Dae Han Min Guk!

How did I realize that my last post was lucky number 88!? I hope it was a good one.

Anyway, last weekend it was dragon boat festival, so I had a 5-day weekend to travel. Because of that whole war/sinking of warships/debacle in Korea, plane tickets there were suddenly wicked cheap, so we went to Seoul. As always, click to enlarge the photos.

I went to Seoul with Stephen and Jae. Stephen and I were lucky, because it turns out Jae is straight VIP in Korea. A private van picked us up at the airport around 2 am. This van was at our disposal, along with it's slick driver (perpetually in pinstripes and fedora), all week.

The first day it was raining on and off, but we still managed to see some major sights. In the morning we went to the DMZ to look at North Korea. We couldn't get too close because A. getting close is way expensive and we're poor, and B. South Korean citizens aren't allowed any closer than we got, and Jae sports a green passport. But, we did visit a museum of North Koren life and looked at people on the opposite bank of the river through binoculars. It was super creepy. This is North Korea in the rain:


That afternoon we ate bimbimbop (clearly) and then went to see Changdeokgung Palace. It's one of the five palaces of Seoul, and a favorite of the princes of the Joseon dynasty. It was built in 1405, when Korea still predominantly used the Hanja writing system. This made me feel much better about being a dumb and mute tourist, because I could read the signs and understand. By the 20th century though, much of Korean was switched over to Hangul, so I remained a dumb mute anywhere we visited that wasn't ancient.


Saturday night was Korea's first world cup game! The country takes their football seriously. Everyone was wearing red, literally everyone. I learned my first Korean phrase: "dae han min guk!" We started out in downtown watching on one of the public big screens, but once it started to rain we decided to have Tekkin (Jae's pseudo cousin and our awesome tour guide for the week) take us to a bar in his area of Seoul where his friends would be watching. So we watched the actual game from the comfort of a bar in a random suburb. This does not mean the place wasn't absolutely INSANE. Especially when we won. Also of note: Korean bars serve ball-shaped fruit loops! And Koreans like to do soju/coke bombs. That night we had a sleepover at Tekkin's.


Sunday morning we met up with Tekkin's sister and some of her friends for more sightseeing. We went up the top of N Seoul Tower first. It's 777 feet tall and smack in the middle of Seoul. The view was pretty amazing. In the observation tower they had labeled each window with what major city lay in that direction, and then the relevant distance. It was pretty exciting for us to find Shanghai, and for me to find DC (sorry Boston, you didn't make the cut sadface). Every window had a city, except for the two window blank between Vancouver and Anchorage. There really is absolutely nothing there (sorry Canada, sadface).




Around the base of the tower is a fence. There is a really adorable tradition where couples come up to the tower and lock a padlock on the fence, and then throw the key over the edge. Symbolism obvious. Athough, I'm not so sure about what these slackers who used combination locks are trying to say.



On our way down there was an impromptu martial arts show. It was pretty awesome. They cut up lots of stuff with weapons and had fights. This guy was the most fun, and this was my best action shot of him demolishing the straw dummy.


Then we went to a market area for lunch and some shopping. Jae dressed up as Nick Bottom.


In the afternoon, our new friends took us to an area of Seoul that has been preserved to look as it did in the 1800s. The houses were all gorgeous, and I would absolutely still live in a few.


Then we went to a night market, which featured this crazy building, and shopped for K-pop clothes so we could look club appropriate. Jae acquired his new eyes.



Monday we decided to take it easy and explore the area around our hostel (if you're ever in Seoul, stay at Mr. Kim's - it rocked). The hostel was in the Hongdae area, which is centered around Hongik University. (I actually think Hongdae may be the abbreviation for Hongik U, but I don't speak Korean, so I could be wrong). Though it's a comprehensive university of 20,000 students, it's famous for it's arts programs. That was definitely apparent as we walked the campus. We also stumbled upon the opening for the thesis show of the textile and fiber art grad students. I found some stuff I loved:




The Hongdae area itself was really awesome as well. There were tons of boutiques and cafes and little bars. Everything was lively and bohemian and not-China. I loved it. We found the Hello Kitty Cafe. It was pink. Next to Hello Kitty there was one of those Cat Bars that I've read about in Japan!! You go in and pay by the hour or something to play with kittens! It's supposed to be relaxing. If they had one with puppies I would be there in about 2 seconds.




That night we went out in Hongdae. The club we ended up at, N2D or something like that, was awesome. It didn't have any of the bells and whistles of the Shanghai clubs, but it had the most enthusiastic crowd I've seen out in a long time. And it was a Monday night!


