QingDao

     For anyone that didn't know, I had to take a trip out of Korea. My work visa was expiring. Therefore I needed to leave, and reenter on a tourist visa.
     To set up the trip, I was just going to check on what I would need to go to China. I started off by going to Hana Tour, where the lady quickly told me that I'm not allowed to leave the country because my visa was expiring. I tried to explain to her that was why I needed to leave, but in the end it was no use.
     Next I went to Hyundai Dream Tour. Hyundai is a more upscale travel agency and the people were able to take care of everything for my trip out of Korea.
     First I had to get a tourist visa for China. This is much different than getting a tourist visa for Korea or Japan. For China you have to submit your passport, application form, and application fee (currently just over one hundred thousand won) to the Chinese Embassy. This doesn't have to be done in person. After three to four days your passport is returned to you, more than likely with your visa. The standard tourist visa is worth 2 visits of thirty days during the next six months.
     Next the travel agent figured that QingDao would be the cheapest flight. I got it booked (three hundred fifty thousand won including airport tax and agent's commission), and then I waited for my passport.
     The day before my flight my passport arrived back at the agency. I took a trip to pick it up, and stopped by the nearest Kook Min bank to exchange some KRW for RBY. Everything was set.
     Things went uneventfully at the airport. I showed up early and killed some time with coffee and bagels. Eventually it was time to board the flight.
     I was flying East China Air. ECA's flight code is MU. I think Mu can mean "nothing" or "radish" in Chinese. Neither would be a good sign. To say I gulped when I saw the little gold "Made In China" sticker on the door to the plane is an understatement. I got my window seat over the wing, and quickly noticed footprints on the wing of the plane. Barefoot prints.... What sort of aircraft mechanic walks about barefoot?
     I strapped myself in and began to divert my attention to anything besides the aircraft. Anytime someone spoke on the intercoms the TV's shorted out. The Korean announcement actually gave me more information than the English announcements. Worse yet, everyone had eyes on me as I was the only westerner on the plane.
     Take off went well, and the flight was super quick. However, landing almost made me wet myself. QingDao was being hit by a rather large storm. The plane shook and lurched. It dropped and it careened. The other passengers were giving out collective gasps and wondering why there was no sunlight outside of the windows. I was busy trying to decode the Chinese characters on the emergency evacuation cards.
     This plane had the quickest disembarkation that I've ever seen. People literally ran from the plane. Of course, everyone ended que'd to fill out the immigration cards. I had a woman turn to me and politely ask me for a pen before she realized I wasn't Korean. I just smiled and handed her one. She was just a bit surprised.
     Getting into China was very simple. Getting out of the airport was sort of fun. A lady approached me and asked me in thick English, "Taxi?" I thought she was a taxi driver, I said, "sure, bathroom first". When I stepped out, she was waiting eagerly for me. She asked me where I wanted to go, and I tried to explain good hotel. Not best hotel. Good hotel. She lead me about looking for someone willing to interpret. She eventually found someone that understood, he explained it to her, and she lead me out to a taxi. She wasn't a driver. By what I can tell, her job is to help foreigners upon their arrival at the airport. She didn't ask for money, and simply told the taxi driver what I needed.
     The driver got us going (the taxi was strangely meterless) and immediately took it upon himself to teach me Chinese. He was surprised at how quickly I was picking up the words, so I explained to him that they were similar to the Korean that I knew. I filled the pauses by teaching him English and Korean. He drove for about forty-five minutes during which he called ahead to a potential hotel. He took the scenic route and pointed out different places I could walk to. Then he took me into the hotel and explained to the desk workers that I wanted a low-cost room. I got his name and number and asked him if he'd be working the next morning. He said he would, and would drive me back to the airport. I paid for the room and the ride, and was suddenly alone.
     I spent about fifteen minutes in the room before I set out to go see the sights. I was about two blocks from the waterfront. It was literally a walk through the park. The coastline was jagged with just a few sandy areas for swimming. I walked until I got tired in one direction before I got tired and walked back to the hotel. Just before I went in, I remembered, I wanted to get some Chinese coins. I hadn't seen anything I'd consider a store during my whole walk so I went in the opposite direction. This lead me to a road that had some huge houses and trees. Still, no stores. I took a right turn towards what was supposed to be a historical marker, but just found the beach again. I decided to call it an evening as it was beginning to sprinkle and walked back to the hotel.
     At the hotel I took a quick shower and a long bath (been a year since I've had a bath). Then I promptly crawled into one of the beds and fell asleep. Two hours later I awoke to the sound of about five car alarms. I could hear the rain and wind outside the window. One by one the cars became quiet and I laid there listening to the storm. The room lit up, the air was filled with thunder, the cars started beeping again. This went on from about ten PM until four AM. Lightning, thunder, beep-beep-beep. Lightning, thunder, beep-beep-beep-drip-drip-drip-drip. The floor to ceiling window in the room had begun to leak. I was exhausted, I thought I'd tell the hotel about it in the morning.
     I got up early and had the hotel call Xie (my driver). I tried to tell two people about the drip, all they said was "sorry" and hurried away so I gave up. Xie must have been sleeping down the block because he was at the front door in five minutes. He drove me back through Qingdao on a totally different route. The city was flooded. Parts of the mountains had washed over the roads. Water was rushing out of man hole covers. A little creek we had passed the day before was now large enough to cover the width of three roads...luckily it had huge flood banks to keep it from covering the actual roads.
     The weather delayed my flight for an hour which gave me time to look around the duty free shop (singular) and eat breakfast at the restaurant (also singular). The flight home wasn't so interesting, and the Korean customs and immigrations went through without a hitch.
     I finally got here about two hours ago, still exhausted. I may write later about the differences between Korea/China/USA, but it would probably be pretty boring to read.
     Pictures below, enjoy. I need to let everyone know I'm alive.

