Where I head north (but not too far north) to the 东北

North Korea! Is not where we went, so don't get too excited. Where I did manage to wander lately was to the cities of Dalian and Dandong. Dalian is a major portcity in the Liaoning province of China, more infamously known for having been fought over by foreign powers like Russia and Japan. 

Someone online apparently calls it the "Hong Kong of Northern China." I don't know if I would quite agree with that one, but it did have historial importance that may be of interest to history buffs. After the Opium Wars, both the Japanese and Russians fought over for many years the Lushun (Port Arthur) Port in order to grasp control of the strategic area. At one point it was a colony to Russia because being lost during the Japanese-Russian War to the Japanese. French influences from Russian architects appear in smatterings across the city. A trip to the city wouldn't be complete without traveling out to the former military/strategic port still being used by the modern Chinese Navy as a base. You can get out to the old Port Arthur and climb around the fort, seeing the old barracks and even prison sites. 

Have I mentioned how much I hate stairs? But of course, /someone/ needed to see the giant cannons on the top of the hill. Men.

Old soldier barracks

Prison cells, 6-8 to a room. 

We took a local bus for 4 hours to get to our next destination. Go local transportation.

Saw this during our rest stop break....umm...

After frolicking around old prison sites, trying to help our driver figure out where in the world the naval base is, and then wandering around looking for the bus depot (a rental driver to take us the same route would have cost around $300, our bus tickets were about $10). It was a pretty comfy charter bus type of bus (try not to look at how clean the chairs and curtains were) and the drive was comfortable.

NK on the left, Chinois on the right.

That looks like a slide over on the other side. There also was a ferris wheel. No signs of people in any of the structures.

We even concluded with a ferry ride on the river to glimpse at the North Korean side.

Brief moments of celebrity status. Yes, that is a man taking a selfie of himself and his wife, while his friend takes a camera photo of them. 

My favorite view was still the bridge that allows for land crossings between the two countries.

The friendship bridge is beautiful in evening light, a string of lights signaling where it reaches the Chinese side.

Apparently this is where the Chinese troops had bridges to cross over into North Korea during the Korean War.

My goal on this trip was to get a photo of our group on the Yalu River Broken Bridge. You can still see the twisted bits of where it was destroyed during war. It is pretty much right next to the Sino-Friendship bridge and allows you to walk out on the water and gawk. (My group has still not sent me their photos. Ahem.)

Very manly statues

They're prepping paper lanterns to float over the river with messages written on top. 

We rested at a local bar which hosted a band that performed a pretty decent version of Rolling in the Deep by Adele. 

We'll always have the dongbei.