Dan Dong is in the Dong Bei (east north) part of China, in Liaoning province. It is close to the North Korean border. I don't know how far it is from Beijing in km, but it is a 14 hour trip by overnight express train. I considered flying, but there is not daily flight between Beijing and Dan Dong. Maybe that's why they see few western foreigners, which made me feel like a strange animal in a zoo to be stared at all the time.

Train service in China is generally reliable, and train travel is very interesting. There are several ways to travel by train: hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper and soft sleeper. Reservations for soft sleeper need to be made at least four days in advance, which is the reason my return trip was quite a challenging adventure. Foreigners (me) travel overnight in a soft sleeper compartment, four bunks to a small room, two on top and two on the bottom (I got lucky and got a bottom one). Each "bed" has sheets, a pillow and a blanket. You are supposed to bring your own "comfort items" including slippers, a wet wash cloth, and pajamas. There is a food car, but the train is very long, and there are some cars foreigners are not supposed to go in, and most people bring their own food, and someone is always going up and down the cars to sell something to eat. I had grapes and fig newtons from home, boiled peanuts (a traditional train food) but no sunflower seeds (traditional train treat), bottled water and a lantern festival rice thing wrapped up in a bamboo leaf. It's pretty good, triangle shaped and sticky with beans or something stuck in the middle.

There were two businessmen and a lady in my compartment. No one spoke English and my Mandarin is very limited. They amused themselves watching me, and I amused myself watching them. About 8 p.m. the lady did a great job of getting her pajamas on under her clothes. The guys just took their clothes off down to their shorts. I wore a jeans skirt and t-shirt that there comfortable to sleep in and I could wear the next day as I didn't know when I would get a shower and change of clothes. When everyone decided I wasn't going to take anything off, they turned off the light and locked the door from the inside (people steal anything that isn't locked up). I was exhausted from the past three days, and the roll of the train put me to sleep...until other trains came screaming by from the opposite direction. All night long. There is a squat hole style toilet at the end of each train compartment, and the waste goes on to the tracks...you are not supposed to use it when the train is in the station. It takes experience to get the knack of squatting with the roll of the train, and getting up from that squat!

Dan Dong is at the end of the line, and Mr. Ma, my jade supplier knew what car I would be in, so he was waiting for me, and I was very relieved to see him. He speaks limited English, but much better than my Putunghau, and we just talked slow and tried to figure out what we were saying to each other.

Dan Dong is on the Yalu River, which separated China from North Korea. During the time that I went, there were a lot of North Korean people trying to get sanctuary in the foreign embassies in China, wanting to get out of Korea. Last year when I was in Dan Dong at night, the Chinese side was lit up with activity, and you could not see any lights at all on the North Korean side. Mr. Ma treated me to a cruise of the Yalu River in a small boat. Dan Dong boasts two anti-American major attractions. One is the bridge that was bombed during the Korean war. It has never been repaired and is a reminder of the American human rights violators. The other attraction is a huge museum dedicated to American aggression (didn't go to that). You can see the "broken" bridge in the background on the Chinese side.

There are many Korean restaurants in the Dan Dong area. Korean restaurants are generally cleaner than Chinese restaurants, and the food is very good, mostly spicy. Cold noodle soup is wonderful, difficult to eat with chopsticks.

Mr. Ma and his family honored me by inviting me to stay in their home the first night. They live in the city of Dong Gang, about a half hour ride from Dan Dong. His wife owns a shop, and his son is a middle school student. In China, middle school students start school at 7:30 in the morning and finish at 7:30 at night. (High school students go to classes until 9:30 p.m.). They come home for lunch for a couple of hours, and his wife and son met us for lunch at a Korean restaurant. I declined the offer of eating dog, and it wasn't served. After lunch, she started preparing a huge dinner, making dumplings and other dishes on a propane burner stove. A Chinese kitchen is small, as people stir, fry and make rice. It is an honor to be invited to a meal in a family's home, and this meal was very delicious. I ate as much as I possibly could, more than I usually eat, but I think she was still disappointed that I didn't eat more.

I really didn't take so much "stuff" with me in my bag, but I guess it was a lot, and I could tell they thought it was a lot, too. It made me think about the excesses I have of everything, and I have been thinking about how I have too many material things, and they don't necessarily make me happy. I tried to explain how buying and having "stuff" is the American way, but I don't think it made sense to them. Since my first trip to China, I have had the sense of feeling burdened by all my stuff, yet I'm not sure what I want to do about it. I know what the answer is, but I'm not ready to take that step.

It was a very interesting experience staying in a Chinese style apartment, and I think it was awkward for all of us, but it will be something we all remember. I am sure I seemed very odd to them. Certainly an experience I will treasure and always remember.

Next: Xiuyan