Hong Kong Adventures

Today was my last full day in Hong Kong. I spent it taking my mom around and getting my last fill of some of the best of Hong Kong. I ate a lot of dimsum, walked around HKU and then later went to Hometown Dumpling and watched the symphony of lights. I bought some Chinese oreos and I’m bringing them back to the U.S. to compare.

Today was kind of a reality check for me. After being so enamored by Seoul and thinking it the best place I’ve been this semester, I came back to Hong Kong and was newly impressed by the diversity here. Seoul, especially when it comes to food retail, seemed very homogeneous while Hong Kong is a unique mix of a lot of different things. Today I kind of like met Hong Kong again, like I had forgotten what it had to offer, and it felt good. I think Hong Kong barely nabs the top spot for best city I’ve been to this semester.

I quickly glanced through all the pictures that I’ve been tagged in on facebook this semester and looking back I can say it has definitely been a great one. Certainly a lot of great experiences and new places explored. I wish college could be like this every semester.

Today was just a travel day. ICN —> PEK —> HKG. I did watch most of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on one of the flights though.

So here are my lasting impressions about the cities I visited on my trip. Beijing is smoggy and the people there are pushy. It has some cool sights to see but the city is dirty and rough around the edges. The internet control is ok if you have a vpn but without that it’s pretty annoying. There is some pretty odd food to eat there (scorpions, sheep penis, etc.) Overall I wasn’t too thrilled with Beijing. I’m glad to have seen it but I don’t have any desire to go back.

Seoul on the other hand was definitely one of the best cities I’ve ever been to. Korean society values harmony and it showed in Seoul. Especially compared to beijing, the city was calm and everyone there was very nice. Many of the girls there are good looking, their internet is the fastest in the world, and overall their society is very technologically advanced. They have a lot of western fast food and they’re obsessed with coffee shops. Korean bbq is delicious. They’re even pretty accommodating to english speakers, certainly more so than Beijing. My only complaint is that the metro was sub par. Although the coverage was extensive the stations were poorly designed so they couldn’t efficiently handle a lot of people at once.  I’m definitely going to go back to South Korea, hopefully soon.

Last full day in Seoul. I spent half of it in the Korean demilitarized zone (dmz) which is 4 kilometers across and the international line runs through the middle. I walked (hunched over) through a tunnel that the north Koreans dug under the dmz towards south Korea back in the 50s and 60s. Apparently the north dug 200+ tunnels under the dmz and some of them were said to be able to transport 30,000 troops an hour. I went to an observatory where I got to see north Korea with my own eyes from within the dmz. North Korea cut down a lot of the trees on the their side so they can more easily catch spies and becuase people need the wood.

There’s the dmz tour that I went and then there’s an even more intense tour to the joint security area where north and south Korean soldiers are both present and the international line actually runs through some buildings. North Koreans are not allowed to mix with south Koreans so they take turns being inside those buildings. I didn’t go there but apparenly Obama did in march; I didn’t know he was in Korea.

After that whole tour I walked through insadong again because we got dropped off there and then traveled to a part of town where the coex convention center is and walked around there. We came across a very nice bhuddist temple in a nice park which was surrounded by high rise buildings. Kind of a strange contrast.

On my way back home I walked through the (mouthful) stream on a Friday night and it was really nice. It was lit up and there were a lot of couples there and it seemed like a really nice place to go on a date. I couldn’t help thinking that I would have liked to be on a date at the stream with a korean girl.

Lastly I had some tasty bbq before coming back to my hostel and submitting my last assignment to hku. I am officially done with my semester at hku.

Tonight was a busy night at the hostile and even though I was working a lot to finish my assignment I heard a lot of interesting conversations about people travels. What I think is most interesting is that most of the local people here aren’t aware of this international gathering of travellers who have been to so many different places. It’s like a secret club that you only get to be a part of if you’re not attached to the local community. I bet plenty of really interesting people come and go near where I live in the US and I am none the wiser. Maybe this summer I’ll find a hostile near Berkeley and just go hang out there.

Tomorrow I’m heading back to Hong Kong. I’m kind of sad to be leaving Seoul even though I know at this point there’s no much for me to do here. I’m definitely coming back though. South Korea is probably one of the best places I’ve ever been. I’m kind of thinking I want to live here.

Another great day in Seoul. I definitely had some spontaneous fun today.

First I went to the war memorial of Korea which is a great museum all about the Korean war. Of course it was a bit biased but I really liked their emphasis on international cooperation in the conflict and how they were very thankful to every country who supported them in the war. The emphasis of the US involvement in wars that I’ve been taught has blinded me from the fact that many of the wars fought in the last 60 years have been fought by many nations, not just the US supporting or directly attacking another country.

