Beijing!

Hi everyone!

So we just got back from China and had a great trip. This might be a long blog, so let's just dive in.

We started holidays last Thursday and woke up with Ali's computer refusing to turn on so we decided to make a trip to the Mac store in Myong Dong, Seoul. We found out her hard drive is destroyed along with half the keyboard so, instead of replacing it, Ali will probably just need to get a new computer when she gets home. Consequently, we're now sharing a computer so it might be harder to find us on Skype as often.

Friday was New Year's Eve so we just spent the day running errands and getting ready for China and then, in the evening, we got a hotel near Jonggak, Seoul - where all the New Years festivities happen. We had dinner and met our friends at a bar and then braved the freezing temperatures to see the big countdown and concert near Jonggak station (a comparable event to what goes on in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto). Right after midnight, we headed back to the hotel since we needed to be up at 5 for our flight.

We woke up early and flew to China, meeting our guide Baijing at the airport. He took us right to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is about 1 square kilometer big and was built by emperors in Ancient China for their private living quarters. It was pretty amazing and it backs on to Tian'anmen Square. It was surreal being in such a famous place where so many important historical events happened. Mao's giant portrait looked over us as we explored the massive city square.




After that we were taken to a Chinese silk factory where we learned about the silk making process and were pressured to buy things, but said no, having no money. Then we got lunch at a Chinese restaurant (obviously). We forgot how amazing and flavourful food can be!

After lunch we went to the Temple of Heaven, a massive temple on a hill, surrounded by a beautiful park. It was insanely beautiful and great to walk around the grounds.



That evening we went shopping in some crazy story that our guide compared to Walmart but that had almost no similarities to it. It was like a warehouse/maze jammed with tons of people. After that, we went to see an acrobatics show. It was very similar to the one we saw in Jeju-island but with less skilled performers and the theatre was freezing so it wasn't the most enjoyable part.

Then we went to dinner at a Peking Duck buffet. Beijing is famous for the duck and Jesse had some but said it was only okay. I wasn't feeling great, mostly because I was so tired so I didn't eat much and we just went back to the hotel after that.

The next morning, we woke up early and headed to the Great Wall. We passed the Olympic buildings from the Beijing Olympics, passing the Birds' Nest and the Water Cube.
On the way, we went to a jade store. China is famous for it's jade and it's really important in Chinese history. They showed us all the different kinds of jade and how they produce it and we bought ourselves some jade chopsticks for a souvenir.

Finally, we got to the Great Wall. It was just as incredible as we imagined it would be. We went to the most popular tourist spot of the wall, called Badaling, but it wasn't very crowded because it was winter and a holiday. It was really cold up on the wall but, once we started climbing, we warmed up quickly. We climbed past about six beacon towers, taking tons of pictures. It was absolutely amazing.



Then we headed to the Ming Tombs. There are 13 emperors tombs near the Great Wall but only two are opened and they were both under construction so we contented ourselves by looking at a small museum with artifacts from the tombs. It was a little boring but still okay.

After that, we got lunch at another Chinese restaurant. Whoever says American Chinese food is nothing like real Chinese food is wrong. It's pretty much the same, although we never saw spring rolls or chicken balls.

After lunch, we went back to the city and to a tea house. They showed us a traditional tea ceremony but it wasn't in English. After about 10 minutes, we realized they were speaking Russian to us so we told them we were English and everyone was quite embarrassed. We got an English speaking tea lady and heard the whole talk again. It was actually great - we tasted about 7 kinds of tea, all of which were amazing. Both of us loved thing one tea called ginseng oolong and so we bought some as well as some cool mugs to take home.

After that, we were left to our own devices for the evening so we walked to a nearby mall and looked around and got Pizza Hut for dinner, not wanting the challenge of reading a Chinese menu.

The next day we woke up early again and headed to the Summer Palace. It is a massive man-made lake and tons of buildings and gardens that the emperor built for his summer getaway. It was stunningly beautiful in the winter so I can only imagine how incredible it is in summertime. We spent a few hours walking around and exploring the different amazing sights the palace had to offer.




Then we went to a Chinese Pearl store and saw how they collect the pearls, the different types of pearls and we even saw pearls that came from the very lake the Summer Palace was built on. Very cool.

