In Zhangbaek County, China, which faces the border between Hyesan City and Yalu River in Yanggang Province, North Korea, there are tourism and amusement facilities that offer a wide view of North Korean land. Those are facilities called a Ferris wheel and a glass floor path. Facilities are used as a mockery tool to watch the poor lives of North Koreans, causing friction and problems in regional cooperation between the two countries.
On the border of the Yalu River, Hyesan City in Yanggang Province, North Korea, and Zhangbaek County in China, tourist amusement facilities such as a Ferris wheel and a glass floor path were installed on the river toward North Korea (coordinate: 41°25'32.74"N 128°12'19.16"E), and those are clearly identified in Google Earth satellite image.
You can ride a Ferris wheel at an amusement park. In Zhangbaek, the Ferris wheel turns in a circular shape while looking at the land in North Korea, and if you go up high, you can look down and see Hyesan City across the Yalu River. The glass floor path is connected to a 50-meter-high pylon in the form of a cable-stayed bridge, and it is 70 meters long and has a passageway to go north and back. The floor is made of glass, so you can look down 100 meters. The path, also known as the 'Cliff road', is a narrow one usually created to pass through remote mountains.
The floor is made of transparent glass, so it is called a 'Glass floor path'. The path does not pass through the middle of the Yalu River, so it does not invade North Korea's border. However, inconvenience and friction occurred between the two countries when foreign tourists watched the impoverished socialist life of the isolated North Korean regime as if they were looking at a zoo. Hyesan City authorities and residents were severely insulted and humiliated by the ridicule and rudeness of Chinese tourists, and strongly protested, demanding that Zhangbaek County demolish the viewing facilities.
The Zhangbaek County Tourist Amusement Facilities were built at the expense of a businessman in Yanji, China in 2021, at a time when the border between the two countries was blocked due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Foreign tourists look down on isolated North Korean land, take pictures, and throw food as if they are giving it away for free. Residents of Hyesan City, who were shocked by this appearance, responded by shouting and swearing in protest and throwing stones and sticks. At one point, a North Korean border guard soldier threatened Chinese tourists who climbed the facility with an automatic rifle as if he was aiming and shooting.
As socialist North Korea does not live well and the living condition in Hyesan City is so poor, the residents of Hyesan City were greatly offended and insulted by Chinese tourists going up to the facilities in droves, looking into Hyesan City with binoculars, and taking pictures. It is said that the price of going up to the pylon was 198 yuan (about 37,000 won in Korean money) per person, but it is more expensive than expected. The humiliated North Korean authorities in Hyesan strongly protested, and the facility's operation is now suspended due to continued demands for demolition.