Beijing Part 1

Arrival

During September Koreans celebrate a holiday called Chuseok (Choo-sock), which is essentially their harvest holiday/Thanksgiving. I will have a separate post on Chuseok later. All you need to know for now is that it is a three day family holiday, and our school gave us an extra day off, which amounted to a six day weekend. I, along with four other teachers at my school, decided to take advantage of this and travel to Beijing. After buying a stick-it-to-the-Americans 195,000 won visa (Canadians pay 40,000) and boarding our plane we arrived in Beijing. I noticed an interesting arrival flight at the baggage claim area next to ours:

I doubt North Koreans are allowed to travel to any country besides China, and I wonder if it's only diplomats and state workers that are permitted to leave North Korea at all. I don't know; but it was very odd to see a flight arriving from Pyongyang. All of the luggage on the conveyor belt was blockish and colorless.

Before the trip we did some research and found that getting around by taxi in Beijing is a huge hassle for foreigners. We decided to hire a guide to help us see the sights. Since there were five people in our group, it only cost us about $60 each for three full days of his services. His name was Alvin, and he picked us up at the airport and took us to our hostel to drop off our bags. Here is a picture of Alexa, Antonio, and me with Alvin outside our hostel:

Summer Palace

We arrived around noon, so by the time we dropped our stuff off at the hostel we had time to do one major tourist attraction the first day. Alvin took us to the Summer Palace. The palace is actually more like an expansive park surrounding a lake with living quarters, gardens, and a massive Buddhist temple that dominates the landscape all on the northern shore. It was built by the Qing dynasty (China's last) in 1750 as the summer residence of the emperor. It was the most beautiful site we visited on the trip. Here are some of the best photos I took there:

Left: A view of the northeastern shore of the lake, which was completely covered in lotuses. Right: Alexa and me in the Imperial Gardens.

Left: A view of Longevity Hill, which contains the Palace's religious buildings, such as The Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha (Right).


















Left: A view of the lake from Longevity Hill
Right: One of the many arched bridges in the palace

Left: Marble Boat
Right: Sunset in the Summer Palace

I took a lot more video during this trip than I did in Japan. Some of it turned out okay, but the quality isn't great for any of my videos. The video below was taken from Longevity Hill and gives you an idea how big the palace is. The entire lake is actually artificial, as is Longevity Hill, which consists of the dirt drudged up while digging the lake.

We enjoyed our time with Alvin and would book him again, but his one flaw is that sometimes he was too thorough. We spent so much time in the living quarters that we didn't have time to see as much of the palace as we wanted to. Fortunately, on our last day we returned for a more leisurely stroll along the lake.

Tiananmen

We began the second day with a visit to Tiananmen Square, the political center of Communist China. The square contains government buildings, museums, monuments to the Chinese worker, and Chairman Mao's Mausoleum. Buildings from China's imperial past stand alongside massive, boxy communist halls. As the largest city square in the world, it has been the site of many rallies and political events throughout China's history. It is probably most known among Americans for the protests that took place there in 1989, which resulted in the massacre of 3,000 protesters. This famous picture was taken there.


This is a shot of Tian'an Men Gate, where Mao proclaimed the formation of the People's Republic of China. We went up in to the Gate to get a view of the square from above. Inside the gate is a small exhibit that explains the significance of many of the political rallies and events that have taken place in the square during the communist era. Noticeably absent from the exhibit was any reference to the year 1989. Seeing the square in person was like walking into a history textbook. It was otherworldly.

















Left: The China National Museum, which was unfortunately closed while we were there.
Right: The Great Hall of the People, home to China's legislature.















In the middle of the square is the Monument to People's Heroes (the large pillar/obelisk) with Mao's Mausoleum behind it. We went inside the Mausoleum and saw Mao's embalmed body. We only got a quick look because the guards were ushering people through quickly. Many of the locals (including Alvin) claim the body is wax, but it was hard for us to tell. Below is a panoramic video of the square that captures what a single picture could not.

Forbidden City

Just north of Tiananmen Square is the Forbidden City, an absolutely massive complex of halls, gates, courtyards, and a garden. Built in 1420 and served as the emperor's residence and seat of the Imperial Court until 1912. Every building along the north-south axis could compete for the most majestic structure I have ever seen.

