The Yalu River Railway Bridge at the mouth of the upper river stands in the mist. (Li Jin/Photo)
The plane began to descend, and I was thinking about whether I could overlook the Yalu River under the sea of clouds through the porthole, but I heard the radio prompt "Please turn off the blackout board." The light in the cabin soon dimmed, and I waited in the dim light. When the plane landed at Dandong Langtou Airport, I found that the sky was cloudy and the rain was miserable, and even if I drove the blackout board, I might not be able to see both sides of the river.
The military-civilian Langtou Airport is close to the Border between China and North Korea, with the Yalu River to the east and the Yalu River to the south. In 1951, the first aircraft of the Volunteer Army took off from then on, and the first air battle between China and the United States was fought. Battlefields, border towns, north Korea in the distance... During the epidemic, tourists who come to the banks of the Yalu River have nothing more than these visions.
In addition to this, I am even more curious: what kind of situation du You recorded in the Tang Dynasty "The color of the water is like a duck's head" recorded in the "General Code", and the Song Dynasty Lu You wrote in the "Out of the Plug Song", "but shooting back at the green river of geese and ducks, and the arrows flying geese up and the clouds are black".
<h3>View from the bridge</h3>
Get in the rain and drive east along Guomen Avenue towards the Yalu River. When approaching the river, the car walked with the bridge of the China-North Korea Yalu River Boundary Highway Bridge on a high place, and the bridge eventually flew across the river, but we could only stop on the west bank of the river.
I don't know whether it is because of the epidemic or the weather, this river bank is quiet and deserted, the Yalu River is shrouded in a hazy rain, and the water current beats the green grass on the shore. The towering white cable-stayed bridge on the water is the longest transnational bridge in China, and the main bridge was completed many years ago, but the bridge has not been opened to traffic due to delays in the construction of the connecting guide on the North Korean side. My vision followed the empty bridge into the distance, slowly becoming blurred. Equally obscure are the trees on the other side of the river, which only show a bluish-gray outline in the rain and fog. A bird flew over the river and flew toward the shadow of the trees in the distance, and at this moment it was one of the few beings that could freely come and go on both sides of the strait.
China-NORTH Korea Yalu River Boundary River Highway Bridge (Li Jin/Photo)
The river rushed into the sea, and I went up the river. With the gradual density of houses and people, it is time to come to Dandong City. Tourists who can't cross the river like birds crowd around the river with the boundary monument overlooking the other side of the river, and the most lively place is of course the broken bridge that is only half left. Originally the first bridge on the Yalu River, the iron bridge was built by the Japanese colonial government in 1911, and the most special feature is the use of a rare opening and closing beam structure, with the No. 9 cylindrical pier as the axis can be rotated 90° to facilitate the navigation of passing ships. In November 1950, the U.S. Air Force broke the bridge, leaving only 477 meters on the Chinese side of the 944.2-meter-long 12-hole iron bridge.
Today, the mechanical structure of the opening and closing beams can still be seen at the piers, and the dust and rust on the gears are mottled, and the grand scene of thousands of sails crossing the bridge can no longer be imagined. On the observation deck at the bridge break, people's astonished eyes swept over twisted steel bars, bullet-stained iron beams, and chained torpedoes, which stretched out their teeth and claws under the clouds to the drizzle and breeze.
At the break of the yalu river bridge, the steel bar is twisted and the bullet marks are still there. (Li Jin/Photo)
To the north of the broken bridge is the Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, also built by Japan, which was built later than the broken bridge, and the two are only 100 meters apart. Also as a transportation link between the front and rear of the troops, it was also bombed by the US military devastatingly. On the day the broken bridge was blown up, the bridge was also badly damaged and could not be opened to traffic. The Anton (Dandong's former name) railway sub-bureau braved the deadly risk of air raids and rushed to repair it overnight, finally allowing it to resume traffic before dawn the next day. In April 1951, the bridge was blown up again until the rails were bent and the bridge was displaced. The Anton Railway Sub-Bureau rushed to repair for four days and nights, erected temporary bridges and laid steel rails for military trains to pass.
If it were not for the epidemic, trains on the China-North Korea Friendship Bridge would carry curious tourists to mysterious neighboring countries every day, while the train back to Dandong from the other side was loaded with migrant workers selected by North Korea. Almost every hotel in this small border town sells the Yalu River, and the boss, while selling me "Chaojing Room", will also enthusiastically tell me which restaurants can see the songs and dances of beautiful North Korean girls.