Next I went to itaewon which is an area supposedly popular with international people. I didn’t see many foreigners there but there were a lot of clothing butiques and along the sidewalk there were plaques which displayed the words hello in different languages from all around the world. I felt accomplished that I could read the Chinese one.

After that I went to a park area along the big river that runs through Seoul and sat on some steps and relaxed. It wasn’t long before a clown showed up and started performing nearby. At first I wasn’t interested but he turned out to be pretty funny so my mom and I walked over to watch. My mom ended up being part of the show and I definitely had a laugh.

Next I went back to the area close to my hostel and ate some bbq. Watching other people eat is interesting because that’s how I learned a lot of different ways to eat all the things provided when eating Korean bbq.

Lastly I walked around the hongdae area (close to my hostel) where I ran into a street performance that turned out to be fun and entertaining. It was 4 guys being silly, dancing, playing music, and singing. I even got singled out (becuase I’m obviously foreign) and had to repeat something in Korean for the crowd. Everyone laughed but we were all having a good time.

Back at the hostel I met some people from Chicago and some from Germany. I also overheard some other college age people talking about where they were from in the US, how many languages they spoke and all the places they had been. All of that got me thinking how much I hate the idea of staying in one place for a long time. The idea of staying in California for the rest of my life is frightening. I need to see what else is out there. There is some much going on in the rest of the world and today showed me that there are certainly good times to be had even in places where I don’t understand the language.

Last thing: the Seoul metropolitan area has a population of 20 million and a population density of 4000 per square kilometer. The LA area has 15 million people and a population density of about 1000. There are so many more people here but it doesn’t feel crowded at all.

Seoul is awesome. I’m happy to say I no longer feel trapped, in fact I feel sad that I have to leave in two days. I walked around a lot today and hit a lot of touristy spots. Here are the highlights: (yeah, I know its probably boring to read with no pictures. I won’t know if you stop reading now)

First of all, it was sunny with clear skies and about 80 degrees. Prefect weather. I feel like the weather plays a big factor in how much I like where I am. Anyways, first I went to Gyeongbuk palace which is the main palace used by Korean emperors back in the day. Since Japan has invaded Korea multiple times and destroyed pretty much everything, the palace we saw was a completely rebuilt one that started construction in the 1990’s. In fact, since the Korean war destroyed a lot of Seoul, the city had to rebuild itself only 60 years ago. That’s why everything here seems so refreshingly new. I also went to the nearby Korean folk museum where I got a taste of Korean history and culture.

Next I went to insadong which is a touristy area near the palace. It is described by some as “korea” in Seoul and it was there that I tried some tasty Korean street food. My favorite was a deep fried pancake looking thing that tasted like funnel cake.

The cheonggyecheon (that’s a mouth full) stream was next. It’s a man made (restored) stream that runs through the middle of downtown and people hang out along the edge and dip their feet in the water.

After that I walked through some big shopping areas. Here in Korea they have vast underground shopping malls as well as regular stores and malls above ground. There’s a lot of commerce in Korea and as far as I’ve seen it extensively targets women. Most of the stores sell clothes or cosmetics or other seemingly female items. The exception to that is food and everyone eats food. They have almost every kind of food here, especially a lot of America fast food. I walked past 2 krispy kreme donut shops today. I haven’t seen one of those places in years. I never thought the next one I’d see would be in Korea.

The last place I went to today is the Seoul tower. This tower sits on a hill in the center of the city and from the observation deck you can see everything. It’s a pretty spectacular view. Seoul is a in the center of a metropolis that is home to (I think) 28 million people. Thats close to the entire population of california in one big area that’s LA area size. I’d look up specific info but I’m on my phone atm. We saw the sun set in Seoul tower and watched the city transform into night mode. I was impressed with the bathroom there. The urinals face the window so it felt pretty cool to pee and take in the awesome view at the same time.

That was it for the day. We came back and met our new roommate. He’s from Korea and is traveling on business selling stainless steel. He explained to me how the Korean alphabet works and he told me about his experiences studying English in the United States. I am continuely impressed with all the bilingual people I meet. I’m so jealous that they have to learn a a second language at a young age.

I think its safe to say that Seoul blows Beijing out of the water, in my opinion. I’ve already started thinking of ways I can come back here whether it be get a job here, come back to teach English, or maybe even go to grad school here. I’d probably need to learn some Korean first though, haha.