QingDao

Han River

     Back in July, Jungwon and I went to the Han River. The Han River (Hangang {한강}) is the main river that runs through the center of Seoul. We took the number 2 (green) subway line to Sincheon Station {신천역} and walked north for a block to get to the river. The area that we walked around was a public park of sorts. There was a swimming pool, a walkway that was fairly crowded with people, and some ferries.
     The swimming pool made me realize again that there are many differences between Korean and American culture. The women were pretty well covered. If they weren't swimming, the women had loose dresses on to cover themselves. I was thinking that many girls walking around the party areas of Seoul wear less than these women were swimming in. In contrast, the men were wearing little speedo swimsuits. They had no qualms, in the water or out, of showing off their....packages. These are probably the same men that walk around in business suits, in the middle of summer, no matter what type of business they are attending.
     The walkway was full of pedestrians, cyclists, small dogs, picnics, and vendors. At times it was difficult to walk around the sporadic picnics, but we managed not to fall into the river. Another cultural phenomenon that I noticed was spitting into the river. At first I thought it was just the older men, but after it was mentioned we noticed young people including women spitting nice wads into the waves. Maybe it was just a desire to mix their water with the water of the world.
     Finally, we decided to ride one of the river ferries. Just due to timing we ended up purchasing the more expensive tickets for a ferry that featured a Live Cafe. There weren't any seats outside on this particular ferry so my camera was having a fit trying to focus on the outside world, the dirty window, and the reflections on the windows. The good news was that there were no mosquitoes in the ferry.
     All of the pictures were taken before we hopped on the ferry. It was getting fairly late in the evenings and I got a few decent shots of the sun struggling through the clouds to shine on the water. The movies were taken on the ferry. The first one is on the way down the river, looking at the south bank. The second movie is heading back up the river, looking at the north bank. The final movie is a shot of the Namsan tower. The background noise for the movies isn't very good, just the murmur of a few dozen people around us, and the music from the cafe.
     On a side note: during the whole trip to the river I kept thinking of this movie.

hangangpics

Heading West, Looking South.

Heading East, Looking North

Namsan Tower