Constant change

Autumn has certainly arrived. We had some nice warm days in September once we returned from Europe, but now in mid-October it's getting chilly, and sweaters are called for. There is the odd day that is warm, and if you can get in the sun you can really enjoy it--until the sun sets shortly after 5pm. Getting some sun also means getting rid of the pollution, which does sometimes happen. After a pretty poor week this weekend was wonderful, a gust of wind cleaned the skies and provided perfect weather for the Beijing (half) marathon. Not that it made any difference to the spectators. As usual, there weren't any spectators!

The big progress this week has been with Hannah's potty training. She's now very good at using the potty to wee, or if she needs us to take her trousers down, at telling us first. Unfortunately she's not quite mastered this for "number two", so since she is rarely wearing nappies now, we're going through a few pairs of trousers a day - but hopefully it won't be for too long!

We also took her for some vaccinations and a quick check-up, so we discovered she's 14.2KG and 91.5cm. Basically at the very top of the range for a child her age. She wasn't very impressed with the needles, as expected, but was still easily distracted by mobile phones, ink stamps, paper + pen, and other things. She's getting quite into drawing, which is nice, and still enjoys looking at pictures in books, which we do most evenings before she goes to bed. She's still going to bed around 8 or 8.30pm and sleeping for 11 hrs or so straight; then having a nap after lunch.

Nearby our house is a very big market, well series of markets, a fish market, vegetable market, hotel goods market, cutlery market, electronics market, and other markets stretching for several hundred metres. Well that market is no more. It's been knocked down, it seems that it will be replaced by an office park with hotels and things. We'll see. The market's officially been moved 20-30 km away to another site. One day we'll go out there and see how many of the thousands of  jobs still exist. I don't know how many customers would go all the way out there, nor how many workers want to work there! Funnily, just after they knocked it down a lot of people set-up an impromptu street market next door, so the government had to brick up that street to stop them getting in. We also found out today our favourite restaurant is no more. It's owner decided to change things around, including the style food they offer, which is a shame.

Still you learn to take all of these things in your stride in Beijing. There is always change. It can be positive as well of course. They recently laid on a new electric buggy service that runs from a subway station around the business district to help with transport. They've improved one of our local bus services, improved the local ATM, and replaced/expanded the swings in our compound's play area too. Meanwhile the talk in China is all about the filthy rich, the crackdown on social media from the government and Boris Johnson taking the Beijing subway. He knows how to get attention that Boris. Though he's been asked to try riding it again at rush hour to see what he thinks of it then!

Back in Busan

On Monday morning we got back to Busan, taking the fast train in and heading straight to the hills again. This time we took a cable car up a mountain to the South Gate of the fortress we had been to a few days earlier (then we had walked from the North gate to the East gate). We had a great view and then a wonderful hour or so hike, much of which was downhill, as we headed towards another temple. We were on some very well used walking trails – and it became even more clear how similar the Koreans are to the British for their passion for walking (in UK, hiking in Korea), and the country is almost as well designed for it too with a lot of walking paths, good signposts etc. Of course where the typical British walker may be in the latter stages of their life and wearing warm clothes with a dog alongside, the Korean hiker is kitted out in the latest, greatest, and most colourful gear; and tend to be from all ages.

The last part of the hike was a very steep uphill climb to Seokbulsa temple, but it was an unusual temple and well worth it: hidden in some nooks and crannies at the edge of a cliff, it had buddhas carved out of the cliff on three-sides, like a "U" shape. We then walked down the long road to the foot of the mountain to get a bus and subway back into town. Along the road we went through an entire village of Love Hotels – more like budget motels and not particularly seedy these exist across Korea for husbands and wives to go to for some time together to escape the family home, where they are likely living with their parents as well as their kids in close confines. They also serve a purpose for extra-marital relationships of course, and often the entrances to the Love Hotels have rope curtains across the front of the car park, or they put boards up behind the cars to passers-by cannot see the car license plates. It does mean there are a lot of cheap, decent, motels readily available for travellers at least. 

Following the hike we went back to Haeundae market, close to the beach, where there is a good assortment of food that you can look at and point at without having to read Korean! Then another couple of hours on the beach where Hannah befriended a local and made use of all their beach buckets and spades.  For dinner we went downtown again back to the Vietnamese noodle place. Yesterday a typhoon passed by which meant it rained hard all day. So it was a good opportunity to go to the World's largest department store for a couple of hours and then to some museums. First up was the Busan Museum, which had a fairly short (in a positive way) overview of Busan's history and development, though there were some gaps. It included some good models and exhibits, something that Gyeongju should learn from! Next up was the Busan Modern History Museum which was not as good and became a bit repetitive of the previous museum, but it had some simple activities to entertain children (such as stencils and paper) and had more detail on how the Japanese had ruled Busan since around 1870 when it became under the Japanese sphere of influence, and then from 1910 when it was officially occupied by Japan (as was the rest of Korea it seems, though I need to read up more on the history) until the end of World War Two. In fact Japan had also invaded Korea back in the late 16^th century, which was when Gyeongju began to fade.