After that we headed into old Beijing to see the Hutongs. A hutong is basically a narrow lane from ancient Beijing that families have lived in for generations. We got a rickshaw tour of the hutongs and got to meet a family who lived there. Their son was in America teaching kung fu and his dad showed us some cool kung fu moves.



After that, we got lunch again, at a Chinese place near our hotel. We had the rest of the afternoon off, as well as the next day to ourselves.

Having seen all the most popular tourist sights in Beijing already, we went to the one we next most wanted to see. It was the Capital Museum, housing tons of important Chinese art and artifacts. It also had a really cool photography exhibit of modern Beijing, which we both really liked.


We met our guide again the next afternoon and went to the airport to head home.

Now we're both back to school but we had a great time in Beijing. Absolutely amazing.

Talk to you soon!
Ali and Jesse

First Weekend in Seoul

This weekend Ali and I finally left Uijeongbu to check out Seoul and discover more of what Korea had to offer. We knew Korea's transportation system, including the Seoul Metropolitan subway, was regarded as one of the World's best and it lived up to it's reputation. There are so many lines and so many stops - approximately 400 - that we thought beforehand it may be a bit confusing. But everything is connected at so many points and all signs are in Korean and English that travelling was a breeze, as long as you don't mind looking like a tourist, straining your eyes looking at subway map in your hand. Another bonus is that most subway trips cost only 90 cents.

We were eager to check out Seoul - one of the biggest cities in the world - and experience its rich culture so naturally our first stop was the Itawon district, the reverse Korea town of Seoul. Itawon is home to many restaurants and shops that cater to foreigners. It had its own version of little Italy, a middle eastern area and even a Canadian pub that served poutine! I've never liked poutine that much, but I still liked the idea that it was available. We met with Ali's friend Marijike, who is teaching in Incheon, and two of her friends she's made up here. We explored Itawon for awhile and could have forgotten we were in Korea; there were just as many foreigners as Koreans it seemed. Deciding to get food we can't back in Uijeongbu, we stopped at a cafe for lunch where we had some Western staples like hamburgers and french toast.

We were eager to see some sort of tourist attraction, but with none of us being erudite historians, we were unsure of where to go. We picked a palace on a map of Seoul and headed there. It was called Unhyeongung palace and for only thirty cents each, we got to explore the grounds and take lots of pictures. It was pretty interesting and definitely worth the money.

Not ready to call an end to our sightseeing, we made our way to the Myeong-dong subway stop to see North Seoul Tower, which is Korea's CN tower, so to speak. We walked uphill along roads for quite awhile before we noticed elevated trams (is that what they're called?) going up to the tower. We found the place and took the tram to the top. It turned out that this is White Day weekend. Koreans celebrate Valentine's day on February 14th, but unlike for North America, this is a day that women get gifts for the men and share their affection for them. One month later on March 14th, men return the favour on what the Koreans call White Day. It turns out that seeing North Seoul tower is a romantic occasion as the place was packed with couples.

North Seoul tower is not as tall as CN tower, but its location at top of a mountain provided a great view. Walking around the base of the tower was pretty cool because you already get a great sight on the surroundings. We paid to go up to the observatory which provided a nice 360 degree view of Seoul. There was also this ingenious idea where each window panel had the names of a few cities on them, indicating the direction and exact distance to the city. We looked directly at Toronto only 10 607.77km away! Practically there by all accounts.

After North Seoul tower, it was about eight pm so we made our way to the Hongkik University area. We were told it was a good location for going out and we had a nice pub dinner and went to a few places. Our first trip into Seoul was a success and with Ali being the inveterate explores she is, I'm sure we will go back soon to do some more sight seeing. It was also nice for Ali to see her friend Marijke again and her two friends Odi and James seemed really nice. It's really great to make other friends in Korea.

Today we just took it easy. It's seems like Ali is getting pretty sick with a cold and sore throat and has to start teaching tomorrow so we just lazed around and watched movies.

We'll update again at the end of the week.

- Jesse


Ali looking toward Toronto from North Seoul Tower. Can almost touch it!


A view of Seoul at night.


Ali and I at the base of Seoul tower.


The group trying to figure out where to go next and looking like huge tourists.


The palace in Seoul.