In one border city it’s ‘crisis, what crisis?’
Print Edition
RISING tensions over Pyongyang’s missile launches and nuclear tests seem a distant concern in the Chinese city of Dandong, where trucks rumble across a bridge to North Korea and people stroll the promenade beside the Yalu River within sight of North Korean border guards.
With the peak summer tourism season tapering off, staff at hotels, restaurants and travel agencies say North Korea’s activities and the threats flying between Pyongyang and Washington have had only a minimal impact on the public.
“The nuclear test has had no influence on our lives,” said a sales manager at the riverside Andongge restaurant. “Everything goes on as normal.”
Dandong is the largest Chinese city along the border and a key jumping-off point for travel and trade with North Korea.
Ties of late have been strained by leader Kim Jong Un’s pursuit of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, including the sixth nuclear test on Sunday.
However, Wu Haixia, manager of the city’s Huyue Inns and Hotel, said such incidents were rarely discussed. “We did not hear customers talking about this issue,” Wu said.
While the border is fenced and heavily guarded in sections near Dandong, much of it is open, making it easy to cross during the winter when the Yalu and other rivers freeze over.
Yet if people on the Chinese side of the border seem little affected, a manager at Dandong’s Pengyun Travel Agency said there had been some decline in the willingness of Chinese to travel across to North Korea for day trips or longer tours.
“A minority raised safety issues and worries about nuclear tests when they came in for consultations,” the manager said.
Overall, however, the Chinese in Dandong seemed only mildly concerned about the current situation.
A 61-year-old visitor from Beijing said relations had deteriorated considerably since the Korean War, when the countries were “as close as lips and teeth,” employing a common expression of the time.
Despite that breakdown, when asked how the situation was affecting Chinese people, she said it was “not worth mentioning.”
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