Day 375 - Climbing the Tiger Mountain Great Wall

We woke up to our alarm this morning, made our way to the bus station, and were soon on the bus enjoying the scenery as we headed out to Tiger Mountain, where the Eastern-most part of the Great Wall keeps a watch over North Korea. Unlike the last section of the wall we climbed, this section was much more restored - we're not sure any of it was actually part of the original wall. Nonetheless, it made for a pleasant climb, and offered wonderful views of both China and North Korea.
We took plenty of time to stop and gaze out, and eventually arrived at the highest point where we chatted to a Korean tour group - made up of both North and South Koreans travelling happily together. They even managed to fill us in on some Korean trivia! The descent down was so steep at points that the cliff face jutted through the steps - impossible to build steps that steep! At the end we wandered along the river that marks the border between the 2 countries, which at times was only several metres apart - at the most narrow point it is called "one step across" - where Adam debated doing a quick run to the other side, but that idea was put to rest pretty soon when a police officer surfaced! Though it was clear that this wasn't just a normal river - the barbed wire fences on both sides kind of gave that away!
As Adam was moving over a grassy path a huge snake slithered within centimetres of his feet, causing him to jump back in alarm! Just another piece of adventure for the day! Luckily another couple of people came by to scare the snake further away from the path.

Back at the entrance, we sat under a shady tree and ate some fresh mango, before taking a stroll through a nearby village. It felt great to be exploring, without having to pay the usual entrance fees!! After the village exploration we hung out on the side of the road waiting to flag down our bus back to Dandong.

The bus stopped at another random place back in town, where we found a place for lunch, before finding half a kilo of strawberries to munch on!! China and summer is great, but we might have eaten too much as we crashed out for a bit back at the hotel! We also made it to an internet cafe, where the highlight of the day was wishing Dee Dee a happy birthday over skype!

After dinner we wandered through the main train station square and sat for a while in the warm summer evening watching a father and son hopping up and down steps together as well as a huge group of people aged from teenagers to grandparents dancing to traditional songs and then stepping it up to dancing away to popular hip hop - very similar to aerobics!! The cool thing about this is that the leader is purely doing this out of enjoyment and the desire to help the community - no monetary reward involved.

Adlibing it a step away from Korea.