China

A little under halfway through my second year in Korea, I took a trip to China. I neglected my trip to Thailand in the postings about my first year, but there wasn't anything too interesting there. Sun, beaches, girly drinks in coconuts, elephants, monkeys and various other standard Thailand things.

My trip to China wasn't particularly memorable, but it was still quite interesting. I bought my tickets a couple months in advance, and they were pretty cheap. The tax and visa, however ended up costing more than the ticket itself, so I was a little annoyed.
I went there in early September. I decided I wanted to go during a time when I wasn't going to be horribly uncomfortable being outside. Anyhoo, I went to Beijing first. I stayed at a lovely little hostel and met several other travelers with whom I went out for drinks.

At the hostel, there were people from the UK, Germany, Sweden and the Philippines. We all grabbed some taxis and headed to the bar district in Beijing and had some drinks. The German guy with us was a bit tanked. He really really loves Libya and wouldn't stop expressing his love for the country the entire night. At the bar we went to, there were a couple of Koreans. I chatted with them a bit about my life in Korea, and they went back inside. The German joined them in some sort of drinking game, came outside, puked and passed out. The Koreans walked out, seemed fine and grabbed a taxi.

While I was in Beijing, I did the regular sort of sight seeing. I saw Tienanmen square and the forbidden city. The forbidden city didn't do much for me. It was huge and old, but it was kind of dull. It seemed like just a ton of uniform buildings and stone courtyards.

I later went to Behai park, and that was amazing. I guess it was more interesting because of how they integrated the landscape into the design of the park and had a variety of structures. Here's a picture for you.



While at Behai park, I went into the restaurant at the park and had some great, but bizarre food. I had a meal of turtle soup, camel hump and deer penis. At a hole in the wall restaurant somewhere near my hostel, I had the tastiest food I found in China. I have no idea what its name is because I just pointed at a random menu item because I can't read or speak Chinese. It was sort of like a Chinese Tamale, and I hope it was pork inside.

I later decided to get out of Beijing. I went to Jinan which is a nice "little" city with some cool sights. The first day I saw some crazy garden/hotsprings. It was really odd because the water was eerily blue. This wasn't like a clear lake or beach. This was blue of its own accord. Here's a picture.



I spent about a week and a half in China and had a pretty good time. I saw some sights, had some good food and bought some really cheap items. I still have the jeans I purchased for around $3 US.