Today I left China and took a 1.5 hour plane ride to Seoul, South Korea. It’s crazy how much of a difference a short flight like that can make. I could tell as soon as I got off the plane that Seoul was going to be better. Everything was clean, the internet worked well, and it was peacefully quiet. Now that I’m finally in the city I’m extremeley impressed. I like this place a lot. Korea seems to be just the right mix of western and eastern culture. People are friendly and there’s delicious food everywhere. They even have a taco bell not too far from where I’m staying (although I’ve decided I’m not going to waste a meal eating at taco bell while I’m in Korea.)

Unfortunately I dont know much about Korean culture nor do I speak any Korean, two things which I was much better prepared for in Beijing, so interfacing with people in a lot harder. We went to a bbq restaurant where the waiter spoke very little English and I really hate looking like a dumb foreigner. The food was good but the other waiters laughing at our waiter because he had to deal with us made me feel crappy. I wish I knew how to speak Korean. Besides that though I’ve really enjoyed being here so far and I’m excited to get out and explore Seoul tomorrow.

Today I went to the great wall of China. The specific section I went to was badaling. It’s the most visited section of the wall near Beijing and there were a lot of people there but I still enjoyed it. The only bad part was that it was incredibly smoggy/hazy there so the view wasn’t very good.

For dinner I went to a restaurant called quanjude which is famous for its duck. The sweet and sour duck and garlic duck wings that I had were quite delicious.

Now as I’m sitting in the restaurant on top our hostel looking out at the great view of tiananmen square writing this post I feel conflicted. I know that I am extremely priveledged to be hear in Beijing and to be going to Seoul tomorrow and I should be enjoying the time I have in these places (it has been fun) and yet I can’t help but feel like everything I do is to fill the time between now and when I can get back to Berkeley. I guess in a way I feel trapped here. That’s not how I want to feel while I’m supposed to be on vacation but I guess now that something I’ve wanted in the back of my mind for months is only two weeks away the anticipation is building big time.

I’m excited to go to Seoul. I’m looking forward to something a bit more modern and spontaneous than Beijing. The spontaneous bit is on me though so I’ve got some work to do.

I did a lot of walking today. I went to the Olympic park and went into the bird’s nest and water cube and then walked around the huge and pretty nice park to the north. The entire Olympic area is massive and walking from one end to the other takes close to 30 minutes.

We spent something like 5 hours there and then went back to the middle of the city to a night market where they sold nasty things on a stick like beetles, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, sheep penis, and testicals. After seeing it (some of the scorpions were still moving) I was like “no way” and ended up eating more normal street food. Finally after after about 8.5 hours out in the city we returned to our hotel where I’m glad to be off my feet. I think I’ve done more walking in Beijing than I did in any other place I’ve traveled.

I’ve gotten to speak Chinese to order food and I even got myself a student discount to go into the birds nest.

Tomorrow I’m heading to the great wall. That should be pretty cool.

First full day in Beijing. I went to see tiananmen square and the forbidden city. I even listened to hypnotized by SOAD at tiananmen square. The forbidden city is huge. What’s nice is that we rented audio guides that have gps in them so as you walk around it tells you about the place. We also went into a few of the parks nearby. Those were really nice. Around 6pm we went back to tiananmen square where we saw a bunch of people waiting to watch a flag cerimony which I had heard was interesting so we stuck around to watch it. We ended up waiting for over an hour under lightening in the clouds for some goose stepping military guys to take a flag down. It wasn’t very eventful but seemed to be a popular event, a lot of people were there watching.

Beijing is probably the smoggiest place I’ve ever been. I’ve heard it was smoggy, but seeing how much there actually is was surprising.

Tomorrow I’m planning on seeing the Olympic sites and heading to a night market where I can eat a scorpion (and other gross bugs) on a stick. We’ll see if I feel up to actually trying any.

It’s been a long day. Between flying to Beijing, checking in at my hostel, and them heading back to the airport to rendezvous with my mom I’ve spent a lot of time in an airport today.

I met a cal grad, class of ‘99, who gave me a go bears at the airport in Hong Kong. He said he’s been in Hong kong “for forever” and wants his mainland Chinese wife to learn English so he can move back to the U.S. because “the bay area’s where it’s at”. He’s made some interesting life choices. During my flight I watched the artist. Certainly an interesting and unique film but I can say I think I’d rather watch “talkies”.

I went back and forth between the airport and my hostel twice today. Once my mom and I had settled in at the hostel we went out and walked around some nearby pedestrian streets which were pretty lively on a Friday night.

The stress of finals week and then getting up really early this morning as left me exhausted. I was tired at 9pm tonight. Going to get a good night’s sleep and then see Beijing like a boss.