China Part Six

After calling it an early night and getting some rest we decided to set off for the Summer Palace. We took another local bus (I really recommend being brave and taking these buses, you can't beat a 1 yuan bus fare!) and just when we started to get nervous that we'd gone too far we were there! We had a slightly expensive (which meant the total came to almost $15) lunch of cashew chicken and sweet and sour pork that was so delicious that it was worth the inflated price. I was feeling a bit under the weather (stomach issues- maybe I accidentally drank some local water?) so we took it slow.

It was a bit hazy and smoggy for the last few days of the trip so it was challenging to take nice pictures. I gave it a shot and you can look at all of them here. I want to live in the Summer Palace. It's huge and gorgeous and is probably bigger than the town I grew up in. There was no way that we could have seen the whole thing that day because we didn't go there early enough, I was dragging my butt a bit and it's massive. In fact, we didn't get to see one of the featured sites since those close at 5 pm (the Palace stays open later though). What we did see was amazing so it was okay we didn't see it all.

The Summer Palace has a massive lake in it and you can rent boats/take a dragon boat ride. We decided not to since we were feeling cheap but it looked like a lot of fun. We got to see a lot of museum like areas throughout the palace. Some things we saw were Ming vases (honestly some of the other pottery was more impressive to me) and the first Olympic gold medal. Cool. We also got to watch some traditional dancers and listen to some live traditional Chinese music. If you go to those links you can see the videos I took.

Near the end of the day they let us into one of the sites just as they were closing the gates. Literally we punched our ticket and behind us they bolted everything up. I couldn't understand at first what the big deal was. Then some old guy starts waving at us to come up some stairs. Which led to a few more stairs.
Yeah, try sprinting up those after you spent hours and hours walking in the hot Beijing sun. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. At the top their was another temple and a nice employee who spoke English and explained the significance of the Buddha inside the temple. It was nice but the view was better. It was lucky that we got their when we did because this woman also told us where the bus stop was (we were so far away from where we entered and I really didn't want to backtrack) and suggested a few buses we could take. As mentioned, the view was spectacular!
It was a bit treacherous climbing down from the temple and getting to the exit but we managed without falling to our deaths. We found the bus but unfortunately we got nervous and jumped off a stop too soon and therefore had to walk about a kilometer to the subway station. D'oh!

China Part Five

At this point we had stayed with Curtis and Jenny for four awesome nights and it was time to part ways. We'd imposed on them enough. We made plans to hang out on Friday night (our last night) to say goodbye and to give them our Beijing Lonely Planet since we wouldn't be needing it after that. The night before we all stayed up talking and hanging up until nearly 4 am so we were pretty tired the next day. Jenny actually called in sick for work. Haha. Since we were traveling by the seat of our pants we randomly called a hostel in the area and low and behold they had a private room available for the rest of our stay at the bargain price of $20 (total, not per person) a night. So we packed up and headed over there by cab (14 yuan or $2). Our room was simple but lovely. The bathroom was communal but everything was really clean and well maintained. We even had cable TV (China has even fewer English channels than Korea) and an air conditioner. Actually, we had to change rooms for our last night because our air conditioner crapped out. No big deal though.

Since we stayed up pretty late we decided we wanted a fairly low key day so we decided to take the city bus to the Temple of Heaven. I was so tired on this day and was really dragging my arse around but we took lots of breaks. I'll admit I didn't know much about the Temple of Heaven before I visited it and as it turns out it's in a massive park that you can walk around in forever. It was so gorgeous and peaceful with it's trees and the traditional Chinese music piped through the speakers. Here's a link to all the pictures of the Temple of Heaven.

We spent the whole afternoon touring around and looking at all the different buildings and temples. It was a lot of fun even though I was so tired.

While in the park I noticed a few funny Engrish items. You might have to click on the pictures to read them. I was excited to see that the restaurant in China was selling Chinese food and that I could wash it down with my favorite drink, Hot Choldate.

After we left the Temple of Heaven we relaxed a bit at the hostel and then went out and did some more shopping. I haven't mentioned it in the other installments but we shopped almost everyday of the trip. I must say, shopping in Beijing is awesome! Haggling is actually fun and I think we got some pretty decent deals. I was reluctant to tell Curtis and Jenny what we paid for a couple things (you know, since they live there) but even they said we did good so that was encouraging. The main places we shopped at were Wangfujing Street and Silk Street and Pearl Market. I took a couple pictures of them.

My favorite shopping location was Silk Street/Pearl Market. As you can tell from the picture, it has a lot more than silk and pearls (although you can buy those there too). It was crazy walking through there. I ended up buying a gorgeous Balenciaga knock off. I have no idea about designer stuff so I was probably the worst woman to peddle to (hey! It's a Gucci! Uhhh.. so? It's ugly.). From my research on the subject now that I'm back, mine is a copy of "The First" model. It's a nice bag and I talked the woman down from over 1000 yuan to 130 yuan (which worked out to under $20 for the purse). I may have been able to get my original price of 100 yuan but I liked the woman and I wanted the purse so I cracked a bit. Anyway, we mostly bought presents for other people and almost bought a hacked Wii with a bunch of fake games but then decided against it. I can't wait to return to China for more cheap shopping!

