The days of the “Third Korea,” China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, may be numbered, writes Dr. Andrei Lankov in the Korea Times. (HT to reader)
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The days of the “Third Korea,” China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, may be numbered, writes Dr. Andrei Lankov in the Korea Times. (HT to reader)
One Comment
Well written Andrei, as keen North Korea observer I’ve read many of your writings.
I had the pleasure of visiting Yanbian last year and travelled from Changchun to Domun/Tumen, then on to Yanji, Baekdusan (hence the name)and some other small towns on the way back to Changchun.
The Joseon jok usually use Chinese Korean names in line with the Chinese policy and it confusing to travel through there with a South Korean map! 백두산 is 장백산 투멘/도문 for example.
Actually I met a local lady and her daughter in Tumen and had lunch with her. I said “there seems to be a lot of development going on here?”, You can buy new pink almost South Korea style apartment on the river over looking North Korea. She replied “a lot of Joseon jok have made money in South Korea and buy expensive apartments when they come back home”. I can imagine being bi-lingual it easy for the Joseon jok to do business and get a well paying job in South Korea.
In Yanji, kpop and dramas are all the rage and I even visited a night club which resembled a Seoul booking club but with no booking :-(. I smoked a shisha, drank some beer ate well and spoke to some of the curious locals, one girl was impressed when I said she looked like a South Korean despite the saying Northern girls are more beautufl. There of course was dance time and drink time while a show or act was on stage. There was even an ‘r’ rated dance which I was shocked (pleasantly) when the top came off!! I recognised nearly all music they played - kpop.
Definately the 3 days at the mountain was the best experience of the trip and something many an ethusastic hiker in Korea should do. A Korean travel agent said there is no way you can travel through there without a tour. I certainly proved him wrong and managed to avoid the South Koreans that visit Beakdusan for what resembles a stop go penalty and photo opp.
The closer you are to North Korea, the more Korean or Joseon speaking people you will encounter, however it is still possible to be in Yanbian, with Hangul all over the buildings and train/bus station and not be able to find a Korean speaker. Certainly my pocket Chinese language book came into use on some occasions.