We told Jae's family we wanted to see some Korea that wasn't a massive city, so on Tuesday they took us to the countryside to a Korean "village." I forget what it was called, but it was essentially the Korean equivalent of Plymouth Plantation. I was worried it would be a bit Wuzhen, but it was definitely more Plymouth than that, which was good. It was really well maintained and there were so few tourists. It turned out to actually be a really great place to visit and I'm really glad we went. They had areas showing the village architectural styles of each area in ancient Korea, as well as areas demonstrating crafts and games. There was also an awkward museum of the world's cultures.





Monday night was our last night in Korea, so the family wanted to send Jae off in style (he hadn't been back to the motherland for 8 years!). After a dinner of Korean BBQ, they took us to what they said used to be Jae's mother's favorite bar. Jae's mother's favorite bar is a CAVE. An actual cave. This place was nuts. Absolutely put Shanghai to shame (and I never thought nightlife anywhere could out-awkward Shanghai!).



Lots of weird things happened in the cave, including (but not limited to): bug eating, love shots, arm wrestling, and random drunk adults. Then (because Korea is still Asia), we went to KTV - where we continued to roll VIP style because Jae is somehow related to the owner of a massive KTV place. Then we finished off our evening of Azn-ness by going to a PC Bar where I watched the boys play some game where Tekkin kept killing them.

We got back to Tekkin's around 4 in the morning and Jae told us that it was Korean tradition to eat whatever it was his aunt had prepared for us, and to do celebratory shots of soju to ward off hangovers before bed, so clearly being the good guests we were, we had to go through with it. This was a lie, and simply an elaborate ruse to get Stephen to eat dog. Unnecessary, since Stephen had been psyched all week to do so. The soju shots at 4 am were also unnecessary. But, the hospitality was more than appreciated.


A 4-hour snugglefest later we headed for the airport. Stephen and I feasted on bagels for breakfast and savored the liberated internet while Jae was rejected from security for forgetting the 2 liters of liquid he had in his bag. When we finally made it to the gate, we discovered Li Laoshi! Nonchalantly just hanging out in Seoul. The best was when Jae finally showed up and Li Laoshi explained his presence by saying he had come all the way to Seoul to retrieve him, Macao-style.

Korea was excellent. I'm really glad I had a chance to see another part of Asia during my year here. China has infinite places to visit, and I haven't felt limited by my visa at all (it didn't allow me to leave the country until recently), but I'm grateful I had the opportunity to get to South Korea, especially at such an exciting World Cup time, and with such wonderful hospitality.

Today marks exactly a week until I'm headed back stateside! That's nuts. One week from today I will be boarding a plane. I have 6 days left of work. CRAZY CRAZY. I need to buy a suitcase, and attempt to put my life together. Yesterday, I realized that I had such a short amount of time left, and finally made it to the Expo. Look for that post soon.

~Kono

Karst Biking, Starfish Eating

Kyla just left earlier this week after a pretty amazing visit. I'm so glad she was able to come.

We did a lot. After touring Shanghai for a few days, we headed down to Yangshou so I could prove to K that not all air in China is polluted. The topography in Yangshuo is incredibly unique. There are karst formations all over the world, but I cant think of many that are so heavily forested as those in Yangshuo. Yangshuo is super touristy, but for good reason. It's beautiful, and has tons to do.

View from the hostel:


Our first day it rained pretty heavily, so we got accustomed to our hostel and signed up for a cooking class. We stayed at the same place my friends stayed at last semester. Monkey Jane's is definitely a good place to meet people, and has a pretty unbeatable view. I even met someone from GW. Our cooking class was all foreigners (like most of Yangshuo) and majority American. It was a friendly, if eclectic group. We learned how to make Guangxi food, which was mostly stir fries with oyster sauce, but we did make egg wrap dumplings which was an exciting first experience for me. Prior to cooking we went to the farmer's market to buy our ingredients. I didn't get a picture of the dog cages, but I'll assure you they were sad.

Cooking class:


The next day we went to visit the water caves. The caves in Yangshuo were absolutely amazing. I don't think I've ever been in such large caverns before. We went on about an hour long walking tour where we were allowed to do things that would cause the EPA to faint. Kyla, Shavan and I felt too guilty to shimmy up stalagmites and traipse about through protected caverns, but the other tourists on our walking tour did not experience such heistation. Also during this walking tour, I attempted to translate the guide for Shavan and Kyla and learned a lot of important new vocab, like mammoth and jellyfish.

After the tour of the caves, we had the chance to play in the mud bath and then sit in the hot springs. The mud bath was goopy. I really can't think of a better word to describe it. Thick goop. A bit shallow, and so gross. But fun. The hot springs were amazing! When I've been to hot springs in the past, they've been man-made enclosures, usually about kiddie pool sized. These were natural shelves built into a cliff, each housing a small pool that fit one or two people. The cliff itself was inside a massive cavern. It was definitely a surreal experience. I wish I had photos of these things I'm describing, but we didn't bring cameras in for fear of breaking them in the mud baths or something. For future visitors, don't listen to the lady who guards the lockers, you can easily and safely bring your camera with you.

