DANDONG, CHINA — Here at the Museum of the War to Resist American Aggression and Aid Korea, it's as if the clock stopped 55 years ago.
"I feel like I am right there on the front lines," said Wang Binyan, a 23-year-old teacher. "I can feel what the Chinese soldiers felt. In this place, Americans are the enemy."
The museum in this provincial city on the North Korean border tells a personal version of the Korean War, one that casts U.S. foreign policy and military tactics in a decidedly negative light. Hundreds of historical photographs and exhibits present a pro-Beijing side of a conflict that saw Chinese forces rush to the aid of the North.
There are photos of glum-looking American prisoners of war, accusations of U.S. germ warfare as well as maps and pictures that purportedly show evidence of widespread civilian damage from American bombs.
The commentaries with each exhibit are often heated, using phrases such as "American imperialists," "wanton U.S. bombing" and "despise and hate" to describe China's view of America.
Even now, in an era of more cordial Sino-U.S. relations, many in this city of 2.4 million cannot forget the bitter conflict on the Korean peninsula that ended in 1953: Reminders are all around them.
A hillside cemetery contains rows of white markers memorializing local soldiers who died in the conflict. Each carries the red star of Communist China, with name, rank and hometown.
A solemn stone monument declares, "Long, long lives to those soldiers who died in the war to resist U.S. aggression."
Not far away, along the Yalu River, which separates Dandong from North Korea, sits what locals call the Broken Bridge, a span that abruptly ends in the middle of the waterway. The original bridge was nearly destroyed during U.S. bombing raids. The Chinese rebuilt their side of the structure and turned it into a living history museum.
At the end of the span, visitors run their hands along the iron girders that were left gnarled and twisted by the American attack in November 1950. Nearby are full-size replicas of the bombs that wreaked the damage. Even the smallest bullet holes and shrapnel dents are marked with red circles, lest they be overlooked.
As he snapped photographs, one Chinese tourist paused to address a Westerner. "See this damaged bridge?" he said. "Americans did this."
But the hilltop museum, built in 1958 at the site of a high-command bunker, is where the Americans take their biggest beating. Here, the war was won by countless brave Chinese volunteers.
