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“If You Take a Boat, You Can Step Onto the Shore in North Korea”
I chat with a cab driver in Dandong, Liaoning Province, at the Chinese–North Korean border.
12/09/2025
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
It’s September 2025. I am in Dandong, at the Chinese–North Korean border in Liaoning Province, and I take a cab. After getting into the car, I ask the driver—since I just saw a few people planting new trees in a park who looked like North Koreans:
“Are there any people from North Korea in Dandong?”
He replies: “Yes, some come here to work.”
I show him a spot of an old building on the map on my phone and ask if he can take me there. He isn’t familiar with the address, but agrees if I hold my phone and use navigation (导航) so he can just follow. When we’re getting closer, he asks if I want him to take me somewhere else instead.
He says: “I have never heard of this place before. I’ve lived here all my life, and I’ve never seen an old building there that tourists visit. In my over 50 years in Dandong, I’ve never taken any tourist to this place. This place doesn’t exist.”
Seeing that he may be right, I agree for him to take me to Hushan Great Wall, the stretch of the Great Wall at its eastern end. He turns around, and about 10 minutes later we drive along a road next to the Yalu River. From there I can see North Korea on the other side, while the cab driver tells me a few stories.
When we spot some newly built high-rise apartments on the North Korean side, he says: “These were only built this year. The Koreans are really fast at finishing buildings—they just appeared out of nowhere. They weren’t here last year. People who live on the Korean side have to turn off their lights at the same time every day. They can’t use electricity whenever they want, only when they’re allowed.”
“Is this for safety reasons?”
“Yes. In the past, Chinese could still visit Sinuiju, the city on the North Korean side, but then North Korea suddenly stopped allowing it. Before, you could cross from Dandong into North Korea in a group tour. But people weren’t allowed to take photos with their smartphones.”
“Were they not allowed to take photos at all, or just not outside sightseeing spots?”
“They weren’t allowed to take pictures anywhere. Only the tour guide was allowed to take photos with their smartphone.”
“I see.”
“Look, you can see someone walking on the other side.”
“Yes, I just caught a glimpse. How is the border protected? I don’t see any soldiers.”
“There are soldiers watching, but they’re not visible to the naked eye. Do you want to take a boat? If you walk across the bridge, you can only go halfway—you can’t touch North Korean ground. But if you take a boat, you can step onto the shore in North Korea, walk around a little, and then come back to China.”
“No, thanks. I’ll just see the border area from here.”
He tells me a few more stories, including some about the war and the Chinese communists. After seeing where the Great Wall ends in Northeast China and enjoying the countryside, we go back to Dandong and I say goodbye to the driver.
Have you ever been to Dandong in Northeast China?
This is part of the series ‘Conversations with Locals in China,’ where I share conversations with Chinese people on my blog.