Wednesday, December 27, 2006
'Twas a Jolly Commi Christmas
What can I say? Christmas in China was awesome.
Sam, Tim (Sam's brother), and I were able to spend 4 days, and 3 nights touring around Beijing and it's outskirts...we only saw a drop of what China has to offer, but it was a great first introduction to Chinese culture.
Some highlights:
- spending Christmas Eve day hiking the Great Wall
- bartering with the local market vendors ("Hey lady, come in my shop", "Special deal for a special customer", "This price, just for you", "This is authentic leater, hand painted")
- a run-in with Communist soldiers, in which our bus driver was punched through the bus window, and almost dragged out of his seat. Tim's response: running to the front of the bus, opening a window, and yelling "NO" at the soldiers, while waving his hands back and forth...probably not the smartest thing to do, but a valiant effort on his part. The other guys also all ran to the front to try and hold the bus driver in, while us girls just sat shocked in our seats. Corruption at its finest.
- a 30 minute free foot massage at the Tibetan Medicine Center
- visiting a jade factory, a pearl factory, a silk factory, and a cloisonne factory (where they decorate brass vases, pots, plates, rings, etc.)
- viewing a Chinese circus, where performers bent, twisted, and threw their bodies around the stage...I never knew people could balance and stretch the ways that they did
- Western breakfasts with a Chinese flare (at our hotel) - we could have toast, yogurt and fruit, OR egg rolls, fried noodles, and curry
- and a glimpse at parts of the 5000 years of Chinese history
Here are a few pictures from our trip...Enjoy!!
Merry Christmas :0)
Our first night, at the Chinese Circus, where we saw amazing acrobatic stunts.
Here's Sam and I on the Great Wall. We climbed all the way up to the little building you can see at the top...45 minutes of stairs. This was probably the half way point.
Sam and Tim...a little higher up.
Here's Tim at the top, looking down on where we came from.
This is us at the high point of the wall (the top of where we climbed to). We had quite the view...beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!
This is the main building at the Ming Tombs...where an emperor was buried. Inside was a huge statue of him, and tons of artifacts from his burial site.
Sam...making friends with a local dragon.
One of the very pretty buildings at the Ming Tombs
This was one of our dinners. The food was delicious, but very greasy (seems like everything was fried). We got to sample duck, lots of fish dishes, as much Jasmine tea as we could take, and tons of delicious stir-fries and meat dishes.
Here we are at the Temple of Heaven. The building structure was so cool, and the colors were beautiful. This site is where the Emperor would come 4 times per year to pray for rain. Inside this main building were lots of water buffalo statues (since they were an animal that could retain a lot of water), and other altars and such.
Yellow is the Emperor's color. We found this pretty mural in the Forbidden City. Supposedly, any common person who used yellow to decorate their house was put to death. Only the Emperor was allowed to use this colour.
This is the longest corridor in the world, and it's at the Summer Palace in Beijing. The Empress who lived here had her dreams painted on the eaves of this corridor...14,000 paintings in all.
Sam, Tim (Sam's brother), and I were able to spend 4 days, and 3 nights touring around Beijing and it's outskirts...we only saw a drop of what China has to offer, but it was a great first introduction to Chinese culture.
Some highlights:
- spending Christmas Eve day hiking the Great Wall
- bartering with the local market vendors ("Hey lady, come in my shop", "Special deal for a special customer", "This price, just for you", "This is authentic leater, hand painted")
- a run-in with Communist soldiers, in which our bus driver was punched through the bus window, and almost dragged out of his seat. Tim's response: running to the front of the bus, opening a window, and yelling "NO" at the soldiers, while waving his hands back and forth...probably not the smartest thing to do, but a valiant effort on his part. The other guys also all ran to the front to try and hold the bus driver in, while us girls just sat shocked in our seats. Corruption at its finest.
- a 30 minute free foot massage at the Tibetan Medicine Center
- visiting a jade factory, a pearl factory, a silk factory, and a cloisonne factory (where they decorate brass vases, pots, plates, rings, etc.)
- viewing a Chinese circus, where performers bent, twisted, and threw their bodies around the stage...I never knew people could balance and stretch the ways that they did
- Western breakfasts with a Chinese flare (at our hotel) - we could have toast, yogurt and fruit, OR egg rolls, fried noodles, and curry
- and a glimpse at parts of the 5000 years of Chinese history
Here are a few pictures from our trip...Enjoy!!
