Last weekend, I went on a trip to Dandong with my company. The trip did not start out well as the 3.5 to 4 hour trip ended up taking 6.5 hours 
After that, it got a little better. The video below is just a bunch of videos and pictures taken during the trip that pretty much detail the sites we saw in the order we saw them in.
First, we had dinner at the Pyongyang Koryo Hotel Restaurant. The restaurant, as I understand it, is owned and operated by the North Korean government and the talented waitresses are the daughters of North Korean generals. None of that really matters to me, what I was interested in, after sitting on a bus for 6.5 hours, was their food ... and it wasn't bad at all.
Next, we got our hotel rooms (different place - LIFES Hotel), and went to a street BBQ (no pictures or video ... don't want any proof that could be used against me in a "court of law" at a later time). I always love street BBQ, but this one was lacking and I burnt my mouth and cheek with a metal skewer while eating some BBQ'd lamb. If it hadn't been for the beer, I probably would have left after the first round of food was brought to the table.
First thing in the morning, we went to the Korean War Memorial. I like seeing both sides of a story, and this gave me that chance, but this memorial had a very Anti-American everything about it. American's were constantly referred to as "Imperialists" and/or "dogs" in almost all of the informational placards and the information was very one sided. Other than that, like I said, I liked seeing the other side of this story.
After this, the frustration started to set in. We were taken to McDonalds for lunch where we sat for over an hour waiting to move on to the next tourist attraction. First, the food was McDonalds, and it was the same McDs order placed for us on all the days that we get meals provided by the company ... grilled chicken sandwich (yuck), spicy fried chicken wings, limp, hour old french fries (double yuck), and a peach pie ... I really would have preferred to have just a hamburger and fresh fries.
After eating (and sitting and waiting to move on), we went to the Yalu River Broken Bridge. Built by the Japanese in 1911 (or something like that) and broken by the Americans in 1951 when trying to break the Chinese supply train to the fighting further south. The bridge was nice and it gave me my first "close up" glimpse at North Korea. I have got to say (and several of my coworkers echoed this sentiment), North Korea is a very green place ... much greener than any place I've visited in mainland China.
More frustration as we set outside our travel agents office waiting for the tickets for the next attraction to be negotiated for and purchased ... they could have at least let us get off the bus and stretch our legs.
The final attraction was the HuShan Great Wall which, I am told, was built during the Ming Dynasty as a defense measure against invading Koreans. I've wanted to see the Great Wall since I came to China in 2006, and I finally got to see it. It was actually a lucky break that I got to see it, we were supposed to take a boat ride and then go river rafting, but, due to recent rainfall and the consequent flooding, we were unable to do both. We climbed to the highest point of the wall, then returned to the bus. I would have liked to visit the remaining 2 towers, but we were limited by time.
The HuShan Great Wall (Google Map):
Overall, I enjoyed the places we saw and the things we did on this trip, but the travel time, conditions, and all of the waiting around almost ruined the trip for almost everyone. Here's a small video I compiled and put on Youtube, don't expect pro quality, it's just something I thru together in about 10 minutes while sitting at home on my day off bored to tears.