China Part Four

Now onto my hands down favorite day of the trip- when we went to the Great Wall!!! We had debated a lot about how to get there and which section to visit. There are numerous tours but we decided against doing that since they were pretty expensive and all seemed to have a stop at some Jade Museum or other tourist trap. Since our Dominican Republic trip we've learned our lesson about that sort of crap. We were also concerned that some websites mentioned that many tours were scams. We settled on visiting the Badaling section of the wall, which is the most visited and photographed and also the closest to Beijing. Even though there was an entrance fee for this section (40 yuan or about $6.50) it is also the most dramatic with it's hills and we figured that it wouldn't be too crowded since we were going on a Tuesday. Plus the directions were really straight forward.

So off we went, on the look out for the mystical 919 bus that would take us to the Great Wall. We got off at the correct subway station (the subway is even easier to use than the one in Seoul now that they have made so many upgrades for the Olympics) and started looking for the 919 bus. Almost immediately we spotted it! So we excited scampered towards it, looking for the ticket vendor. The bus driver took one look at us and started emphatically shaking his head. "No Badaling!" we were told as he pointed further down the block. Okay then, a bit weird, but whatever. It was at this point we realized that 919 is the most popular bus number in Beijing. I'm not exaggerating when I say that we passed five 919 buses before we found the correct one. So strange! We stopped to ask some Olympic volunteers (seriously, Beijing was covered in booths of these guys) and then assured us that the bus did exist and we were on the right track.

We found the bus! When we were in the vicinity the ticket vendor started waving her hands at us so we knew we were in the right spot. We paid the fare for the 50 km trip (just under $2 each) and settled into the crowded bus. We were the only non-Chinese people on the bus other than a European couple that jumped on at the last minute. The trip went smoothly and before we knew it we were getting our first glimpses of the wall!!

It was such a gorgeous day and we had a great time hiking on the wall. I have to tell you, it is HUGE. I know that you're told how big it is but I really didn't understand until I was walking on it. And the Badaling section is so steep! Holy crap. I definitely think everyone should visit the Great Wall before they die and it's important to know that you should get there before you're using a walker because all those stairs and inclines are killer!

It was the best day ever. I loved staring at the bright blue sky eating our picnic lunch on the wall. And finding our way back to Beijing was just as easy and cheap as getting there. I really recommend that if you visit the wall you do it yourself instead of taking a tour. It's so simple, much cheaper and you can do it at your own pace (which is important when you're climbing four billion stone steps).

To see the rest of the pictures you can go here.

China Part Three

The next couple of days we started to get serious with our sightseeing. Beijing has so many interesting, historical and cultural landmarks. On our third day we wandered over to Tiananmen Square which is conveniently located across the street from the Forbidden City. The square itself, besides having historical and political significance, really wasn't much to see. There was a lot of construction going on at the National museum beside it (we'd wanted to check that out but apparently it doesn't reopen until 2010) and basically just a lot of people walking around.

The Forbidden City was awesome though. Everything in China is huge and cheap! It's amazing! It was cool being in a country where things are as big and spread out as Canada for a change. Really I should let the pictures speak for themselves. If you want to see ALL of them (and there are lots) then you should head over to photobucket right now. I'm going to include some favorites here.

We had an amazing day- it was ridiculously hot and we both got a bit sunburned. I had fun taking lots of pictures, a few of random Chinese children. I think their parents were flattered though, not creeped out. Haha. One strange thing is that with small babies and toddlers they don't wear diapers, or even proper pants. There were naked kids all over the place! And if they weren't naked they had these pants on that basically were split through the crotch so they could squat at will. Bizarre! I'd be worried my baby would be peeing on me and other people in public!

China Part Two

Before we left we changed over about $500 into Chinese yuan. One dollar is about 7 yuan, therefore, a 100 yuan note was equivalent to about $15. This was a true adventure since we hadn't booked or solidly planned anything. Basically we had a Lonely Planet, a list of places we wanted to go and some lovely couch surfing hosts willing to let us stay with them for the first few days.

Arriving at the airport we quickly found our bags and noticed there were Olympic volunteers everywhere. We followed Curtis and Jenny's (our couch surfing hosts) directions and found our bus. We paid about $5 (total) for tickets and settled in for the ride. The bus dropped us off and we found the subway really easily, bought our tickets and then met up with Jenny. I can't say how awesome these guys were. We had so much fun with them and they were insanely hospitable. Besides that, they were cool to hang out with and interesting to talk to. I think between the two of them they have traveled everywhere. Wow. Here's the view from their humble apartment.