Monday we went for a bike ride along the Li river. As I mentioned earlier, the scenery here is just amazing. I'll just post photos instead of describing in too much detail. We biked for maybe 10 kilometers or so through mud paths and small villages to the Dragon Bridge. Instead of biking all the way back, we hired some bamboo rafts and floated in luxury about half way back. The highlight of the rafting ride was my discussion with our driver (captain?). He asked if we had tan people in America, and I responded that we had people of all colors and that it was often a vanity thing to make your skin tanner. This delighted him immensely, since in China tanned skin means you're lower class and have to work outdoors. He declared that the darkness of his tan would mean everyone in America would call him 大老板 （big boss). Then he looked at our white skin and at the umbrella above us in horror, and quickly removed it so we could soak up all the vitamin D possible.

Views from the bike/raft ride:






Tuesday we went tubing on the river. This was super beautiful too, and relaxing, until I was sucked under a concrete dock and "surfaced" underneath the boats in a marina, losing my sunglasses and almost dying. FYI, the current is stronger than it appears. When I finally made it to air, the current was too strong for me to swim to shore. Before I was swept away to Vietnam, I hailed a bamboo raft that was toting some tourists. The rafter fished me out with his pole, but then one of the tourists goes "她想去哪里?!" (Where does she want to go?!). I'm sorry, I didn't hail this raft, fully clothed in the middle of a river clutching my shoes hoping to hitch to Guilin! Silliness. I still have some pretty awesome bruising.

Sunrise in Yangshuo:


That night we caught a flight back to Shanghai for another few days. I worked while Kyla EXPOed. Before you know it, we were traveling again, headed to Beijing for the weekend. I sent Kyla ahead with some friends which was a good idea, since my computer died, and by the time I actually made it to Beijing a few days later, I ended up spending a good deal of the time (6 hours in one day) at the only Apple store in China. Aside from computer drama, it was again weird and nostalgic to be back in BJ, especially since this time we visited some of the cafes and bars where I used to hang out.

Kyla's home now and I'm back to my fun routine of work, apply for work, study Chinese, apply for work. Hopefully I'll fit in the Expo before I make moves. Next stop: Korea in two weeks for a spontaneous weekend.

~L

Silk Flowered Nightie

Blogs about Yangshuo/Beijing/Kyla's visit upcoming.

In the meantime, I'd like to point out that today marks the two week point at which I have seen my roommate wear nothing other than that ridiculous silk nightie. Clearly, I have also not seen her leave the apartment in that time.

Also, I have never seen her eat. Possible she is a nightie-wearing vampire.

Xiamen Blanket Bingo, Shangrao Surprise

Last weekend was Labour Day in China. It was also the first day of Glorious Expo, so clearly I had to get OUT of Shanghai. 人山人海 was about to become 观光客山观光客海。So, Bryce, Nick and I decided to go to Xiamen. Transportation shenanigans abounded, and we wound up going to 4 cities for the goal of one!

To get to Xiamen cheaply, we went with an Elong deal that routed us through Wuhan. With a 20 hour layover. Being the positive people we are, we embraced this opportunity to check out another city. Wuhan was really polluted and everyone had trouble breathing. I was disappointed when we couldn't see across the East Lake for the classic Wuhan photo, and amused when we were told to go check out the Wuhan Bund (which is "JUST LIKE the one in your Shanghai hometown!") - I think it would have been too hazy to see. However, Wuhan DID have delicious street food - homefries(!), deep fried bananas, tire cookies, fish (shaped - not flavored) cookies, chou doufu. Also, our hostel was pretty adorable and I would recommend it.

This photo:


Should have looked like this:


Although the smog made this view of the East Lake look quite pretty:


The Yellow Goose Pagoda:


Delicious yummies:


The next morning we went to the airport for our 11 AM, FRIDAY morning flight (according to the internet booking). However, we were informed that the flight was actually 11 AM, THURSDAY (according to the paper receipt which we did not closely examine, apparently). Hilarity did not ensue, but we made it to Xiamen on the 1:30.

Xiamen had clean air, blue skies, greenery, and 75 degree temperatures. It was love at first sight when we exited the airport. We waited in the longest cab queue in the world and headed to the island to meet our Couchsurfing hosts at Xiamen University. Lydia and Biju are amazing people, and their apartment not only has disco lighting and fake-view window shades, but also amazing views of Gulangyu. This was easily the classiest couchsurfing I've ever had. We spent the evening touring their neighborhood, making sure they knew spicy Chinese food actually existed, and hanging out on the expat bar street. We also attempted to go to the Pirate Ship Bar (not sure what it's actually called, but it's a pirate ship parked in a Carrefour parking lot!!) for KTV, but turns out it was prostitute night, so that was a bust. (But, if you're interested, the ladies only start at 200 kuai - a bargain!).

