Two neighbors, worlds apart

A visitor on a river cruise between China and North Korea wonders how the North Koreans view the disparity in the two countries' quality of life.

from the April 17, 2008 edition

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When my travel mates and I boarded our cruise boat around 5 p.m., we were promptly offered binoculars by another well-situated business fellow.

At first, I was skeptical about how much more I would be able to see from the boat. But I was quickly taken aback by how close the captain was getting us. We couldn't have been more than a hundred feet away from the shore. Once I raised my binoculars to my eyes, I barely put them down until the tour was over. I was riveted.

There were not many people on the shore. Of those that were there, quite a few were working on the ragged, small boats and ships flying the republic's flags. Others squatted around listlessly. An old man fished. Almost all of them smoked.

I saw only one child and a couple of women; the rest were men. There were plenty of young soldiers in brown uniforms, walking in pairs, with bayoneted machine guns slung over their shoulders. One of them turned around as I raised my camera to take a picture. I quickly put it down and looked away. What must they think when, all day long, boats cruise to their side of the river full of people with binoculars raised toward them?

What do they see when a stranger from one of these boats works up the courage to wave at them in an awkwardly fearful but friendly way? Are they tempted when they look across and see the booming economy, the high-rise buildings, the lights, and the multitude of activities?

Do the North Koreans wonder how much their Chinese comrades on the other side of the river charged us for the privilege of staring at them from a hundred feet away?

That night, before I went to sleep, I looked out my hotel window for a final glimpse of the mysterious nation across the river. It had plunged into darkness. The Chinese side, on the other hand, was lighted up like a Christmas tree and showed no signs of slowing down.

Two communist countries, on the same river, across from each other, but two different worlds.

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