Nanbu Town Camping

Over Memorial Day weekend we drove about an hour to Nanbu Town for a camping trip with friends. We opted to stay in the tree house-like structures which made our night's sleep a bit more comfortable. The weather and views were great.

We cooked our dinner in the fire and Hazel enjoyed her very first s'more. We all had a lot of fun!

Seoul, South Korea

From Beijing, we flew a little more than two hours to Seoul, South Korea. We stayed in a really nice Army hotel, where we were able to get our fill of American food and amenities. Seoul is a thriving, beautiful city with a lot of Western influence with respect to style of dress and the number of English speakers. We felt quite comfortable there.

On our first full day in Seoul, we took a tour to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between South Korea and North Korea that was established by the Armistice Agreement in 1953, but technically the war is not over. It is more of a stalemate. Throughout the day, we were really surprised to learn of the aspirational nature of the South Korean attitudes, structures, and monuments. Our tour guide spoke in terms of when (rather than if) the North and South reunify. It was really enlightening. Text from signs throughout our tour are italicized below.

Dorasan Station: Starting Point of the Transcontinental Railroad
Following the June 15, 2000, South-North Joint Declaration made by two Koreas, both agreed to connect the Gyeongui Railraod Line on July 31 the same year. Under the military control, the barbed wire and mines were removed, and Dorasan station was opened on April 11, 2002. Finally South and North Korea connected the Gyeongui Railroad Line on June 14, 2003 at the Military Demarcation Line in the DMZ...The roof of the building shows a figure of clasped hands...as an expression of sincere wishes that Dorasan station will play a decisive role in linking South and North Korea...Dorasan station became well known at home and abroad as a place in an aspiration for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula and world peace...this Dorasan station is the first station toward the North, not the last station from the South. 

Not the last station from the South, But the first station toward the North.

Posing with South Korean soldiers in Dorasan Station.

End of Separation, Beginning of Unification.

The point at which we were able to see North Korea is pictured below. It was quite easy to tell the difference between South and North Korea, because South Korea is covered and trees and North Korea has cleared nearly all of the trees to burn for fuel. We were not allowed to take pictures beyond a yellow line drawn on the ground, or the South Korean soldiers would erase the photos on our camera.

On our bus ride to the DMZ area we saw a river that separates North and South.  On the North side of this river the North Korean government has built fake villages to try and show prosperity.  The South calls them "propaganda villages."

The final portion of our DMZ tour was to visit a museum about four infiltration tunnels found by South Korea. North Korea claims that they were built by the South, while South Korea alleges that they were built by the North with the purpose of invading South Korea. South Korea sights evidence that the direction of explosives and the slope of the tunnels show that they are made by the North. The first tunnel was found in 1974, a second tunnel was found in 1975, a third tunnel was found in 1978, and a fourth tunnel was found in 1990. The South Korean military was informed of the third tunnel by a North Korean defector. The third tunnel is considered more threatening than the first and second tunnel as an estimated 30,000 armed-soldiers could have gone through this tunnel per hour.   Matt was able to go down into the third tunnel which is only 2 meters high, which meant that he had to crouch down (North Korean people are shorter due to poor nutrition, so they would not have as much trouble walking through the tunnel). (Note from Matt:  2 meters cannot be accurate, I was bent so far over I don't think there was 5 feet of headroom.)  At the end of the tunnel, there is a concrete blockade to prevent usage by the North. Most everyone that went into the tunnel resurfaced quite sweaty and winded. Hazel slept and I sat comfortably in the lobby. Photography was not allowed in the tunnel, but below are photos of a model of what the North Korean soldiers may have looked like while building the tunnel as well as a diagram of the tunnel and a reunification inspired sculpture outside the third tunnel complex:

The next day, we visited the Changdeokgung Palace (or Palace of Illustrious Virtue), a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site praised for preserving a unique traditional Korean style. It was originally built in 1405 as a secondary palace, but served as the primary palace for nearly 300 years when the principal palace was destroyed.

From the palace, we walked to Insa-dong, a popular shopping district, were we had a Korean lunch (grilled smoked pollack and some delicious rice dish with mushrooms). Then we walked to Cheonggyecheon Stream, a beautiful promenade right in the middle of the city, evidence of some impressive city planning.

Next we made our way to the Myeong-dong neighborhood where we visited the Myeong-dong Cathedral. This Gothic style church is a pillar of the Catholic Church in Korea. 

Finally, we made our way through the crowded Myeong-dong shopping district, which I would not recommend trying to navigate with a large stroller. 

