I’m off to Dandong in a few hours, so I thought I’d best start preparing for my trip!

According to Wikipedia, it’s a coastal city in Liaoning Province at the mouth of the Yalu River delta, which means it touches the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and Korean Bay. This makes it an important port, as well as a great access point to North Korea. In fact, there’s a bridge linking it to the North Korean town, Sinuiju, right across the river. Even though it’s called the Friendship Bridge, I think I will be staying off it. You know, since I’m American and all.

Dandong, with a population of 2.4 million, is significantly smaller than Beijing. In China terms, it’s practically a town. Thus, many tourist guides say that there is not much to do there. Really, the only reason we’re going is to see North Korea, which is pretty much the only reason to go to Dandong. But there’s also a section of the Great Wall at Tiger Mountain (rar!), which is about 25 kilometers outside the city, and a lot of Korean food.

Wikitravel makes Dandong seem as if it’s better to take hours-long bus rides to other places in Liaoning, like Shenyang and Dalian, which is probably true. It’s going to be raining the whole time we’re there, so might as well take refuge on a bus. At least I’ll get relief from the Beijing heat for a little while with temperatures in the high 70s.

Meanwhile, here’s to hoping that I will be able to get a return ticket once we make it out to Dandong. The crazy Chinese ticketing system doesn’t release tickets until about 10 days in advance, but somehow tickets were already sold out when we try to buy them 10 days in advance. We were told it might be easier to get tickets issued in the departure city (that would be Dandong). We’re aiming to return Monday or Tuesday — especially because Dandong isn’t the most exciting city to get stuck in. I only need to see the DPRK once.