Having previously spent many years living in Dandong one of the highlights was always looking over the Yalu River into Sinuiju.
This though is something that has greatly over the years though as not only both economies have developed, but also other factors have came into play, such as Covid-19 and the very visible closure of the links between the two.
What though do things look like now when you look over the Yalu River and into Sinuiju and the wider Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
A tale of Dandong
Dandong is the frontier border city between China and North Korea and as such as played. Huge role in relations between the two. Prior to communism the city was called Andong, which meant the east are savages. After communism this was not considered cool so “Dandong” came around, this meant the east is red and is partly why there is the huge Mao statue.
During the Korean war the heavy ties were cemented when troops and arms went over the bridge linking the two sides, before it was bombed the United States. This was then rebuild and the city became the most important link between the communist allies. Things obviously started to change when China opened up. This led to not just the development of Dandong, but DPR Korea became more isolationist a new Chinese fascination to both look and visit were born.
A tale of Sinuiju
The other side of the Dandong coin Sinuiju has always been an important border city. From the 1950’s to the late 70’s it was also the far richer of the two with Chinese people fleeing there rather than the other way around.
Sinuiju then largely lost traction as Dandong developed and really until recent years was not that much to look at.
Looking over the Yalu to Sinuiju in modern times
About ten years ago looking over the Yalu to Sinuiju has now become more interesting as the finances of DPR Korea has improved. This meant that a new skyline was essentially built in Sinuiju, thus making it look similar to Dandong, but with a North Korean architectural flavour.
This has made the various trips along the river (which we will get to later) all the more interesting and picturesque, as well as some might argue also giving a small propaganda victory.
Yalu to Sinuiju – The Dandong Side
Prior to Coronavirus the Chinese side of the border was dominated by Chinese people selling money, pins and handicrafts form DPR Korea. These traders still exist, but with lack of access to Sinuiju merely sell old stock, or Chinese made knock-offs.
The riverside street of Dandong is also dominated by shops selling things from the DPRK not to mention authentic DPR Korea restaurants, such as the Pyongyang Koryo International Hotel Restaurant – if they let you in.
Can you go over the Yalu to Sinuiju?
The short answer is about travel to Sinuiju right now is that no you can’t, but you most certainly could, as the many advertisements for tours there confirms. In the old days there were numerous tours for Chinese to the city which consisted of day and overnight trips.
Westerners could also go there, as I did a few times with it being slightly weird being about to look over the Yalu to Dandong as opposed to the usual Yalu to Sinuiju version. And my visits here certainly backed up the changes that we now see. When I first started visiting the DPRK the train station was run down and Sinuiju city a little beat up.
Now the train station as well as much of the town would not be all that out of place in China.