Yalu River Broken Bridge

The Yalu River Broken Bridge is the defining image of Dandong. The original bridge was a swing-span railway crossing completed by Japanese engineers in 1911; American B-29s destroyed the North Korean sections in November 1950 to cut the supply lines feeding Chinese and North Korean forces. The Chinese spans survived, and today you can walk the full length of the Chinese section — about 350 metres — to the point where the deck ends above the river, with nothing ahead but water and the distant outline of Sinuiju.

The view from the end of the bridge is disorienting. On your left is the noise and commerce of Dandong; on your right is a North Korean city of similar size that generates almost no visible activity. Binoculars are for rent at the bridge entrance if you want to examine the North Korean riverfront in more detail. Entry is thirty yuan; the bridge is open from around 8am to 5pm. A few hundred metres upstream the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge — still in use for the limited truck traffic that crosses between the two countries — provides context for just how isolated the North Korean economy has become.

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The bridge was destroyed by US bombers in November 1950, but only the North Korean spans were hit — the Chinese half remained standing. North Korea chose not to rebuild its section, and so the bridge has ended mid-river for seventy-five years, an unintended monument to the Korean War's inconclusive ending. On still mornings you can hear Sinuiju from the end of the bridge.