On the left is the Yalu River Broken Bridge, and on the right is the China-DPRK Friendship Bridge. (Li Jin/Photo)
But that day I just wanted to look at another bridge, an "invisible bridge." About 5 kilometers north of the broken bridge, there is a secret passage across the river hidden in the water: the volunteers put wooden stakes in the water to build a pontoon bridge to connect the Korean island of Kisang on the other side, the bridge is submerged in the water at high tide, and the water is exposed at low tide, in addition to a large number of troops crossing the river from then on, most of the materials enter the Korean front from this bridge.
On the Yalu River, there are 4 bridges used in Dandong to resist US aggression and aid Korea, namely the Yalu River Broken Bridge, the Sino-DPRK Friendship Bridge, the Hekou Broken Bridge (Qingcheng Bridge), and the Shanghekou Yalu River Railway Bridge. In addition, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea also used three bridges that were not in Dandong, namely the Ji'an Yalu River Bridge, the Linjiang Yalu River Bridge, and the Changhui Bridge. As for the pontoon bridge, it was built and demolished, demolished and built, and it is impossible to determine how many...
In April 1951 alone, the Volunteer Army built two pontoon bridges, in addition to the one connecting to The Island of Catalang, the other railway pontoon bridge was located at the mouth of the Shahe River in the eastern part of the city, and was demolished after the war because it was in the main channel. The first pontoon bridge to fight in North Korea was built in September 1950, one kilometer downstream of the village of Shanghekou in Kuandian County, and was demolished daily to ensure its secrecy: the bridge was erected two or three hours after dusk, and the sappers guided the troops to cross the river secretly, and then dismantled one hour before dawn. As for the common historical photograph of "crossing the Yalu River", it was taken at the pontoon bridge in Mashi Village, which was the only place where the volunteer army crossed the river on foot from the road bridge into the Korean War. After the war, the pontoon bridge in Mashi Village was washed away by floodwaters. Today, the only trace of the pontoon bridge that can be found by people looking for the bridge is the one connected to the island of Catalang.
Unfortunately, the rain caused the river to rise, and I had no way to see it, but to speculate from the change in water flow where some of the remaining piers of the pontoon bridge were located. This section of the river is much narrower than downtown Dandong, and the lush green fields on the opposite bank are very close to the trees. The traces of war are drowned by time and water, and only the memory of history is still like smoke and rain, lingering on the Yalu River.
Where the pontoon bridge is located, the piers are located under the current. (Li Jin/Photo)
<h3>The Great Wall</h3>
The road from Dandong to the north follows the riverbank, and some sections of the road are also supported by barbed wire to separate the road from the river surface, constantly reminding me that the Yalu River is a river bordering the two countries. The rain washes the grass and trees more and more verdant, and the greenery on both sides of the river is refreshing and pleasant, and the lush colors spread out with the flat terrain, until the confluence of the Yalu River and the tributary Lorraine River, a mountain peak protrudes, and in the distance, the trees on the top of the mountain are covered with enemy towers, and it is the Great Wall of Tiger Mountain.
As early as the Liao Dynasty, there were Jurchens living on both sides of the Yalu River, who were descendants of the Heishui Jing people who migrated here. After Yan Akuo unified the Jurchen tribes, he expelled the Khitan rule, established the Jin Dynasty, and invaded the Song Dynasty in the south. Lu You's "Out of the Plug" has the sentence "Changge chased the tiger Qilian North" and "but shot back at the Yalu River", Qilian Mountain and Yalu River were the border areas of the Song-Jin confrontation at that time, and the verses wrote about the combat life of the anti-Jin soldiers galloping and shooting and hunting.
Then the Mongols destroyed the Jin Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty overthrew the Yuan Dynasty. The country and the mountains change masters and the dynasties change, but the rivers and rivers flow endlessly. In the fifth year of Ming Chenghua, the Hushan Great Wall was built on the banks of the Yalu River, which is the easternmost point of the Ming Great Wall. The ming dynasty's original purpose in building the Great Wall in Liaodong was to prevent the restoration of the Northern Yuan, but with the rise of the Jurchens in Jianzhou, it posed a threat to both the Ming Dynasty and Korea, and the target of the land became the Jurchens.
