Russian Aeroflot took me to my first stop in China - Beijing. My third visit, so I skipped the usual (Forbidden City, etc.) and spent some time by Hou Hai lake. An interesting oasis in the heart of the city. Traditional stores, restaurants, western-type bars, street vendors, rickshaws...everything is here....
Later that night - Red Theatre (I wonder where the name came from
)
For some kung-fu
Short flight from Beijing is Dandong, a small city (by Chinese standards - about 1.5-2 million people) on the border with North Korea.
N. Korea is on the other side of the bridge... there are two bridges, but the left one works, and the one on the right was knocked down (Korean half) during Korean war... it did not prevent Chinese to make it look nice anyway - along with an old japanese bunker in the foreground.
You can drive 20 minutes to a different kind of border....with barbed wire....
In the background there are two N. Korean solders... they could not care less about me taking pics. And my face.... well, little frozen, it was about 10°F outside...
Left Dandong and went to Shanghai, to melt at 60°F...
Cars are very expensive in China, Mercedes S280 sells for about $90,000! And...
it's manufactured in Beijing
Even though KFC seems to be the most popular western restaurant in China (their stores outnumbering McDonald's by a large margin), there are other places to eat spicy chicken.
Then, the time has come to travel further south... to Singapore.
