Yalu River Broken Bridge

 

 

Entrance to the bridge and memorial

 

 

Only two hours or so inland from the Yellow Sea and at the mouth of the Yalu River lies Dandong. It being a port city and because of its location on the border of China and North Korea, it has seen its share of historic events in the last century. It inevitably houses a lot of bridges, many of which were built during the Japanese occupation and then bombed during the Korean War. More famous due to its being the first railway bridge, the Yalu River Broken Bridge is a top tourist attraction when visiting Dandong. 

 

 

 

Under the Broken Bridge looking at the Friendship Bridge

 

 

 

People flock to see traverse the Broken Bridge

 

 

 

Looking pretty by some vestiges of war

 

 

 

The bridge used to be a railway

 

 

 

A stele memorial looking out to the Friendship Bridge (still connected to China's neighbor)

 

 

 

Trying to recreate the 1940's photos of the bridge

 

 

One cool thing about the bridge is its middle panel which, in its heyday, rotated to create a path for passing ships. Then it was bombed by the American Army during the war. The gears for the rotating panel still stand, but where the bridge ends is a tangled mass of steel.

 

 

At the site of the bombing

 

 

To give you a picture of how long the bridge is (over 900 meters), here is what's left of the Broken Bridge next to the Friendship Bridge, which people still use to get to and from North Korea. These photos are taken from the halfway point, or where the bridge was bombed.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it's time to play "Which Side is Which?"! Here's how it works: I show you a photograph and you guess which country it shows, China or North Korea.

 

 

China or North Korea?

 

 

 

China or North Korea? 

 

 

China or North Korea?

 

 

China or North Korea?

 

 

Chinese or North Koreans?

 

 

China or North Korea?

 

 

 

Chinese or North Korean?

 

 

Chinese or North Korean?

Just kidding! They're birds...get it?

 

 

 

Here are just some fun pictures from the boat ride. We're right in the middle of the river, so I can't ask you to guess who owns what (although I'm sure there's an answer).

 

 

The Friendship Bridge

 

 

Lazy me got the best view

 

 

A mysterious North Korean house/office boat

 

 

I won't make you guess. This is a North Korean boat and we're completely at a loss as to what it's used for. If you look closely at the back, caged part you'll see something that confounded us even more.

 

 

Do you see it yet?

 

 

Could it be? There's a basketball court onboard! What?!

I wonder if it's Kim Jung-Ohn's personal basketball/business yacht, but I suppose that's a question for another era.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Things on Pinterest You Won't Find in China

 

October 1, 2013: The 64th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. I woke up to the memorial ceremony at Tiananmen Square where Xi Jinping and the other top-tier CCP members walked around the People's Monument to pay their respects to those who died building the country. On CCTV News, the English channel, they held a Dialogue special where a few of China's top universities' professors came together to debate the "Chinese Dream." During these programs, reporters posed the question, "What does it mean to be Chinese?" 

Although I don't believe that the Chinese public is anywhere near as perplexed by the question of a national identity as some news programs might suggest, I would still like to put in my two jiao. The following are 5 things you will find on Pinterest that you will be hard-pressed to find in China. 

 

 

1. DIY and crafts

 

 

Pinterest DIY's

 

 

Pinterest is full of DIY projects and crafts. Whether you're trying to keep your kids busy while you refurbish a vintage dresser or trying to organize your home in twenty steps or less, you won't need to scroll down far before you find exactly what you need. Of course, in China, we call that "hiring someone" (see below). Send your kids to English classes (or calligraphy, or painting, or piano). Hire the company down the street for the remodel. Where will you be, by the way? Oh, that's right. Work.

 

 

Chinese LSEDIFY's (let someone else do it for you) 

 

 

 

2. Teaching tips

 

 

Chinese math textbooks

 

I'm using context clues here, but I'm assuming that a lot of teachers use Pinterest to plan and share lessons. If they lived in China that would be completely unnecessary. With the whole country on one system, all they'd have to do is follow the curriculum. Easy as yi, er, san!

3. Anything Weddings: Wedding party, Self-planned color and design schemes, Announcements/invitations, and Cake
 

 

 

A Pinterest wedding party

 

Wouldn't getting married be easier if you just had to pay one company for one of their wedding "sets," banquet included, and just show up looking pretty? Yet I'm sure many of you are thinking, "What fun would that be?!" Simply put, Chinese weddings typically don't involve any of the above.