It is clear that we saw only a very small portion of all this vibrant city has to offer. Visiting Seoul was a great end to our vacation. 

Beijing, China

Visiting China was quite the experience. Although we have spend almost two years living in Asia, we definitely experienced some culture shock in China. The culture difference between Japan and China were quite obvious: friendly, polite, orderly (Japan) versus off-putting, sometimes rude, and chaotic (China). We experienced a very rude cab driver and tour guide, but the hotel staff were very friendly, and the couple who owned a restaurant down the alley from our hotel and provided two of our three dinners in Beijing was lovely.  I will go so far as to say that Beijing is on a short list of places I don't really have a desire to return, but we had some amazing, once in a lifetime experiences.

Our hotel location, breakfast, ambiance and safety was practically perfect in every way. Here are some photos:

Door to our room.

Our beds.

Extra bed/tea table.

Entering the sleeping quarters.

One side of the courtyard outside our room.

The other side of the courtyard outside our room.

Open-air walkways throughout the hotel.

The hotel provided an extensive spread of Western and Chinese dishes, including yogurt, pastries, fruit, cheeses, meats, cereal, and toast, as well as dumplings, pot stickers, and sauteed vegetables.

 With large breakfasts each morning, we were able to snack a few times during the day in place of lunch.There was a Wu Mart on our way to the subway, so we stocked up on milk, yogurt, cheese, pretzels, crackers, nuts, and cookies. In addition to saving time, these lunches allowed us to experience some unique varieties of Lays chips, including Lobster and Cheese, Fried Prawn, Little Tomato, and Hot and Sour Fish Soup. We did not get a chance to try the Seaweed Pringles or Numb & Spicy Hot Pot Flavor. The Little Tomato flavor claimed to be "Cool and Refreshing"...after one taste, my mouth was tingling from the minty menthol flavoring. It was sick. Toothpaste and potato chips have no business being combined. The other flavors were pretty good.

Our first stop on Day 1 was the Forbidden City. We saw Tiananmen Square from a far, and entered the Forbidden City by making our way through the Tiananmen Gate featuring Mao's mug. It was never ending. After nearly two hours of trudging through the complex and dodging overbearing, paparazzi like Chinese people (they were obsessed with Hazel) we gave up, missing the gardens.

Even though it was built in the 1400s it feels communist.  It sits on a cement lake; roughly 7 million square feet of cement.  It is so massive that the large gates and temples are dwarfed by the vast open areas of concrete.

Tiananmen Gate

That night, we ate dinner at Da Dong Restaurant. We ordered one roasted duck, which was meticulously carved in front of us. Matt noticed that they carve it so that nearly every piece contains meat and skin. Our waitress presented the different condiments and gave us a tutorial on how to best enjoy our duck, including the traditional combination of duck, onion, and plum sauce in a pancake; the duck, garlic sauce, melon, and cucumber on a sesame roll; or the duck skin rolled in sugar. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and the entire experience.

Clockwise from the top: melon, garlic sauce, sugar, plum sauce, onion, ginger, mystery  condiment, and cucumber.

Head (left) and beak (right). 

One duck produced two of these plates and a few extra parts. 

This God-only-knows-how-fattening dinner was actually the perfect pre-Great Wall climb meal. The next morning, we were up bright and early to get to the Beijing Downtown Backpackers Hostel for our tour to the Great Wall. We rode on a tour bus for about two hours to reach the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall and climbed for about 2.25 hours to reach the Simatai section. We descended the wall via a nicely paved walkway to meet our tour bus waiting below. By hiking this section of the wall, we avoided much of the tourists crowds that clog the wall elsewhere. Not as many people climb this section because it is down right difficult. The first 1/3 of the climb is on sections of wall that have been restored, and the rest is raw. It was literally a climb, sometime over very narrow walkways and crumbling inclines. And Matt did the whole thing with Hazel on his back, which was seriously impressive. Thankfully the weather was perfect and there was a nice breeze. We both agree that climbing the Great Wall made our trip to Beijing worth it.  The Great Wall rivals any other man made structure we've seen in our travels; the mountains take it to another level.

About to begin.

The first stretch of wall.

Left: About to climb to the next watchtower/Right: Closeup of Matt and Hazel climbing to that watchtower.

We spent our last day in Beijing visiting the Temple of Heaven complex, the highlight of which is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.

Dragon embellishment on a building.

School children beside Echo Wall.

View from the Mound Alter. 

 We were only in Beijing for a few days, and only saw three main things, but it felt like just the right amount of time to spend there, given the challenges of traveling in a place like China with a baby. A very memorable trip, indeed.