Typical border town...or not!!!

Today is the first day that we have actually seen the sun shine in Yanji.  Both of our school visits were cancelled today, still due to extreme caution regarding H1N1 despite the fact that we have now been in China for nearly 2 weeks.  We had a nice visit to high school classes yesterday so I think most of us welcomed a change in plans and a visit to the China/North Korea border town of Tumen, China.  In many ways it is similar to a US/Mexico border town in that they are many tourist souvenirs and photo opportunities, but in other ways it is very different!  The first being that no one has their passports out and ready to cross the border and return several hours later, and the other being that one can't help but think, wow, I am looking into North Korea right across that river!  According to our scholar escort, the only people that you could see crossing the bridge over to North Korea would be citizens with some kind of special permit.  I can
assure you that our visit was completely safe, and afterwards we visited a restaurant for some kind of cold Korean noodle dish that not too many of us were very interested in eating.  Our hosts are very concerned that we try all the typical regional dishes, but many of us are ready to move away from the spiciness that our stomachs cannot seem to get accustomed to!  A few people from the group decided to visit the local KFC for a snack this afternoon before our farewell banquet this evening with the local teachers from the high school and Yanbian University.  One thing that I have enjoyed is there have been a variety of dishes containing potatoes in this area which has been a change from the usual white rice, although this region is supposed to have the best white rice! 
Tomorrow we will depart at 5:30 am to travel nearly 4 hours to visit a crater lake in the mountains, and then we have an early departure on Sunday morning to connect through Beijing to Xi'an, where we will stay until July 12.  I have been told that it could be hotter there than in Beijing, but I am also looking forward to returning to a larger city.  Many of us are missing coffee the most!!!