A whirlwind

Five years ago it was February 2004 and I was knee deep in history books and literary works. It was my third year of University, I was working weekends at a homeless shelter and the idea of living in Asia was about as realistic as winning the lottery.

Five years later and here I sit in Seoul, South Korea about to document my time in Beijing, China. It is truly amazing what life can bring and what God has blessed me with.

The trip to Incheon on Saturday was uneventful but tiring. Spending 5 plus hours on a train, only to spend another hour on the subway is not the most exciting time, but at least I got a good deal of reading done. I also had a decent conversation with a yound woman who was on her way to Seoul for winter vacation.

I rose early on Sunday morning for my flight to Beijing. The flight was pleasant enough. The plane was only about half full so I had a whole row to myself. Two hours after take off I was in Beijing.

A view of the new Terminal 3 from my airplane

The trip into the city was rather agravating (Tip: take the airport express train; it cost 25 yuan but it is worth it). I chose to save a few yuan and take the shuttle bus. For 16 yuan it was supposed to take me to the railway station. Instead it dropped me off on a random street corner next to a gathered group of ricshaw drivers who were more than willing to try and fleece you from as much money as possible (Story: a couple friends of mine took a ricshaw and after negotiating a 3 yuan fare were dropped off at their destination only find out that the driver was demanding 300 yuan). Luckily enough I found a subway entrance and one of the attendants was very helpful in directing me to the subway stop nearest my hotel.

A short subway ride later (Tip: use the subway; for 2 yuan you can go all over the city; the base cab fare is 10 yuan) I tired, sore and irritated. All I wanted was to find my hotel. Unfortunately I got turned around and after a 15 minute walk decided I was going the wrong way. After dragging my suitcase through the city for about 45 minutes I finally arrived at my hotel.

From there it was all good.

After a quick shower to freshen up I got on the subway and headed off to the Olympic park. The Birds Nest stadium is a sight to behold. The whole area is really impressive and was filled with families out for an afternoon stroll and celebrating the New Year holiday.

Birdsnest Stadium

I spent the evening strolling the streets of Beijing and made my way to Tian'anmen Square and the entry gate to the Forbidden City. There were people everywhere, everything was lit up but to my disappointment Tian'anmen was closed off.

Tian'anmen Square at night

Monday morning I arose early with the intent of visting the Temple of Heaven. Instead of reading the clearly labeled signs in the subway station, I decided to simply head out the nearest exit and ended up walking a couple kilometers the wrong way before getting back on the subway, riding it back to the stop where I had gotten off and being smart about things.

The Temple of Heaven was amazing. For 30 yuan you get to see virtually everything. Entering the park from the East Gate I was witness to groups of people dancing and playing hacky-sac. The Temple itself was breathtaking and luckily there weren't too many people there. If you ever go to Beijing I highly recommend visitin the Temple.

A view of the Temple from the south

Later that afternoon I met up with some friends from Mokpo and we headed off to the Summer Palace. We got there too late to get a full access entry ticket but in the end it mattered little. The palace itself was beautiful, but its the trek up to the Tower of Buddhist Incence was worth the trip. The unfortunate thing about being at the Palace was that it showed how polluted the air in Beijing is.

Hazy in the Beijing smog

Monday night was the last night of the Lunar New Year holiday. My friends and I wandered down to the Tian'anmen Square area after a nice Chinese dinner. The night was alive with the sights and sounds of fireworks. They were all around and lasted long into the night.

Tuesday began with an early start; waking before six AM. I met my friends in Tian'anmen Square to witness the ceremonial flag raising that takes place there every day. I was surprised by the crowds. I kept forgetting how many people there are in China and how many of them have probably never been to Beijing or Tian'anmen before.

Of course the square was under strict security, the entire square has been fenced off and is closed to the public during the evening and night (this year will mark the 20th anniversary of the Tian'anmen Square protests in 1989 [a forbidden topic within China] that brought to prominence the brave unkown man who stared down a line of tanks). Everyone entering the square had to pass their bags through an x-ray scanner (much like in an airport - the same is true for the Beijing subway system), while individuals were patted down by a security guard with a metal detecting wand. I, assuming it is because I was a foreigner, was simply waved through the search process. I couldn't believe that I was standing in Tian'anmen Square. I simply stopped and stood for a moment trying to take it all in.

The flag raising ceremony was somewhat underwhelming. I don't know exactly what I was expecting but it was something much grander than what I witnessed.

After the flag raising, we toured the Square and then headed in to see the famous mausoleum of Chairman Mao. Being only a few feet from a mass murderer who is revered as a hero was somewhat chilling. I was told by some Chinese people that I met that Mao "taught the Chinese people to stand up." I found it hard to really discuss or understand the level of historical revisionism at play in China.

The exit of Mao's mausoleum

After the Square we went across the street to the Forbidden City (Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City form the heart of Beijing, with the south gate for the Forbidden City bordering the north side of Tian'anmen Square). I had heard that this place wasn't all that impressive; that much of it was closed off to the public and as such that there wasn't much to see. That is not the case. The place is immense, filled with giant squares, meandering alleyways and numerous courtyards. We spent nearly five hours touring the grounds leaving us foot weary and hungry.