Merry Christmas :0)
Our first night, at the Chinese Circus, where we saw amazing acrobatic stunts.
Here's Sam and I on the Great Wall. We climbed all the way up to the little building you can see at the top...45 minutes of stairs. This was probably the half way point.
Sam and Tim...a little higher up.
Here's Tim at the top, looking down on where we came from.
This is us at the high point of the wall (the top of where we climbed to). We had quite the view...beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!
This is the main building at the Ming Tombs...where an emperor was buried. Inside was a huge statue of him, and tons of artifacts from his burial site.
Sam...making friends with a local dragon.
One of the very pretty buildings at the Ming Tombs
This was one of our dinners. The food was delicious, but very greasy (seems like everything was fried). We got to sample duck, lots of fish dishes, as much Jasmine tea as we could take, and tons of delicious stir-fries and meat dishes. Here we are at the Temple of Heaven. The building structure was so cool, and the colors were beautiful. This site is where the Emperor would come 4 times per year to pray for rain. Inside this main building were lots of water buffalo statues (since they were an animal that could retain a lot of water), and other altars and such.
Tim in front of the main Temple...you can see the colors a little clearer.
Outside the Temple walls was a big park where lots of elderly Chinese people hang out each day. They were playing music, singing opera, playing games, dancing, twirling ribbons, playing ball games, and practicing sword techniques. It was neat to see some of the local culture.
Sam and I in front of the big picture of Chairman Mao that hangs in Tianamen Square.
Here we are in front of the entrance to the Forbidden City. We were told that many, many people were beaten to death outside of this gate. No common people were allowed to enter the Forbidden City...it was strictly for the Emperor, his wife, his servants, and the 3000 concubines that kept him company.
Yellow is the Emperor's color. We found this pretty mural in the Forbidden City. Supposedly, any common person who used yellow to decorate their house was put to death. Only the Emperor was allowed to use this colour.
These were our tour buddies...a great group of people. The man in the middle was our tour guide, David (he was awesome!)
Saturday, December 02, 2006
It's Beginning to Look A LOT Like...
Christmas!!!
Our apartment is officially decked out for the holidays!
Today we decided that it was high time to get our little place lookin' festive. We went over to Lotte Mart and were able to find a cute little tree, lights, bulbs and stars for our tree, and paper to make snowflakes. The decorating, combined with the Christmas music we were blaring made for a "Christmas-Spirit-Igniting" day! Here's what our place looks like now...
Our apartment is officially decked out for the holidays!
Today we decided that it was high time to get our little place lookin' festive. We went over to Lotte Mart and were able to find a cute little tree, lights, bulbs and stars for our tree, and paper to make snowflakes. The decorating, combined with the Christmas music we were blaring made for a "Christmas-Spirit-Igniting" day! Here's what our place looks like now...
A Hiking We Will Go...
This past weekend we decided to get away from Osan, and headed south-east with Saralyn. Our bus ride was definitely not the most comfortable we've had. The bus company must have over-booked, and we were some of the unfortunate ones who stood the whole way. It was bizarre...imagine Greyhound back home over-booking and making people stand the couple hours to their destination...pretty funny, eh! There must have been 20 different safety laws that we broke as we crowded the aisles (I ended up just sitting down in the aisle and falling asleep with my head drooping down).
We spent Saturday in Cheongju, and were able to see a cool tomb museum, and a fortress. We decided to hike the fortress wall (about 4.2 km of up and down hiking), and by the time we were almost back to the start, we were starving! Fortunately, we stumbled across a random little outdoor restaurant, and knew it had to be good because of all the people sitting at the little umbrella'd tables. We sat down, viewed the menu, and placed our orders. Sam decided to go out on a limb, and order something random. We thought we recognized the word "potato", and figured he was getting some kind of potato soup. Saralyn's bean paste stew came, as did my kimchi stew with rice, but Sam was still waiting. After a bit, our waitress came and placed a plate of fried eggs by Sam, and we just figured that it was another one of the free side dishes that come with every meal. Nope - that was Sam's meal! It was hilarious...a starving guy orders a little plate of eggs (I have no idea where we got the word potato from!). Here's the kicker...my stew bowl was huge, so I was full and offered it to Sam to finish off. He accepted, I slid the bowl over, he took his first bite, and then a fly flew into the stew and died amidst the kimchi. It was like everything was trying to keep Sam from eating his fill :0) Don't worry, though, back in town we found a Baskin Robbins, and Sam made up for it by ordering TWO scoops :0)
That night we took a bus over to Songnisan ("san" means "mountain", so "Songni" is the mountain name...a little Korean lesson). There is a little town at the bottom of the hill, and as soon as we got off the bus a man approached us, wanting us to stay in his guest house...he offered us a price of $10 each, so we couldn't refuse that!