The rain was almost stopping, and I climbed the gatehouse and walked along the Great Wall toward the heights. The summer rain nourishes the lush grass and trees, and a turquoise stone wall lies among the verdant trees that can hardly be discerned if you don't look closely. The Great Wall stretches up the ridge, and vines climb over the walls, like a green velvet blanket draped over the stones, making this section of the Great Wall, which is not old, show some vicissitudes.
Tiger Mountain Great Wall, the city wall hidden in the green trees. (Li Jin/Photo)
In the late Ming Dynasty, the Later Jin dynasty established by Nurhaci controlled Liaodong. After the Battle of Salhu and the Battle of Songjin, the destroyed Hushan Great Wall, like the Liaodong Great Wall, lost its military defensive significance and has since been abandoned. After the Qing Dynasty entered the Central Plains, the "Zhaoxing Place" in the northeast was designated as a forbidden area, and the abandoned part of the Ming Liaodong Great Wall was planted with willow branches and transformed into a "wicker edge" as a symbol of the forbidden area. With the passage of time, many people thought that Shanhaiguan was the starting point of the Ming Great Wall, and the Liaodong Great Wall was forgotten for many years. Today, the city wall under my feet was restored and rebuilt on the basis of the ruins at the end of the 20th century, and the scenic area proudly reads at the entrance: The starting point of the eastern end of the Great Wall.
The staff of a restaurant in Dandong was building a group on the Great Wall on this day, and more than a dozen people said that although they knew the Great Wall of Hushan since childhood, they were the first time to climb it. They had all been to the "one-step step" under the Great Wall, where the river was extremely narrow, as if they could move from the countryside of northeast China into the farmland of North Korea in one step. However, the epidemic has closed the "one step" and everyone can only climb to the top of the Great Wall to see their neighbors.
The leader carried a speaker in his hand, and the melody of old songs such as "Songhua River" and "Lu Binghua" urged people to advance towards one higher enemy tower after another. There is an extremely narrow and steep staircase leading to the enemy tower at the top of the mountain, and people are tightly squeezed between the rocks, looking up at a line of gloomy sky, and climbing up with their hands and feet. When I reached the top of the breath, I found that there was a longer section of wide but still steep stairs waiting on it. The sound sang louder, the employees cheered each other up, and I followed their footsteps to the top of Tiger Mountain and climbed up to the enemy tower to look out.
From the enemy tower at the top of Tiger Mountain, look out over the south of the Yalu River. (Li Jin/Photo)
The resurgence of smoke and the rekindling of war on Tiger Mountain was the end of the Qing Dynasty. During the Sino-Japanese War, Japan marched from land and sea to China, and Tiger Mountain, which is across the river from Korea, became one of the important battlefields. The Qing army deployed along the Yalu River, the generals climbed the Tiger Mountain to inspect the field, more than a thousand soldiers defended the mountain, and the Japanese army set up a village in Uiju, North Korea, on the opposite bank. On October 24, 1894, the two sides launched an artillery battle across the river, and the Japanese swam across the river at the mouth of the Anping River upstream, opening a gap in the Qing defense line. However, this was an attack from the east to the west, and the Japanese army was intended to confuse the Qing army in order to secretly prepare bridge materials. The surface of the river along the Hushan Mountain line is formed by sediment alluvial sandbars, and the water flow is shallow. That night, the Japanese army built two pontoon bridges in the river under the Tiger Mountain, and the Qing army did not find it. In the early morning of the 25th, the Japanese army launched an attack on the Qing army position on Hushan Mountain, and the Qing army suffered heavy casualties and was forced to withdraw. The Japanese occupied Tiger Mountain and moved the headquarters here. On the 26th, the Japanese army further occupied Jiulian City and Andong County in the lower reaches of the Yalu River.
"Next to the green mountains and green waters, two large poplar trees in front of the door, a neat fence yard, a small grass house..." The old song of the anti-Japanese period is flying, although it is not the Songhua River, but the Yalu River is also a mountain and water, Jiangxin Island and the other side are flat farmland, neat village houses stand in between, lush trees dotted with field scenery. The rain poured down again, and the river water and the clouds connected to the sky. The Dandong people were accustomed to the Scenery of Korea and soon went to avoid the rain with their songs. The mountains returned to silence, leaving me still thinking about the past of the Great Wall in the wind and rain.
From the enemy tower at the top of Tiger Mountain, overlooking Jiangxin Island and the opposite shore. (Li Jin/Photo)
<h3>Estuary Cloud Mountain</h3>
I didn't pay attention to when the fog rose after the rain, but I went all the way north, and gradually I couldn't see the blue river surface, and the thin fog was like a cloud like a smoke cage among the green trees and covered the river water. By the time I stopped the car, the white fog was already thick.
