After a brief morning snowstorm, calmness returned to a frozen Tumen river, marking the border with North Korea in China's northeastern Jilin province.
There are several official border crossings along the Tumen river which facilitate the travel of restricted personnel, vehicles and trains between the two communist neighbours.
Many of these crossings are bridges that also serve as tourist attractions for curious travellers who want to peek into one of the world's most isolated ... Read more

After a brief morning snowstorm, calmness returned to a frozen Tumen river, marking the border with North Korea in China's northeastern Jilin province.
There are several official border crossings along the Tumen river which facilitate the travel of restricted personnel, vehicles and trains between the two communist neighbours.
Many of these crossings are bridges that also serve as tourist attractions for curious travellers who want to peek into one of the world's most isolated countries.
But as the winter chills the tourism industry here, the heat is on North Korea to free two American journalists who were detained while filming along the border.
North Korea said on Saturday (March 21) it had detained two Americans for "illegally" entering the country by crossing the border with China.
"Two Americans were detained on March 17 while illegally intruding into the territory of the DPRK (North Korea) by crossing the DPRK-China border. A competent organ is now investigating the case," the North's official news agency KCNA said without giving more details.
A U.S. state department official said the pair were filming across the Tumen River when guards took them into custody, adding the United States was in touch with the North seeking their release.
Media reports said the two were working for Current TV, a U.S.-based online news company, about a story on North Korean refugees who had fled the country along its borders with China.
Residents interviewed at the border said they did not know about the incident, but some added the porous border was indeed a place where North Koreans looked to try to escape from the harsh conditions in their country.
"There were people smuggling across the border in the last two to three years. There were many of them coming over here from North Korea. They did not have enough to feed themselves there and they were going hungry, so there were many who tried to flee into our country. There is nobody from here who went over there," said 63-year-old Li Guangfu (pron: lee-gooang-foo), who lives in Kaisantun (pron: kai-sand-toon) town, just 50 metres away from North Korean territory across the Tumen River.
A South Korean government agency said in January this year that tighter border controls have slashed the growth rate of North Korean defectors arriving in the South by more than half last year, even though the number of defectors rose to a new record.
Almost all North Korean defectors leave the impoverished state across its border with China and then seek asylum in a third country.
When told of the incident regarding the detained American journalists, residents expressed surprise about how that might have happened.
"Nowadays, no one dares to go over there and they do not dare to come over here. We have our customs over there and there are border guards over there. Look at them over there, those North Korean guards… just a few days ago, they had troops to cut down trees here. I am not sure what they are doing," said 50-year-old Sun Liqin (pron: sun-lee-chin), also living in Kaisantun town, South Korea's YTN channel earlier quoted a South Korean government official as saying North Korean guards crossed the border into Chinese territory to arrest the two women on Tuesday after they ignored warnings to stop filming.
But the diplomatic source said it was not clear which side of the border they were on at the time.
YTN also said a man was with the pair from the same news organisation but managed to escape.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Beijing was investigating the report and declined to comment further. South Korea's foreign ministry also declined to confirm YTN's report.
Despite the incident, residents here said the area is still calm and there has been nothing to suggest increased tensions along the border.
"I feel like I am in between two countries. But the borders guards between our two countries get along very well, so we don't have a lot of problems with each other," Li added.
The North's border with China is 1,416-km (880-mile) long and there are many places where people can cross with relative ease.
The arrests of the two journalists come at a time of mounting tension on the Korean peninsula, with the North declaring that it is set to fire a satellite in early April, which many countries see as a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test. Close