Metropolitan Yanji, China

Continuing our tour of Yanji, China, from last week, here is (I believe) the entrance to the Yanji Mall.

I sincerely believe having a mall is one of those signs of an advanced civilization  Eureka!  They have a mall. Now we can have a meaningful cultural exchange!  I mean, Ancient Greece had malls, Ancient Rome had them too.  They just called them Agoras or something.  Really.

These days you get extra points if your civilization also has a McDonald's (or ten) and a Starbucks too.  And maybe a Walmart and an IKEA...

Speaking of culture!  (We were, weren't we?)  My nephew Daniel has been a big fan of pizza since he was a little kid.

Pizza in Yanji

 So.... trust Daniel to find the local pizza parlor!

I'm glad he found the Best pizza around.

Movie posters in downtown

Sometimes I'm disappointed when I see photos of modern China and realize it doesn't look all that different from the Western World.  Am I being weird?  I mean, the above city street scene looks pretty ordinary to me!

But then, I live in the Los Angeles area and us Angelinos are fairly strange.  So, maybe it's me!

Okay, this one is a little weird:

Yanji's KTV Station sports Christmas trees in July

I think the Christmas trees are a nice touch, but just a little out of season.

Being so close to the North Korean border means being able to get a North Korean TV station!

North Korean TV Station's weather report

Hey!  We use suns, clouds and umbrellas, too!  What a coincidence.  I can read Korean!

Okay, maybe not.

Daniel says this next photo is of the Korean TV station's program line-up for the following day.   Note the militaristic and patriotic symbols in the lower part of the picture.

North Korean TV's line-up for the following day

I think all that military arm waving would get old for me really quickly. All that oppressive government paranoia is tiring. It makes me so thankful for living in a free country.

That's it for now!

I'm so happy to have a foreign correspondent!  Thanks, Daniel!