Lastly (whilst it was still pouring down with rain) we headed up the road to Yongdusan Park and to the Busan Tower. Without much of a view to be had in the rain we did not go up the tower, nor was there an aquarium there (we had read there might be, but apparently our information was several years old), so we ran down the park again into the subway and back to the hotel to get changed from our wet clothes. For dinner we did not venture far, due to the poor weather, and decided to go back to China town where we had previously seen a restaurant with a large room for children to play in attached. The food was expensive so in the end we had just tofu and cabbage soup, rice and beer, whilst Hannah spent time playing. It was a very impressive playroom, one of the best we've ever seen.

And that was the end of our Korean trip. The next day the typhoon had past, flights were all on schedule again and we were on our way back to Beijing. We'd enjoyed our trip, seen a fair amount, spent a fair amount, and got to know Korea and Korean culture better. I don't think I'll be in a hurry to return though I hear Jeju island is nice, unusual, and has direct flights to Beijing, so maybe that will be for another short trip. First though, a trip to Shanghai in a couple weeks for work and a wedding, and then on to San Francisco for the BSR conference in early November.

Historic Gyeongju

We're back in Busan now after 2 days in Gyeongju, a city that was the capital of the Shilla Dynasty for almost a thousand years, though this was around a thousand years ago. Therefore there are a lot of old relics and things to see. It's only an hour by bus from Busan so a nice place to visit, and the town is fairly small (though some of the sites are further outside of the town).

We arrived and checked-in to stay with a local family who have a couple of rooms that they rent out. It was great to stay with them, chat somewhat (the mother spoke a few words of English) and see a Korean house (a fairly nice one that was built recently). The lovely mother was so excited that Hannah was there (her first baby guest) and got some great photos of Hannah waving Korean flags etc. We then promptly headed into town to explore the local market - a really top-notch food market. Totally local! We managed to find something to eat, a few stands had a sort of buffet going on with various things: the Korean egg pancake, tofu and other vegetables went down well.

First up was a bus out to the UNESCO World Heritage site, Bulguska temple, which is a nice enough temple, and fairly large, but nothing spectacular (we didn't even bother with the additional bus trip and entrance fee for the Seokguram Grotto which is also part of the UNESCO designation). We then went back into town and stopped at the Gyeongju National Museum. In theory most of what they have found from the ancient city (houses, tombs, temples etc) is housed there, but one of the main buildings was closed unfortunately. I was somewhat disappointed. Maybe because the dynasty was so long ago, not much has been found (due to age/theft?) or maybe there is not a lot known about the era so not a lot to tell visitors... anyway, there were some nice artifacts here and there, and the standard section on culture with samples of armor, utensils, clothes etc. But again, nothing outstanding. The highlight might be the children's part, which was very well done with brass rubbings, stamps, jigsaws and all sorts for the kids to do... a bit beyond Hannah's age, but she did her best.

Afterwards we walked across the road, as darkness fell, to see the Anapji Pond, which is a lake that used to be beside a large temple. The temple is now no more, the lake yielded up a lot of great stuff (which formed the culture exhibition at the museum) and now there is just a pretty lake with a few re-built parts of the temple. At night, with wonderful lighting on the temples, trees, and water, it looks wonderful and is an insanely popular place for a 1km or so stroll. Andrea got some great photos which we'll upload at some point once we get home. Then we kept walking towards town, bumped into a fair to celebrate the bell festival (I think) which was a nice distraction, saw the Far East's oldest astrological observatory (also nicely lit up at night) and finally got back into town. We ventured into some real local eateries on the way back but were not brave enough to eat: we'd really just be pointing at some strange letters on the wall and hoping it would be edible.

Once back in town though we found a nice little Japanese place and then headed back to the homestay. The next day in the morning we took a bus out to a beautiful village called Yangdong established in the 15th or 16th century. It has around 150 wonderful (and wonderfully preserved) houses, some of which are very grand, and make for a pleasant few hours walking around and strolling into, even in the light rain. Our lunch there was bibimbab; a trusty staple food! The mansions, courtyards, building design and architecture was all excellent. There was also a good little museum near the entrance giving more detail. Apparently the village is also a (separate) UNESCO World Heritage site (along with a similarly well preserved village a couple hours away).

We still had some time afterwards so we then walked around the tombs of the Shilla Monarchs. Now they are just large mounds covered in grass, but one of them has been opened up so you can see the construction and interior: basically the king would be buried in a large wooden box alongside some treasures, then a lot of stones would be piled on the box (presumably to keep out thieves). I'm not sure what happened to all the treasures. There were not a lot in the museum, so maybe they were stolen or have not been excavated yet. Fairly interesting. We then had a decent dinner in a local dumpling restaurant that actually had an English menu (shock, horror), and a foreigner eating there who was a regular and gave us some tips.