"Wow, Wonderland!" A young woman's voice shouted out the exclamation in my heart, and when I looked back, the woman smiled at me and greeted me behind me, "It's so beautiful, come and take pictures." A van that had just stopped came down five or six people one after another, all standing by the river, saluting the mist.
Originally, I was going to go to the north to find another broken bridge, the bridge connecting China and North Korea had been heavily bombed by the US army, and the village of Hekou in Kuandian County had also left a broken road bridge. This is the earliest road bridge on the Yalu River across the two sides of the Chinese and North Korean banks, formerly known as the Qingcheng Bridge, and the first troops of the Volunteer Army to cross the river passed through it. Yet "Wonderland" made me forget about bridges. Along the riverbank, the fog accumulates thicker and thicker, rising higher and higher, covering the exotic islands and mountains on the opposite shore with a gray veil. After the rain, the sky is clear, the distant mountains are gently undulating, the sparse village houses are like floating on the clouds, and the mist reflects the green color of the grass and trees, so that the Yalu River finally lives up to its name as "the water is like a duck's head".
The fog rises from the river, reflecting the green trees. (Li Jin/Photo)
A sign that reads "Where the peach blossoms bloom" stands in the middle of the road leading to the mouth of the river, where peach trees are planted everywhere, and in the spring, the scorching peach blossoms hold the beautiful village and reflect the clear river water, just as the song sings. But the summer flowers have long been gone, and all around me is the clean green after the rain, the large clouds float faintly in the air, connected with the fog on the wide river surface, the cages of fishery farming float in the water, and the dense forests and mountains in the distance are faintly stained with a vague ink color.
Where there are cages, there must be fishermen. When the car passed through peach blossom island full of farmhouses, I did see a lonely boat in Jiangxin. There was only one fisherman standing on the boat, paddling rhythmically in the thick fog, not knowing where to turn at dusk. I followed the boat quietly, afraid that the slightest sound would disturb the tranquility of this landscape painting.
There are several peaks on the river, but I don't know which bank the fisherman comes from. (Li Jin/Photo)
But the car was still much faster than the boat against the current, the fishing boat slowly disappeared into the fog behind the car, and the Yalu River Railway Bridge at the mouth of the upper river in front of me broke into my vision. The bridge was also built by Japanese colonists to transport engineering materials for the Shuifeng Hydropower Station upstream, but it was not used after it was built. During the period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the Northeast Military Region extended the railway from Fengcheng to Kuandian to Shanghekou, and then the Shanghekou Railway Station connected with the North Korean Qingshui Station through this railway bridge, becoming another important channel for transporting volunteers and supplies.
There is no doubt that the bridge was also heavily bombarded by American artillery fire, and the bridge was seriously damaged and was not opened for use after the armistice. But the increasingly thick fog in the evening obscured the traces of these wars, and also obscured the piers inserted into the water and the buildings on the opposite bank (if any), and I looked far away, only to see the distant mountains, and the bridges seemed to float in the distant air, connecting the clouds and mountains on both sides of the river.
Passing the national gate and boundary monument at the head of the bridge and crossing the railway tracks, I parked my car at the tunnel entrance of the Fengshang Line Railway for 74 kilometers. There were more than twenty columns of troops that used to be transported from here to Korea every day and night, and the sculptures of volunteer soldiers still gazed in the direction of North Korea. After leaving Dandong, the opposite bank finally showed a little trace of industrialization, and the riverside seemed to be a factory building, and the towering chimney broke through the fog and was inserted straight into the mountains. At this moment, I realized that I had reached the edge of the estuary, and that the broken bridge I had planned to look for had been missed. Opening the map, I found that the landmark of the broken bridge was located on the edge of Peach Blossom Island—just as I watched the river being paddled open and converged by the oars, thinking that the personnel changes would be the same, the remnants of the road bridge were ignored by me in the fog.
Looking out over the shore in the fog, you can see North Korean houses and chimneys. (Li Jin/Photo)
I looked back at the road, and the fog had lifted from the Yalu River onto the road. The twilight was low, the mountains were covered with wet fog, and I couldn't see the river, the cars and the roads. It was as if the brush and ink of the landscape painting suddenly waved, and the fog also enveloped me, allowing me to completely immerse myself in the breath of the Yalu River.
Li Jin