- My adventure on the border between El Paso and Juarez

It's a very special experience of traveling on the border between the States and Mexico. El Paso is a beautiful US city in Texas, on the border with Juarez, a border city of Mexico. My adventure today just started in this city.

In the early morning, my US colleagues Russell Young and Veronica Lopez picked me up from my hotel in El Paso. Then we moved on to the Mexico office in Juarez.

Driving down the country road in the States is really a nice enjoyment. You can relax and drive slowly, and just enjoy the fantastic sight of the beautiful desert view in Texas. There're lots of small bushes and cacti along the roadsides. Most of the houses on the both sides rounded with stone walls outside have traditional Spanish-style construction, semi-oval-shaped windowsill and white brick wall, whose roof with firebrick color. It is full of classicalism beauty and make you cannot help but keeping watching them. 

Warm sunshine, some pure white clouds in the blue sky, it's a wonderful day. El Paso is a rock city. You can see every kind of rock constructions here, rock houses and rock walls everywhere. Rocks reflect the sunlight and sparkle the whole city when the ground being to be let in the sunshine. 

When we were driving on the rock mountain, it's very clear to get a great view and see the whole downtown El Paso, and Juarez city of Mexico on the yonder side.

After 45 minutes, we were approaching the border and entering the Customs of Mexico. We saw a very interesting scene. There were no any car on the lane from the States to Mexico except us, but on the opposite lane, the direction from Mexico to US, were lots of cars, which had led to a terrible traffic jam. The Mexico border soliders were guarding with submachine gun and keeping the muzzle of the gun toward the US direction. 

Russell looked at me with a bitter smile and said, '' Tony, you know, the biggest and real danger is behind them, in the opposite direction of the States. Juarez is the most dangerous and volatile city in Mexico, full of murderers and drug lords. This none-too-subtle image always come after Juarez, given it has the highest murder rate in the world. So they absolutely aim at the wrong way ! ''

The US government set up a long and high barbed-wire fence near the border in order to prohibit the illeagal immigration tide of Mexician. Outside the barbed-wire fence is always a long stream of cars and people who want to enter US. This scene make me think of a movie, '' The Day After Tomorrow '', filmed in El Paso in 2004. A scene in this movie is that everybody is rushing from the US border area into Mexico to take refuge. It's a reverse of the real world.

In the real world, the relationship between US and Mexico is very complicated. Mexican law used to prohibit foreigners from owning property within 31 miles of any Mexican coast or 62 miles of any border. Mexico worry they will lose territory to the States due to historical factor. But they never worry they are losing people, and US needs to set up a long barbed-wire fence to prevent Mexican from illeagal immigration.  

After we entered into Mexico, the street view became totally different far away from the States. There're many dilapidated houses and broken walls, every store with steel railings mounted, full of trash everywhere down the road. It's really a big contrast to US. 

Finally, we had a great dinner and enjoyed delicious steak and chicken grills in a Mexican restaurant in downtown Juarez. We still had a happy ending though. 

Spanish-style house in El Paso

El Paso

Downtown El Paso and Juarez city on the yonder side of the mountains

Mexico Customs and Border (No other cars are entering Mexico except us)

A long stream of cars from Mexico is entering the States

Juarez City in Mexico

In Juarez, every stores with steel railings mounted

We enjoyed a delicious dinner