evidence: When my friends and I arrived in Dandong, the largest border city in China, our first destination was duanqiao: The Broken Bridge. The bridge, which connects Dandong and Sinujiu, North Korea over the Yalu River, is a relic of the Korean War. Bombed by American aircraft, it serves as a reminder—or proof—of "American aggression," and, according to the propaganda poster by the bridge, is a symbol of the "greatest achievement of [Chinese] voluntary army…to aid [North] Korea." [...] After a while we left the bridge and headed to Hushan (Tiger Mountain), the eastern-most known section of the Great Wall of China. As we climbed up the steps, fighting against the piercingly cold wind, a panorama view of Dandong, the Yalu River, and Sinujiu spread before our eyes: Hills lush with red and yellow foliage on the Chinese side and, just across the river, barren, hay-coloured farmland. Even the few grey clouds that hung over Dandong were crawling toward the other side; as the Chinese land emerged under the sunlight, shadows shrouded North Korea. [...] But this country—where the government imprisons ordinary citizens at re-education labour camps for "online speech crime," where officials drive around in BMWs while elementary school children, seeking warmth, crawl into a dumpster, light some matches, and as a result, die of carbon monoxide poisoning—is, for those on the other side of the Yalu River, a land of hope, prosperity, light, and freedom.