Part 2: Tumen, China/N. Korean Border

Matt, Kevin, and I were debating on whether or not to stay in Yanji on Sunday because we also had Monday in Yanji with our friends who were coming in that evening. We trekked to the bus station to see about a trip to Tumen. With our broken Chinese, we were able to figure out that the next bus left in 40 minutes, but we couldn't buy the return ticket there. On top of that we weren't even sure if there was a return bus. D'oh! We said, "what the heck, we'll go and if we get back great, if not, there are places to stay there, probably."

Tumen is a border town between China and N. Korea and was pretty amazing to witness. I think after hearing all about or rather not hearing much about this country, to actually visualize N. Korea was surreal.

We couldn't glean much about N. Korea from Tumen, but Matt and Kevin paid 2 yuan each to look at the opposing border town through telescopes and binoculars. From their reports, the buildings looked monochrome and during the night, it was pretty much pitch black.

Along the river, there were alot of touristy gimmicks, so we did them! We paid 20 yuan to cross 1/2 way across the bridge between China and N. Korea; and rode a 3 person tandem bike, which was in shabby condition; but we were able to pull of a 360 turn without falling over.

The rest of the pictures from Yanji and Tumen are here: click me!

We were able to get a train back to Yanji to meet up with our friends at midnight and continue our travels to Bai He, which is right next to Chang Bai Shan, China's largest nature reserve.