View from my room at Lydia and Biju's:


The Pirate Ship:


Saturday we went to Gulangyu. Gulangyu is an island located off the coast off the coast of Xiamen. It's car free and bike free, so it's incredibly un-China like in it's quiet. You might hear piano music though, Gulangyu has more pianos per capita than anywhere else in the world (one in every 5 homes). After the Treaty of Nanking, the island became the foreigner settlement for the port of Xiamen (then called Amoy), and the architecture serves as a reminder. Today the foreigners are gone and many of the colonial mansions are empty and covered with ivy. But about half of them are still in good condition and serve has homes still, or adorable restaurants or shops. The whole island had a romantic, bohemian feel, and I really enjoyed walking around the streets. Oh, and of course there are beaches.






Saturday night we met up with some of Lydia and Biju's friends and went to Pizza followed by dancing at Key Club. The club had a Filipino cover band (can anyone explain to me why it's Philippines and Filipino? Shouldn't one be Filipines or Philippino?) The band was AMAZING, and we had a great time.

These two things happened:




Sunday we toured Xiamen University and went to the beach. The university earns it's reputation as the most beautiful in China. The beach we went to had a very exciting bridge, an awkward foreigner doing capoeria, and a series of computer mouse sculptures. With things like that, you have to realize that not only did someone conceptualize 6 giant concrete mice double clicking the ocean, but someone in municipal government was like "using the beach as a giant figurative mousepad?! EXCELLENT idea!" and found the funding for it.

Bridge:


Beach:


Mice:


This guy sold VERY fresh goat milk out of the back of his van.



Then we had a really stressful trip (no cabs, anywhere) to the train station to catch our train to Wuyishan. Backing up a bit: since we're super cheap, we decided to fly one way to Xiamen (slash mistakenly Wuhan) and then take the train back to Shanghai. However, it being a holiday weekend, and us being in Hong Kong when tickets went on sale, tickets to Shanghai were not exactly in abundance. So, we got a ticket to Wuyishan, which is half way. And then I pulled out a map and started pointing at cities within a two hundred miles of Wuyishan until we found one where we could get the last 3 4th class train tickets from. Joy.

Wuyishan was beautiful. I highly recommend going. It's annoying to have to pay to do the "hiking" (since hiking in China is always paved trails), but I suppose in the States you have to pay to enter state parks and such, too. The scenery is worth it though. I've traveled a lot of China, but this was my first time seeing forests that were similar to where I've lived and hiked in the States, so that was pretty exciting for me.

Gorges:



Pavilion we hiked to:


We hiked a few gorges (and one creepy silver mine), and then our cab driver took us to a tea factory for a tea tasting. In China, tea tasting works like wine tasting in the states. It's all free, and then they hope you buy some. The place he took us to was nice - they gave us a quick tour of how they prepare the leaves after harvest, and performed a pretty simple tea ceremony. The hostess also explained the merits of each tea. I'm glad we made this stop, and that the cab driver insisted on it. I knew Wuyishan had mountains and gorges and the like, but I didn't realize until we arrived that the whole place was covered in beautiful terraced tea fields.




We didn't spend the night in Wuyishan, but instead took the night bus to Shangrao in order to catch our morning train to Shanghai (like I said, travel shenanigans). Shangrao isn't exactly a place I've heard of before. Most Chinese who I asked before our trip knew of it, and vaguely where it was, but not much else. Appropriately, the woman who sold us our bus tickets was very concerned about why I would want to go to Shangrao, and kept asking if she could sell me a connecting ticket. Our expectations were not high for this small hamlet of about 7 million.

The bus ride was 3 bumpy hours, but the scenery was consistently pretty great. Shangrao itself looked like any other Chinese city. Wide boulevards, communist concrete architecture. We checked into the nicest truck stop I've ever been in, and then asked a cab driver to take us to a bar. We fully expected a sketch KTV place, but little did we know, Shangrao has a pretty bumping nightlife! Seriously. This was the most amazing shock of the trip.




Tuesday was incredibly uneventful, as we just sat on an uncomfortable train for 8 hours. My knees really hate hard seats. Big props to my friends who have done that for longer than 24 hours in the past.

Now I'm back to regular life. Angie Chang is in town for the expo, so I was super excited to see her this past weekend! My soccer team suffered our first loss today to the over-dramatic Brazilian team. And Kyla comes on the 17th! Big time excitement!

~L