Seoul Searching : October 2017

That title is annoying and you can't stop me!

Caitlin and I booked a holiday to Beijing because it was close, cheap, and historically interesting. What we failed to do was realize was it was also a week long holiday in China. So, the city that already houses 22 million people was flooded with more tourists and families visiting. Many times Caitlin would turn to me in a massive crown of people and say, “This is my literal nightmare.” Most days it took us 30-45 mins to herald a taxi. Twice we went to another hotel and pretended we stayed there to get them to call us a taxi back to our hotel as we failed flagging one down on the street. Our hotel wouldn’t call one for us during peak times because of the “traffic jam” coming up to it. Once we couldn’t leave the area our hotel was in because no taxi would stop for us. We just walked back up, walked around our neighbourhood and chilled at a cafe (whose sign said they served milkshakes but to my dismay it did not) It was an extra sad day. Luckily we had 3 English channels in our hotel room including HBO (Multiple showings of the movie Monster Trucks can make a girl go batty), CNN (a blessing and a curse as our first morning there we woke up to the tragedy in Las Vegas), and a very spotty National Geographic Channel which mostly played shows about catching tuna (who is watching this????) and our favourite: Pope vs. Hitler.

All of that being said, it was still an amazing trip. Our main reason for going was to see the Great Wall and it did not disappoint. A two hour wait in line for the cable car to go up was a small price to pay for the view. There is nothing comparable and I will never forget that first glance out. Because the wall is so long, there are many viewpoints. We chose the one that was heralded as “most beautiful” and also “less touristy” because we thought it wouldn’t be so crowded. If that was not crowded, I can’t imagine what the other spots would look like!

We booked the tour for our 3^rd day there, the day after it rained so the air would be most clear of smog. We also thought if we loved it so much it would give us some more days to book another trip to see it at the end of the week. It is magnificent, but as Caitlin pointed out, “It’s like Stonehenge. At a certain point you’re just looking at rock.” If the wall was closer to us, we might have gone again. But it was a 12 hour round trip from the time we left the hotel to the time we got back, only to spend about an hour up there.

Also included in the day tour was a visit to the Ming Tombs, a jade factory, and a tea ceremony with a quick drive by the site of the Beijing 2002 Olympics.

Entrance to Ming Tombs

Making offerings

These are restored tombs

Jade statue

Jade ship

This is a dragon that has a big mouth to feed and a big but because and I am quoting our tour guide here: I has not asshole. So you point the face of the dragon out of your door to welcome in lots of money that stays in the big bum.

Jade Buddha

This is a family ball carved out of a single piece of jade. It's a ball inside a ball inside a ball - very skilled work!

Photos don’t do it justice, but here are some that I took and some that the better photographer between the two of us took.

Driving up to the base where we could catch a cable car up.

Yes, there's a Subway at the Great Wall of China.

People write their names at the checkpoints in between. I almost did and then I didn't.

One thing that marveled me was the layers upon layers of mountains.

Our hotel was right near the Beijing Botanical Gardens so we went there our first morning. It was a pretty smoggy day, so we figured it was a good idea to go somewhere that the air would be nice and clean!

We rode a trolley that we thought would take us around the gardens, but it just took

us back to the front gate so we left.

dino

We liked the pagoda at the top in the distance

Every landmark around Beijing has plants made into

different people or things like this.

Later we went to the Summer Palace. It was absolutely beautiful! One thing I was shocked by was the amount of green space and parks in Beijing. All you hear about on the news is its booming economy and infrastructure. There are many beautiful places in the city, including the Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace. We did not hike up there because

we were there to have fun, not torture ourselves.

The scenery was absolutely gorgeous.

No Romping!

The second day of our stay it rained, which is nice to clear up the smog. Luckily it didn’t rain very hard, just here and there so we were still able to go out. Caitlin wasn’t feeling too hot, but we went to see the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square. She ended up leaving about an hour after we got there to go home and rest. At first I was nervous to be alone in a new city, but I was also confident because I had enough money to get back to the hotel, as well as the hotel address in Chinese, so the taxi could easily find it.