We got good sleep that night, and were up early the next day to start our hike. There is usually a Buddhist temple at the bottom of each mountain here, so we headed there first to check out the buildings. Very pretty place...check out the pictures below. There was a giant Buddha statue, and a beautiful wooden pagoda (pretty rare around here), plus the usual drums, stone carvings, etc. We looked around for awhile and then started up the mountain. It was a great hike...pretty intense with lots of stairs! Unfortunately, it was really cloudy and misty at the top, so we didn't get the greatest view, but the experience itself was worth the hike. We had brought great snacks with us...nuts, dried persimon, pretzels, chocolate...so we were well fed on our trip.
After we got back down, we caught a bus into Daejun and had a nice soak in the local sauna...a great chance to clean up too before the bus ride home. Oh, and we were able to get seats on the bus ride home, so it was a lot more relaxing! Here are some pictures:
We spent Saturday in Cheongju, and were able to see a cool tomb museum, and a fortress. We decided to hike the fortress wall (about 4.2 km of up and down hiking), and by the time we were almost back to the start, we were starving! Fortunately, we stumbled across a random little outdoor restaurant, and knew it had to be good because of all the people sitting at the little umbrella'd tables. We sat down, viewed the menu, and placed our orders. Sam decided to go out on a limb, and order something random. We thought we recognized the word "potato", and figured he was getting some kind of potato soup. Saralyn's bean paste stew came, as did my kimchi stew with rice, but Sam was still waiting. After a bit, our waitress came and placed a plate of fried eggs by Sam, and we just figured that it was another one of the free side dishes that come with every meal. Nope - that was Sam's meal! It was hilarious...a starving guy orders a little plate of eggs (I have no idea where we got the word potato from!). Here's the kicker...my stew bowl was huge, so I was full and offered it to Sam to finish off. He accepted, I slid the bowl over, he took his first bite, and then a fly flew into the stew and died amidst the kimchi. It was like everything was trying to keep Sam from eating his fill :0) Don't worry, though, back in town we found a Baskin Robbins, and Sam made up for it by ordering TWO scoops :0)
That night we took a bus over to Songnisan ("san" means "mountain", so "Songni" is the mountain name...a little Korean lesson). There is a little town at the bottom of the hill, and as soon as we got off the bus a man approached us, wanting us to stay in his guest house...he offered us a price of $10 each, so we couldn't refuse that!
We got good sleep that night, and were up early the next day to start our hike. There is usually a Buddhist temple at the bottom of each mountain here, so we headed there first to check out the buildings. Very pretty place...check out the pictures below. There was a giant Buddha statue, and a beautiful wooden pagoda (pretty rare around here), plus the usual drums, stone carvings, etc. We looked around for awhile and then started up the mountain. It was a great hike...pretty intense with lots of stairs! Unfortunately, it was really cloudy and misty at the top, so we didn't get the greatest view, but the experience itself was worth the hike. We had brought great snacks with us...nuts, dried persimon, pretzels, chocolate...so we were well fed on our trip.
After we got back down, we caught a bus into Daejun and had a nice soak in the local sauna...a great chance to clean up too before the bus ride home. Oh, and we were able to get seats on the bus ride home, so it was a lot more relaxing! Here are some pictures:
This is us and Saralyn on one of the Songnisan peaks. If you look at the stone, the big symbols on the right say "Munjangdae" (that's right, I can read them!!!). Most of the peaks in Korea have big stones like this with the peak name on it...great photo-op to prove that you made it!
This was my favorite building at the Songnisan temple. This is a wooden pagoda. Normally, the pagodas are smaller and made out of stone. This is the first wooden one we've seen.
The ceilings of temples, palaces, and pretty much any traditional Korean building are absolutely beautiful! I wanted to show you this picture so you could get an idea of the intricate work that goes into making these buildings into works of art.
Here's Sam at Songnisan temple. You can see the gigiantic Buddha behind him. It's covered in bronze, and is the biggest one we've seen so far!
And here we are along the fortress wall that we hiked on Saturday in Cheongju. This wall was the division line between two ancient dynasties, back before the country was unified.