Shots from in front of (left) and behind (right) the Meridian Gate, the entrance to the Forbidden City.

The city (and it's right to call it a city) consists of an outer court which was the administrative and ceremonial center of the palace, and an inner court, which was for the emperor and his family. Only one-third of the palace is open to the public, but Alvin showed us the vast majority of what was open in the five hours we spent there.





Perhaps the most impressive structure is the Hall of Supreme Harmony (above) which was used for ceremonies such as the crowning of a new emperor.




















If you step off the main strip (the north-south axis) you can wander through small gates courtyards, and a labyrinth of halls like the ones above. You will also find exhibits on how the imperial family lived, which contain many authentic artifacts.

After spending several hours at the palace, we headed to Jing Shan Park, which overlooks the Forbidden City and helps you appreciate the enormity and complexity of the entire palace grounds.

Below is the pavilion in the park that we hiked up to.

This is the only picture that can really do justice to the scope of the Forbidden City; even from above I could not fit it all on my camera:



We finished our second day with a Peking Duck dinner, but I will provide details about all the meals we ate in a future post. That's all for now, but I will have two more posts on China coming shortly.

Summer Fun in Korea

This was my first year without a long summer vacation. Sure, I had summer jobs in college and high school, but for the most part, summer was a long mental break. This year I worked straight through the summer, with only a one week vacation during which I visited Japan (see previous posts). Koreans don't even have a summer holiday that results in a long weekend. As a former swimmer, lifeguard, and swimming coach, I'm used to spending the vast majority of my summers poolside. I'm also used to escaping up north to my grandma's cottage in Caseville for a couple long weekends of relaxing on the beach and reading. Despite spending nearly all of my summer indoors, I did find time for a couple short weekend trips. The first was to Boryeong for the infamous Mudfest. The second was to Busan, a mountainous coastal city and the second largest city in Korea.

Boryeong Mudfest

The Boryeong Mudfest is exactly what it sounds like: a huge party on the beach where everyone covers themselves in mud and has a great time. During the week it's mostly Koreans, but on the weekends English teachers and American GIs converge on the small coastal town to take part in the festivities. This was my first chance to get out of the Seoul metropolitan area, and my first chance to swim all year. Boryeong has some nice beaches, especially when the tide is low. The waves were high, so simply swimming in the Yellow Sea was a lot of fun. Here are a couple shots of the beaches:

We attended Mudfest through a trip put together by an English teacher recruiting agency. In hindsight this was not a good idea. They overcharged us, and gave us a room that allegedly sleeps four people. It consisted of one double bed. Luckily there were only three of us, not four, but we still barely fit into the bed. We arrived in Boryeong late at night on Friday because the bus didn't leave until 9 or 10 PM. After arriving, we picked up some refreshments and some small fireworks (sparklers and some small bottle rockets) and headed to the beach. This served as our three-weeks-too-late 4th of July celebration.

The following morning after a samgyeopsal breakfast/brunch we headed to the beach. There are inflatable pools filled with mud, giant inflatable mudslides, mudpits, and even a jail that you can enter and be hosed down with mud. Some of the mud pits were pretty violent, particularly the ones populated by American soldiers. For the most part, everyone just tackled everyone, though I got into one or two one on one wrestling matches. The pits below were some of the less crowded ones. There was on pit that had over 30 people in in at any given time. Due to being covered in mud it was very difficult to take pictures. These pics are courtesy of Alexa, who dried her hands off from time to time to snap some photos.

Left: In the mud pit. Right: A mudslide down a hill and on to the beach.

The picture above on the left is me covered in mud, and the one on the right is of a wrestling match. Antonio and I enjoyed the opportunity to release our primal instincts and get into a few scuffles. I don't think Alexa took advantage of this opportunity...she preferred the beachside mud spa.

Another drawback to going through the agency was that we had to leave by noon on Sunday, so we basically only had one day of mud-related activities. All in all it was a lot of fun, but could have been done at a cheaper cost.