Gyeongju is definitely worth a couple days visiting; certainly Yangdong, the temples, the pond and other bits and pieces make it worthwhile. There are hundreds of other touristy things to do there as well from theme parks, to culture parks, to the Shilla experience and all sorts of other ruins to see if that's what one likes. We're glad we went and managed ok despite the iffy weather!

Busan in South Korea

We've been back a whole 3 weeks. It was a busy 3 weeks, with Andrea hosting another successful conference, and various reports due or events held from my side. However, not one to resist a chance for yet another vacation, we've gone to South Korea for 6 days (since china has a long national holiday at the beginning of October).

Last year we spent about 5 days in Tokyo for a friend's wedding; this trip would be Hannah's second to another part of Asia, and time for a family holiday without the extended family! Anyway, the first couple days were in Busan, on the South-East corner of South Korea. The whole trip has been somewhat last minute, but has had a semblance of planning involved. For example, we booked our hotel from the Beijing airport lounge, which was better than nothing i suppose. We read a guide book on the bus into town to work out what to do, and had no idea how long we'd spend in Busan. It turned out it would be 2 nights.

Torn between taking the buggy or the child carrier backpack we took both. So the first day we used the buggy and went up to the beaches: Haeundae, which has a nice little market and was to play host to the Busan International Film Festival (on the beach) that was being set-up whilst we were there, and Gwangan, which has a lot of coffee shops and bars. In fact South Korea is full of coffee shops absolutely everywhere. It also has a lot of white and silver cars (unlike China where everyone goes black) which are mostly Korean brands of course, apart from the high-end ones. It has wonderful shopping, and wi-fi everywhere.

We have some issues with Korean food though. Breakfast is fine, since there are a lot of bread shops along with the coffee shops, but Andrea doesn't eat seafood, and most Korean dishes are seafood, or come with seafood. Then there's the actual Korean dishes: some soups/stews, some BBQ meat, and a lot of small dishes that involve Kimchee. So for lunch one day we had Bimibab, Kimchee stew and the Korean egg pancake. That went down well, and Hannah likes her eggs as well as rice (in the Bimibab). For dinner we went for a meat BBQ though it was fairly expensive. Some of the Kimchee side dishes were ok. Another day we were hiking so bought a sandwich and, for dinner, searched for Korean noodles and ended up at a Vietnamese noodle place.

The second biggest problem we have (apart from having to avoid fish) is not reading Korean and there is a dearth of English signs/menus anywhere in Korea, and no-one speaks English. And there are no photos in restaurants (China often has photos). In fact most restaurants only have 5 items on a menu, which is written, in Korean, on a wall, along with prices. It makes it hard to work out what a restaurant sells!

Busan's subway system is excellent and we made good use of it. The second day we took the backpack (not the buggy) and went up to Beomeosa, a famous and decent temple, and then hiked up to the remains of Geumjeong Fortress and along its walls for a few hours. It was a fairly tough climb at the beginning but was then a wonderful walk gently downhill with great views of Busan squeezed between the hills and the sea. Hannah did some walking, mostly whilst kicking some pine cones, or searching for flowers. In the afternoon we stopped off at the beach again (the best way to keep a young child entertained) before going back to the hotel to get changed and switch to the buggy.

We then checked out Chinatown and the downtown shopping area including Gukje Market which has excellent shopping and some interesting snack food items (Koreans also quite like their deep fried sea food). Food markets in Korea are pretty interesting - very clean. I can't work out where the flies are... maybe all in China! We also saw the bright lights and retail side of South Korea.

In fact South Koreans not only have good shopping, they also have good fashion taste and in particular seem to like practical clothing. There's not as much high heels as other Asian nations, and a lot of sports clothing and sneakers/trainers. In fact most women seem to wear bright colored trainers, while anyone that is remotely walking or hiking gets kitted out in the full gear with shoes, trousers, shirts, jackets, backpacks, poles, hats and all sorts. All branded, all professional hiking gear. Even if they are only walking up some stairs near a temple, but especially so for a few hours walk in the hills. None of them, especially the women, would dream of wearing a regular t-shirt. It has to be a special material, bright yellow, and have hundreds of pockets and things. And the older the person, the more hiking gear they try to wear! At least the country seems fairly fit.

We've fairly quickly managed a routine with Hannah and it seems to work, though she's not always eating healthily since she tends to stick to bread, rice and noodles! We do make sure she gets some fruit and some juice to mix it up a bit, and of course the required milk in the evening and morning. She's having a great time, getting a lot of attention as usual, and managing just fine.