30 Quick Facts About International Borders Between Countries

Residents of the US, particularly those living near the Mexican border, now routinely cross the border into Mexico for medical care. Mexican dentists often charge 20 to 25 percent of U.S. prices, while other procedures typically cost a third what they would cost in the US.

Later in his life, Voltaire developed the habit of living near borders so he could more easily escape the authorities if his writings angered them.

7 members of an isolated Indian tribe emerged from the Amazon and made contact with people in a village near the Peruvian border because "violent attacks" by outsiders had driven them from the forest. Later, details emerged that their elder relatives were massacred and their houses set on fire.

In September 2006, Chinese Border Patrol guards opened fire on a group of Tibetan pilgrims moving slowly in deep snow, killing a 17-year-old girl. The incident is only known in the West because a Romanian mountain climber secretly recorded it

After the town of Naco was split in two by border patrol, the residents of Naco, Arizona, and Naco, Mexico started an annual tradition of having a volleyball match over the dividing fence.

The Jay Treaty, signed in 1794, provides that American Indians may travel freely across the Canadian-US border. Native Indians born in Canada are entitled to freely enter the United States for the purpose of employment, study, retirement, investing, and/or immigration.

Nebraska is a triply landlocked state: it touches no ocean, the states it borders touch no ocean, and the states they border touch no ocean.

A Mexican amusement park (Parque EcoAlberto) offers a fake US-Mexico border crossing attraction, complete with fake smugglers and fake border patrol agents. The aim is to dissuade would-be migrants from making the trip. For 3 hours, tourists endure sirens, chases, and the fake border patrol yelling threats.

In Denmark, during the World War 2, border guards would screen homecoming Danes by making them say the name of a dessert called rødgrød med fløde. Due to its difficulty in pronunciation, German infiltrators could not pass the test.

Al Gore's father once proposed, in Congress, "something cataclysmic" be done to end the Korean War. His suggestion involved creating a radiation belt on the 38th parallel using atomic bombs to turn the border of North and South Korea into a permanent toxic wasteland.