Busan

The thriving coastal city of Busan is the second largest city in Korea, and by some measurements, the third largest port in the world. It is famous in Korea for its beaches, so for the last weekend in August, Alexa and I decided to visit and enjoy one last weekend of summer fun. Busan is a very mountainous city of 4 million people, and it seems as if canals of buildings and roads connect massive islands of mountains. Given the spread out nature of the city, we knew it was not going to be possible to "see Busan" in the two days we had. We prioritized and decided to spend most of our time relaxing at the beach, as this was the last weekend of summer and we had yet to unwind with a weekend in the sun (I wouldn't call Mudfest relaxing...). I will have to go back in order to see some of the sights we missed.

Beaches

Given all the hype I had heard from Koreans about the beaches of Busan, I have to say I was a little bit disappointed on the whole. There are three main strips of beach in Busan, all between a half mile and a mile long. The first we went to was the famous Haeundae Beach. Part of the reason we waited so long to come to Busan is that in late July and early August Haeundae Beach often looks like this. It was pretty overcast, and most Koreans had already had vacation, so we were lucky that the beach was not that crowded. The disappointment began when I went in for a swim. In Boryeong we were allowed to swim freely, provided that we stayed inside the buoys. This was not the case in Busan. At Haeundae the waters were pretty rough, with large waves crashing into shore, but any time you ventured out past your knees, the whistles of angry lifeguards descended upon you from all around. I was able to wade all of about five yards offshore before being whistled. Some of bigger waves splashed my chest, but that was about all I could hope for. Koreans are not known for their swimming prowess, so that combined with mildly rough waters combined for a disappointing swimming experience. Here are some photos of the beach:

After being disappointed with Haeundae, we decided to try our luck with Seongjong Beach. This beach was much calmer and much shallower, so you could venture out farther than at Haeundae. Unfortunately, being farther out didn't matter much because of the shallow nature of the beach. Before I could wade out to my knees, I was whistled once more. This experience was comparable to swimming in a kiddie pool where someone is splashing. Notice that many Koreans don't go shirtless at the beach. The vast majority of Koreans swim in T shirts and shorts. Songjeong Beach:

After a frustrating Saturday of swimming, on Sunday we headed to Gwangalli Beach. Gwangalli is known for the cafes and nightlife surrounding it, so when we went just after lunch time, it was not crowded at all. After an overpriced but decent pizza in a beachside cafe, we headed to the beach. The beach looks out at the "Diamond Bridge," which is supposedly very beautiful at night. The waters at Gwangalli dropped off quickly, so if I ventured 5-10 yards off shore I was up to my chest. This was the swimming experience I wanted and had missed out on all summer. It was also a much nicer day on Sunday, so we spent a good chunk of time alternating between swimming and reading in the sand.

Yonggungsa

Despite being beach bums for most of the weekend, we did make time to visit one temple on Saturday: Yonggungsa, or in English, the Dragon Palace Temple. Despite being a pretty standard Korean temple in terms of scale and architecture, Yonggungsa is set apart from other temples due to its seaside location in the cliffs. I didn't pick up on as much of the history of the temple as I wanted to though. There were no broshures and the English sign about the temple was in such broken English that it was hard to follow. What I did gather is that the temple was originally built in the 14th Century, but the main hall was rebuilt in 1970. Also, most Korean temples are built in the mountains, but this temple was built seaside because of its emphasis on dragons. In European culture, dragons are typically associated with fire, but in Asian cultures they are typically associated with water. The dragon motif was all over the temple. Statues, carvings, pictures. Here are a couple examples:

Here are some shots of the temple itself. One is from a cliff jutting out right next to it, and one is from the top of the cliff looking out along the Pacific coast.

It was also a lot of fun watching the water smash into the rocky cliffs. This video doesn't do it justice, but it gives you an idea of what it was like:

Aerial View of Busan

Before heading back to Soeul, we stopped by a mountaintop park, right up the hill from our hotel. Atop the mountain was the Busan Tower, a great point from which to view the sea ports and mountains enveloped in clouds.

All in all it was a fun trip, despite some disappoiting beaches. I am also excited that Michigan football season has started. I pulled an all-nighter to watch the first game online with Antonio last night. We looked good, but I am tempering my expectations after what happened last year.