Again, the place was teeming with people. They sell 80,000 tickets to get into the Forbidden City and they were sold out by 8am. There were thousands more than went to just see the surroundings and I was one of them. It is surrounded by a beautiful moat where I walked for a while. Outside of the Forbidden City I walked down a cute street with local shops selling food, souvenirs, and clothes. I bought a few things for family back home and continued walking. I ended up in a little park that was EMPTY. I was so happy to be surrounded by quiet and literally no one. I stayed there for a while just walking, staring at a dog wandering around. I ended up finding some pretty fancy hotels on the main street. (The main street by the way is 7 lanes one way and 7 the other. Imagine how wide that is!) I was happy to find some hotels so I could catch a cab back to ours on the outskirts.

Mao

That evening we took a stroll up to this area called Fragrant Hills near our hotel which is like another popular garden. It made our street very crowded the entire week with people going to see it. We never paid to go in past the main gate, but it was nice to look around for a bit before stumbling upon a restaurant that sold western food! I was so happy! It served my two fav soups: minestrone and cream of mushroom. I was in heaven! We wanted to be nice and rested up for our early morning tour to the Great Wall so we had an early night.

I told Caitlin I really wanted to see a panda. Unfortunately we didn’t spot one in the wild at the Great Wall so we hit up the Beijing Zoo. Neither of us are super keen on zoos, but we both wanted to see a panda. One way that China is similar to Korea is that entrance fees to things are pretty cheap. To get into the zoo plus the extra for the panda area was a total of about $3. Not too shabby! Besides pandas there were tigers, bears, elephants, giraffes, and lots of loud birds. It was a pretty fun day. Finding a taxi home was another story. It probably took us an hour of walking to different corners and areas trying to hail a taxi before we found a hotel and asked the concierge to call us a taxi, pretending we stayed in that hotel. It’s all I had left since I bring my womanly wiles in my suitcase.

Delicate treats made of honey

I love this pic

Wallaby's chillin'

Ask Caitlin, I got really excited about the giraffes. Really excited.

The next day was the worst. We stayed in for the morning which was probably a bad deicison because it made it impossible to find a taxi to go into the center of Beijing. After a long time trying to hail a taxi we walked back up to our hotel area, sat at a cafe, tried to order food at a Chinese restaurant by pointing at a picture of a bowl of noodles. They just said “No!” and we couldn’t find anything else we wanted to order so walked down to McDonalds to eat our feelings. It was kind of a bust of a day, but we also agreed that we wanted to have some rest too, not feel like we were running around trying to see a bunch of things, so at least we got some good rest in.

One morning Caitlin had to do some homework (That’s right folks, she’s going to school online while teaching here!) so I wandered into a foot massage place that had no English signs or anything. I just saw it and went for it. I’d sum it up by saying it was less of a massage and more of a medium beating. I soaked my feet in a bucket of hot water, 2 tea bags, and paraffin wax. Then a lady beat my feet and legs quite hard. I actually don’t think I’ve ever been hit that hard before! I laughed so hard. At the same time I connected with a colleague back home who is from China who helped us translate some things to show taxi drivers. We had a short video chat about Beijing and he gave me some tips on where to go. It was nice to have him help us!

Our last day in Beijing was a fun one. We started at a fancy mall for breakfast, tried walking to Wanfujing Street which I thought was nearby but then got into a taxi which drove us quite far away! That is the street where you can eat lost of different bugs and animals on sticks! I didn't try any of them, but I did try a drink with dry ice inside which made it bubbly.

So much side eye about her octopus tentacles on a stick.

I love tea!

So many creepy crawlies on sticks.

After walking that street a couple of times we hopped in a cab to The Temple of Heaven. It had beautiful scenery and buildings!

Just an angel at the Temple of Heaven.

I love this tree. It look so smooth!

Altogether I'm glad I went, especially with Caitlin, who can be quoted many times on the trip saying to me, "You'll make a great 65 year old woman." I'd often reply, "I make a great 34 year old woman too!" (One time she said that to me after we listed our top 5 songs. I said, "I think one of mine might be a Christmas song, it's #1 in the hymn book but I can't remember the title right now." So, she's right.)

Lots of love,

Alli

Couple of random pictures to show you below.