Interior Courtyard of the Forbidden City

We made an attempt to visit the Lama Temple after our tour of the Forbidden City but got there too late, so we decided that a little rest would do us good. Back at the hotel I watched some basketball and wrote postcards for friends and family back home. Then walked down to meet my friends for dinner. We had decided on going for Peking Duck. It was my first time having duck and it was quite delicious. I was again underwhelmed by the dinner. For some reason I thought Peking Duck would be some grand dinner experience. It was cheap though, costing us about $20 each. We were even given a certificate for our duck claiming that it was the 424,349th (or some such number) that the restaurant had served since its founding in the mid to late 1800s.

Wednesday was another early day. I met my friends at their hostel for our tour to the Great Wall of China. From Beijing there are three sections of the Wall open to tourists. Badaling is the most popular with tourists and is usually quite busy. Simatai is further afield and is a major hike. We settled on the middle ground of Mutianyu. I was pleased with this choice as it only took 2 hours to get there and while there were people there, they wouldn't be considered crowds. Add in that it was a beautiful day and it was a great experience.

The Great Wall of China

The views were amazing and the hike was middling. For the most part it was like walking on a rolling hill but there were a few parts that were decent hike up the mountain. This was another place where I simply had to stop for a moment and let it soak in that I was really standing on China's Great Wall (despite what you may have heard, the Great Wall is not visible from space or the moon. Seeing the GW from the moon would be like seeing a single human hair from two miles away). The trip up the mountain was a decent hike of a bout a kilometre but the decent was much more fun. They have a metal slide that you can ride down for the approximate cost of $8. You sit on carts that have wheels and a friction brake. You could really build up some great speeds going down the moutain. It was a lot of fun.

When we signed up for the tour we were told that we would leave at 8am and return by 5pm. So we figured that this would leave us about 5 hours (10am - 3pm) to tour the wall. When we arrived at the Wall though we were told that we would be leaving at 1pm. At first we were disappointed but it turned out to be a blessing. It gave us plenty of time to tour the Wall and additionally gave us the time needed to visit the Lama Temple that we missed out on the day before.

The Lama Temple is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist temples in the world. As we were walking there we passed numerous shops that were selling incense. Not a little bit of incense, but a lot of incense. Store front after store front was full of it. At that point I didn't understand why, but I soon found out.

A bell in the inner courtyard

Inside the Temple people were worshipping. Part of that worship was the burning of incense. People would kneel in front of a statue of either Buddha or other Buddhist icon and hold three lit sticks of incense to their forhead as they bowed repeatedly towards the statue. Inside the temple there were dozens of such statues and each of them there were large braziers for the lit incence. Burning incense inside the buildings was not allowed so some would prefer to go inside the buildings and perform the process with unlit incense. They would then leave the incense in front of the statue. Monks came by at the end of the day and put the unlit incense in the braziers so that they too, in the end, were lit.

The temple was beautiful and the statues that it contained were amazing. The Lama Temple contains an 18m tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved from a single piece of sandalwood. Despite this I didn't take many pictures. At first I acted like I had at the Forbidden Palace or Great Wall, but I quickly realized that this was an active place of worship and my gawking after all of it like a tourist was disrespectful. As such I simply toured the temple and tried to see as much as possible but tried to keep my picture taking respectful.

That night we met some friends who were also in China but were on their way to Xi'an to see the famous Terracotta Army. Our plans for dinner didn't work out and so we settled on a diner which had a very extensive menu (over 200 items). It was a good way to end my time in Beijing.

The following morning it was threatening rain. After making sure that I had everything ready to go I went for a short stroll and mailed some postcards before heading to the airport via the subway. The flight back to Seoul was uneventful, as was the trip into the city by subway. When I emerged from the subway in Insadong it was raining lightly so I settled on a quick bite to eat and an early night.

I woke up Friday morning to find it pouring down rain and my desire for walking waning. After a couple hours of nothingness I decided to visit the War Museum next door to the American Military base. It was an interesting place and I was able to learn some things about the Korean war, which I enjoyed.

When I left it had stopped raining so I walked to Itaewan and strolled through the area before grabbing a sub at Subway and headed on back to my hotel. A little later I returned to Itaewan to visit the Hollywood Grill where they air rugby games in hopes that they would be airing some Super 14 matches but they weren't. I had a good conversation with an English teacher working in Seoul and about midnight left for my hotel.

On Saturday morning I decided to head to the Seoul Art Gallery. I had seen an advertisement the day before on TV for a showing of works by Gustav Klimt, my favorite painter. The exhibition was both amazing and disappointing. I learned about Klimt and got to see a great many of his study drawings but I had hoped to see some of his more famous works such as his Pallas Athene, the Tree of Life or The Kiss (2), but they weren't there. They did have a recreation of his Beethoven Frieze though, which was very impressive.

After the art gallery I met up with a friend who came to meet up with me from Ulsan and we went to the Yongsan Electronics Market in search of a new external hard drive. This was followed up by another tour of Itaewan, dinner at an Outback Steakhouse and some drinks at the Hollywood Grill where we were able to watch a bit of the Six Nations match between France and Scotland.

Sunday was an easy day of touring through Insadong in the morning followed by a bus ride back to Suncheon in the afternoon.

After 8 days I was back home and exhausted.

It was a wonderful trip.

I can't wait for next year's.