4. Frosting, Chocolate, and Ryan Gosling

 

 

It was only a matter of time before someone thought of this

 

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of sugary sweets and breads to go around in this country. However, almost none of them can be claimed to be 'homemade.' Also, they are not cream-cheese-frosting sweet. The chocolate isn't anything to brag about either, especially given that their most expensive brand is Dove. Speaking of sweet, is it any wonder that when I search "shuai ge" [handsome men] in Chinese on Baidu (China's Google), the majority of the search results are foreigners (i.e. K-pop stars, Tom Cruise circa 1988, David Beckham)?

5. Internet Memes
 

 

The way a Pinterest addict might choose clothes

 

 

 

The way a Chinese student would choose clothes

 

These things are everywhere these days. Well, not everywhere as the only ones I've seen among Chinese friends are more sappy than silly, more cutesy than cool, and more informative than funny. If memes are any inkling of what a given culture is thinking, it only takes one to see how very different thoughts Chinese have from Americans.


You can make of this list what you will. Ok, so you won't find typical China among the how-to's and the grumpy cat memes throughout Pinterest. From the ideas I've posited you might gather that there is a lack of creativity in China, creativity being what Pinterest really boils down to, and which then cannot accurately portray a whole country other than the United States. It doesn't mean that China is all red lanterns and kung fu or even this article. China is only 64 years old! In terms of political states, it's still a baby. How about we at least let it get to it's adolescence before we start deciding which clique it belongs to (I'm talking to you, too, CCTV). Jiayou, China, keep it up!

One Assassination, Two Reactions

On Wednesday, Tunisia's MP, Mohammed Brahmi, was gunned down outside his home in the middle of the morning. This is Tunisia's second assassination in the last sixth months, when Chokri Belaid was killed in February. In all of the small Mediterranean country's independent history, they have never seen the likes of such acts. Furthermore, since 2011's Arab Spring revolution started in Tunisia, the question remains as to whether this will mean instability and insecurity in the long-run. With a population of only around 10 million people, it is no understatement that everyone is concerned about the future of their otherwise prosperous, liberal, and thriving country. 

On Thursday evening, DA3 (pronounced "Daa") got a phone call from a friend at home telling him the news. His whole demeanor changed. He was immediately affected and spent the rest of the evening watching online broadcasts announcing the assassination and the subsequent demonstrations. "Something really terrible has happened in my country today," he said despondently. "You have no idea how badly I wish I were there now." 

I watched him in silence trying to feel some of what he felt. I couldn't put my finger on the right emotion, though. Is it a form of patriotism? I asked myself. Is it that he felt he knew this politician since it's such a small country and he's so passionate about politics in general? Does he have a personal stake in this? 

"Our economy is really fragile. Right now it's tourist season, but something like this could make foreigners stay away. Something like this could end our economy like that!" He exclaimed. 

His speech turned to the opposition party and the various parliament members, as well as all the civilians who were opposed to the different factions and parties trying to get their say. I was starting to feel lost in it all. And that's when it hit me. Out of all the political assassinations and attempts since Lincoln and Kennedy, as well as all the school shootings, the Boston marathon and other bombings, 911 etc...I, as an American, should be the most sympathetic to this new turn of events in DA3's motherland. It's not simply a matter of killer and victim, which is tragic enough, but also of what kind of environment can lead to such decision-making. Moreover, it's a question still shrouded in mystery. 

Is it our post-modern world that has got us actually anticipating that something bad is going to happen whenever we change a law or drop our kids off at school? Now that Tunisia has stepped past one stage of self-government, does that mean that its next stage cannot be a well-paved transition rather than a pot-hole strewn path of conflict? While we all hate hearing about such tragedies, is it possible that my reaction was one typical of a citizen coming from a big, powerful country where I myself don't feel like I hold a large stake in its operation or ideals? Because, to be honest, DA3's reaction floored me. How could it be so personal?

Please don't think me insensitive. As I watch DA3 deal with the aftermath--the possible dissolving of parliament, the funeral for their new martyr (which DA3's brother attended), as we listen to Tunisia's national songs on the radio--my heart breaks for him. He just wants to see the place he cares about so much, his home, become a place fit to build a life, career, and family. Unfortunately, at the moment it's more beneficial for him to be abroad. One cannot turn a blind eye to that. Yet I still recognize this as one of our differences, this fact that I would only ever personalize to such an extent a death in the family or of a close friend. I just assume (and this may be a result of cultural background, religious orientation, personality, or a combination of it all) that life will go on not so differently from before. Let it be just me, though, that willingly keeps my naïveté. Perhaps it's good to have someone like DA3 in your life to react strongly to news seemingly outside the personal fault lines. Someone's gotta care, right?