We were pretty tired from our crazy airport ordeals so the first day we just kicked back with them and a bunch of beer and wine. Fun times. The next day the four of us went out to a famous art district: The 798 Art District and looked around at all the free galleries. It was a beautiful day and we had the most amazing (and cheap!) food for lunch! I had chicken fried rice steamed in lotus leaves and Matt had some kind of pork filled soup. Yum! To see the 798 Art District pictures you can go here.

Later that evening we took them out for Peking Duck to thank them for letting us crash with them. It was really tasty but not something I could eat everyday. It was interesting watching the guy carve the duck.

The cool thing about hanging out with Curtis and Jenny was getting to see some of the regular life in Beijing stuff that we might not have seen otherwise. It was crazy how cheap things were there, especially if you went to a grocery store frequented by the locals. To give you an idea- a bottle of beer cost about 25 cents. Even when we went out to a bar, the local beer cost $1.50. Yeah, at the bar. Crazy! So our first two days in Beijing were pretty cool, just relaxing and enjoying some day to day things.

China Part One

I know that this is long overdue and I apologize. Without further ado: Our China Adventure!

Things began with a bit of a bumpy start since we had to rush after work to the airport and stay the night out there. I really hate that the only international airport is located on a bloody island that no one can easily get out to later at night (aka after 8pm) and early in the morning. Since our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:30 am and we live over 2 hours away AND there are no airport buses before 5:30 am... Well it meant we had to take the subway out there (slower option) and book a hotel for the night (so overpriced). We finally got to the airport just after midnight and we went to get our re-entry visa from the immigration office so we would be ready to go for the next day.

We had called airport information a few days earlier and the woman Matt talked to (who spoke excellent English) had told him that immigration is open 24 hours. So imagine our surprise when the office was closed until 6:30 am. Awesome. At this point the precious hours of sleep that we could have in our expensive hotel room were slipping away rapidly. So we decided to get a cab to the hotel. Holy asshole cab drivers around the airport. Twenty to thirty dollars for a 5 minute cab ride? I don't think so. So we went to the information desk to ask them if there was a hotel shuttle. They called our hotel and they were sending their van (free) and then they checked our flight number and it didn't exist. At this point I was pretty pissed off at the universe. They said our airline would open at 6 am so we could come back then and talk to them. Yeah, awesome.

So we went outside to wait for our van and were told that the van driver knew Matt's name. So when a van pulled up and called Matt by name we figured that was the guy. Then the asshole tried to scam us by calling the hotel, saying the front desk was closed and that they don't have vans at this hour. Then he said the trip would cost 30,000 won ($30). We started screaming at him with all our rudest Korean (translations "I am not an idiot! This is a rip off! You are crazy!") and so we high-tailed it back to the information lady who asked us what happened. We finally got in the right van and ended up at our hotel room. Where we got like 3 hours sleep before having to head back to the airport.

When we arrived at the airport we got our re-entry visas straightened out and then went to talk to the airline. At this point we found out that the airline desk wasn't opening until 9:30!! Why can't people just give us correct information? Why call yourself information? Gah! So we went to sleep on airport benches (which is what we should have done in the first place instead of getting a hotel, but live and learn). Finally we got our flight straightened out and it turned out our other flight was canceled but we could get on another leaving at 11:50. Which basically meant that we could have just slept at home and came in the morning to the airport. The airline people were pretty nice and straightened out both our flights (our return was canceled too) and got us a flight with a different airline on the return. They also rushed us through baggage check in and called our couch surfers on their phone so we could tell them we would be arriving 4 hours later than we'd told them.

It was an ordeal people. But it was good to get all the bumps out of the way before we left Korea and everything was smooth after that. Next stop- Beijing!

We're Back!

It's been a frantic week since we returned from our vacation. We got home late Saturday night, then proceeded to do laundry like crazy and then Sunday we had our book club meeting and then went to Bundang to return Dana and Curtis' backpacks and hang out. Monday we rushed back to Seoul and into work. So much paperwork and marking. Especially Matt is drowning in it since they are making him do phone tests for all these middle school kids who didn't attend for the first half of the month. Blah. So I have been trying to help him out with some marking and it was pretty hilarious, I must say. My kids are fairly low level so the questions and answers are usually pretty mundane. Here was my favorite answer out of the tests I marked for Matt:

Where would you like to study abroad? Why?

I would like to study in an attic. The reason is that there will be snug and comfortable.


Bwahahah! I couldn't stop laughing for like 5 minutes straight. This female student doesn't have an English name and I told Matt that if she asks for one he must call her Anne Frank. Unfortunately I had to mark her answer as incorrect since she didn't mention the attic being located in Germany. Yes, I know I am a bad person for making these off colored jokes but it was just too funny.

So otherwise I am working on blogging about China but it's taking forever to wrestle with the pictures I took. There are over 500 and technology hates me so it's hard to stay focused and motivated. They will come soon and will be glorious so don't worry!!