Dandong and the border to North Korea

A beautiful city to visit with magnificent nature parks nearby, and of course the border to the DPRK.

Dandong was on our travel list for a long time, for numerous reasons. One, it is only a 3 hours drive from Dalian, where we live. Two, it is a city which is located directly at the border to North Korea and three, there is a great national park called „Phoenix Mountain“ nearby. So finally we decided to take a drive there during the 5 day May vacation. We were a bit concerned that there may be too many people as usually during the longer holidays, many people travel. Fortunately, it turned out to be not as crowded as we imagined – perhaps because we travelled on the 3rd and 4th holiday, who knows.

We stayed in the „Wanda Realm“ Hotel, which is located directly in the city centre at the Wanda Plaza. There is also a huge mall, Starbucks, cinema and many restaurants nearby.

Map and Overview

If you are wondering where Dandong is and how far it is to get to each spot, see the maps below.

Dandong in relation to Dalian and Pyongyang

Hushan Great Wall and border to the DPRK

Before we checked in to the hotel, we visited the Hushan Scenic Area, where we could walk on a small section of the Great Wall. We are not sure whether it was a „real“ piece of the Great Wall, it looked not old at all and we heard it had been build for tourist purpose. In any case, it was a nice walk and the wall looked very beautiful.

From the top of the hill, we could look directly into North Korea. It was not too exciting though, there was not really much too see except for some border patrols, a few farmers doing farm work and a few houses. later, we could walk on a small road directly next to the river which marked the border.

On the way back, we came across many small shops or stands where you could buy food and small souvenirs. The roasted nuts and dried (and fried?) fruits were the best, also they had fresh strawberries everywhere.

On the way to downtown, we stopped at a new park which was just recently opened and had a „Korean War Memorial“ theme. There were some really cool sculptures.

Broken Bridge

In the evening, we went to the „Broken Bridge“, the remains of a former bridge to North Korea which had been bombed during the Korean War.

After seeing the brigde during a wonderful sunset, we bought a few souvenirs (North Korean Money) and set out to find a North Korean restaurant (there are many). We found a Restaurant, which was supposedly (according to Dianping) the best in town. We had to wait nearly 30 minutes, but were not let down. The food was delicious!

Phoenix Mountain National Park

On the second day, we took a drive about 1 hour north to a place called „Phoenix Mountain“. It is sort of a national park / scenic area. The entry fee is about 80 Yuan, but there are some additional cost inside for buses, cablecars, glass bridges etc.

The weather was kind of foggy and a little rainy when we started, but eventually it cleared up.

We walked the first part up to the „real“ park. It takes about 25 minutes on foot to get there.

We saw a couple of nice temples and lakes along the way.

We went to the west part of the park, which was mostly nature. It was quite a long hike, around 2.5 – 3 hours. There is a big glass bridge and a rope bridge.