can return?
There is an indoor skating rink at this mall so I spent a little time watching the skating lessons. The little kids are so much fun to watch and you can tell that one day they will be great skaters.
Then just a quick little browse through Zhang lan guan…another market. It wasn’t very busy today and I guess that a lot of the markets are suffering now because of alibaba. EVERYONE is shopping online for EVERYTHING these days!
I took the subway home. It’s much fast then taxi and a lot cheaper. Only 2RMB. It’s the fastest way during evening rush hour and some how the taxis struggle finding Somerset with the taxi card I give them.
I picked up a few things… tea eggs, tomato fruit and bananas, a couple seed squares ( peanut and sesame seed) and a McDonald’s coffee before returning to my hotel. I kinda felt like a Chinese person picking up their daily groceries from the market on their way home for supper.
… and I am relaxing and doing this blog post. Our time is going far too quickly. Tomorrow is Thursday already.
We browsed some of the shops and I found my Jade lady!!! I couldn’t believe it. I picked up a few small Jade animals and helped the guys with their purchases. Our Jade lady was so sweet and I got BIG hugs as we left. I think she was pretty happy we stopped by today.
After lunch, we went back to the hotel where I stayed for a bit of a nap and the guys got turned around and went out for more exploring…David wanted to show them the Electronics street.
I loved catching up with my China daughter Wan Jia Xiu and hearing about her boyfriend and teaching English in a private school in Shenyang.
It was a pretty AWESOME day. ( I think Ron can see why we enjoyed our expat time living and working here)
And then stops along Nanjing street, Zhongshan street, Heping, Zhongshan Park, a HUGE flower shop to show Ron the options he would have living here for surprising his partner with flowers lol. haha, I remember the HUGE bouquet David gave me one year for Valentine’s Day.
More exploring of side streets, the Underground ( my how THAT has changed) markets, hole in the wall places…
After dropping off some things to the hotel, we took the Metro ( crowded at evening rush hour) to Middle Street. The oldest, most famous walking street in Shenyang. It was dusk so the lights were beautiful! Oh how I miss this. It was fun to walk the street, popping in some of the high end malls to get warm. The cold bothers David’s back so we stopped often.
When we were finished we took a cab to one of our favourite restaurants for some familiar dishes . Yum!!! This is what I miss!
Just An East Coast Girl 