Planners in Dandong, a big city in Liaoning, are hoping to bring in North Korean workers.

ECONOMIST: Letters

On the west side of the Yalu is the Chinese city of Dandong.

NPR: Unequal, Uneasy: Life on the China-Korea Border

The number of Chinese visitors to Dandong has fallen to a quarter of what it was in the peak years.

ECONOMIST: All the misery of Maoism with none of the redeeming features

Dandong's city government has moved offices to the area, but the thickets of surrounding high-rise buildings remain unfinished and empty.

NPR: North Korea Nuke Test Could Test China's Patience

More than half of all trade in 2005 was handled by Dandong.

ECONOMIST: Slowly, trade is picking up

One Chinese newspaper said there had been 20, 000 job losses in Dandong, a border town through which Chinese tourists usually pass on their way to North Korea by train.

ECONOMIST: All the misery of Maoism with none of the redeeming features

Yet area residents say they've seen no progress since then, while work on a towering bridge nearby, intended to supplement the rickety old one in Dandong, has slowed to a snail's pace.

NPR: North Korea Nuke Test Could Test China's Patience

Friday, branches of the Bank of China and the China Industrial and Commercial Bank in the border city of Dandong told NPR that they had suspended all financial transactions between North Korea and China since the nuclear test.

NPR: Rice Confident China Is Serious About N. Korea