Sojourns in Beijing, and Adventures in Manchuria

I returned to Capital Normal University's International Culture Plaza where I stayed a night and met up with a Vietnamese friend and Korean friend. We went out to a Korean barbecue restaurant. The next day I met Xu Laoshi at Beijing Station (smaller than Beijing West, and much easier to manage). We borderd a 14 hour train to the great Northeast. Chatted on the train and smoked cigars with the strong bodied peasants of Manchuria (many made iliterate by the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution).

Dandong is a small city of maybe 700,000 people. It lies on the North Korean border, near the sea, and the most Easternly point of the Great Wall. The city's name used to mean "Pacify the East" as in invade Korea, but was renamed "The East is Red". The culture is a mix of Chinese, Manchu, Mongol, and Korean. My friend, Xu Laoshi, is a Mongolian minority, his family lives on a farm on the outskirts of town. We arrived with two other friends of his.

The farm was beautiful with peach trees, corn fields, rice paddies, chickens, ducks, and flower patches. We set on his family's kang (the large flat surface found in all rural homes in Northern China which can be heated with coal during the winter) and ate peaches fresh from the trees and drank clean water that did not have to be boiled. The food was great, and it was great to meet Xu Laoshi's parents. His mom reminded me of my mom.

Nothing I had ever seen before could have prepared me for what I saw in rural Liaoning. What surprised me most was the prosperity of rural northern China. I had been expected something on par with the poverty I had seen in rural West Africa or even the kind of poverty I saw in the slums in urban China. But Xu Laoshi's family seemed to be doing well. They have running water, electricity, a motorcycle, a television, a satelite dish, (newly) a washing machine, and plenty of food. One of the most successful policies of the reforms of the past 30 years has been to give the peasants back their own land. For milenia it was the landlords', then it was the government's in massive communes (tens of millions starved to death then), and now it belongs to the families who actually work the land. But there was tragedy there too. Xu Laoshi's parents were "wenmang", illiterate because of the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.

We went out to a resevoir nearby and visited a fishing store from where we bought fish for dinner. We downed it with beer and fresh corn from the family farm. Slept well on the Kang (though the flies were a bit much). The next day we went to town. Visited the North Korean border. Two bridges span the Yalu River. One was built by the Japanese in 1910 and bombed by America in the 1950's. The other one (functional), is the sight of all official trade between the two nations. We borded a boat to go along the river and snap photos of the Korean city on the other side. Not much to see. A ferris wheel that never moves, some coal, some trucks, and some cranes. This is North Korea's most prosperous area, and it looks pathetic next to the bustling Chinese city on the other side. It was sad to see such a place but facinating. Certainly, a day I will never forget. We visited the city square and bought train tickets in the station for our return trip. We visited the Dandong version of Cosco. Bought some North Korean cigarettes, a purse, and some North Korean money at a border store. Ate Korean barbecue.

The next stop was a museum and memorial for the Korean American War. I thought the sign that said "May peace reign forever" in Chinese was beautiful: 和平万岁. Mostly, the museum portrayed Americans as monsters, but did show that many Americans opposed the war, even American soldiers (photos of one protest). It also showed a Black regiment that surrerended because they refused to fight. Mostly, I was horrified by the carnage of the war. Millions of Koreans on both sides died. 50,000 Americans died, and possibly hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers. I had fun in this one place where you could dress up in authentic Chinese uniforms from the era.

The next night we went to a restaurant with Xu Laoshi's family and tried some Sino-Korean barbecue. A lot of fun. The next day we returned to Beijing. I hung out with my Korean and Vietnames friends and bythe 24th, I was on my way back to America.