Five Days in Beijing: Part 3 - Forbidden City and Exotic Food Market

After a morning of trekking around the Panjiayuan Antiques Market and a brief visit to Tianamen Square we found ourselves in front of the Forbidden City and decided that we should go in and see what all the fuss was about. 

The Forbidden City, viewed from Jingshan Hill to the north. (photo care of Wikipedia)

Five Days in Beijing: Part 2 - Panjiayuan Antiques Market and Tiananmen Square

We made an early start on our first full day in Beijing. The weather was vastly improved, warm and sunny an our plan was to do some serious sightseeing! We jumped on the subway and travelled to East Beijing for our first stop of the day, Panjiayuan Antiques Market. This popular flea market, also known as 'Dirt Market' apparently, has been going strong since 1992 and receives thousands of visitors every day, both locals and tourists. It's the place to go if you're looking for souvenirs and there are even some genuine antiques mixed in with the fakes and reproductions too! 

Panjiayuan Antiques Market on a busy Sunday morning.

Our first visitor from home

Back in spring we got our first visitor from England, to be honest I hadn't really expected anyone to make the long journey out here. Korea is neither cheap nor easy to get to from England, and doesn't exactly have a huge amount of beaches or good weather, so it's not a common tourist destination. Still our friend Tom who we know from university made it all the way out here just to see us, which was quite an honour.

His journey out here went completely smoothly for thousands of miles until he was a few miles from Gwangju when his bus broke down! So he was sat by the side of the road waiting for an hour for a new bus to come along and take him those final few miles. Luckily he'd hired a phone at the airport so we could keep in touch and I knew what had happened. When he finally arrived we returned to our apartment and had a bit of lunch and then didn't do much for the rest of the day. Tom was obviously pretty tired from an 11 hour flight plus bus delays etc. so we just chilled out, had a chat and caught up on news and gossip from home.

Seoul Museums: Part 3 - War Memorial of Korea

Our third museum outing in Seoul was to the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan-dong. Despite being called a memorial it's really more like a museum and a huge one at that. It first opened in 1994 and it is apparently the biggest landmark of its kind in the world. The museum documents Korean military history with all kinds of artefacts on display ranging from stone arrowheads from prehistoric times to modern guns, tanks, helicopters and planes. 

The War Memorial museum of Korea. (Photo from Wikipedia)

Summer Vacation Day 3-4 Gangneung and Jeongdongjin

We arrived in Gangneung in the late afternoon having caught a coach from Sokcho. We found luggage lockers at Gangneung's intercity bus terminal at the back of a stinking dried fish shop so we were able to dump our heavy bags for the princely sum of 4000 won (about £2.50). Finding places to dump our backpacks was to be a recurring theme throughout our journey and we were always really excited when we found suitable lockers. It's no fun sightseeing in the heat and humidity of a Korean summer with a big pack on your back. We caught a taxi into town and took a bus to Jeondongjin, a small seaside resort about 20km south of Gangneung.

All of the Gangwon Province coast seemed to be very heavily defended, presumably because it borders North Korea. The stretch of coast between Gangneung and Jeongdongjin was no exception, hence the barbed wire.

We had planned to go to the Unification Park which is on the road between Gangneung and Jeongdongjin but we realised that we would get there 10 minutes before it closed at 5pm so we decided to stay on the bus to Jeongdongjin. Jeongdongjin is a beautiful little seaside town with a nice relaxed atmosphere and some pretty surreal sights including a giant cruise ship up on a hill that has been made into a luxury hotel. There is a gorgeous little train station right on the beach too which was used in some scenes of the popular Korean soap opera 'Hourglass' (TV soap operas are as popular here as they are in the UK from what I understand). We had a really nice afternoon/ evening in Jeongdongjin, walking along the beach and stopping for a beer and some noodles (of course).

The surreal sight of a massive cruise ship cum hotel on the hill overlooking Jeongdongjin beach.

Jeongdongjin's beachside train station as featured in the Korean soap 'Hourglass'.

Little girl on an ATV (quad bike) on Jeongdongjin beach. It seems virtually anyone can drive these things here! (In fairness, her slightly older looking sisters jumped on and did the driving).

A Korean couple taking a stroll on Jeongdongjin beach.

The beach police in Jeongdongjin clearly have a very stressful life!

A traditional looking building (maybe a pavilion or part of a temple) on the hills behind Jeongdongjin.

Rowan does some hard pedalling on the bike train near Jeongdongjin station. Shame it was chained to the rails.

We caught our bus back to Gangneung and arrived just in time to retrieve our backpacks from the left luggage before it closed at 9pm. We spoke to the really friendly people at Gangneung's tourist information who found us a cheap motel for the night (40,000 won). The tourist information here was really helpful and there was one guy who spoke excellent English. If you're ever in Gangneung I recommend paying them a visit. We liked it so much in Jeongdongjin that we wanted to come back the next day with our backpacks and stay for a day or two to enjoy the beach and the friendly vibes. This wasn't to be, unfortunately, as the weather turned on us and when we woke up the next day it was pouring with rain. Disaster! Although we were pretty disappointed, we decided to give up on the beach and go to the Unification Park for a look round the unusual tourist attractions there. We caught the train to Jeongdongjin and it was quite a pretty route that ran along by the barb wire topped cliffs of the east coast. We foolishly missed the luggage lockers at Jeongdongjin train station so we ended up carrying all our bags with us around the Unification Park in the pouring rain. The buses between Jeongdongjin, Gangneung and Unification Park are quite infrequent (maybe hourly at best) so we caught a taxi to the Park. The Unification Park contained a small North Korean submarine and a big American warship, both of which you can wander around. We looked around the warship then took it in turns to go round the sub as there was no way a person could fit through the sub with a backpack on. It was tiny and really cramped. Tourists had to wear hard hats when walking inside the sub as everyone bags their head at least once on the way through.

Welcome to rainy, miserable Gangneung! This was our second visit to Gangneung and once again it was miserable weather.

This is the American warship in Unification Park. It was built in the USA in 1945 and donated to South Korea in 1972. It was huge and had a bit of a weird smell to it and there were signs on the deck warning of the risk of a 'Snppery surface'.

This is the tiny North Korean submarine. It was only 35 m long but had a crew of 11 men and 15 soldiers so it must have been horribly cramped. This submarine got stuck on some rocks near Jeongdongjin on 17 Sept 1996. The commander of the sub killed the 11 crewmembers and landed with the soldiers and attempted to get back to the North. They didn't succeed but it took 49 days to catch them and 17 South Korean civilians and soldiers were killed in the process.

Information sign in Unification Park.

This is the wooden boat that was used by the 11 North Koreans to escape to the South as described in the sign (above).

This was a manned coastal outlook just next to the Unification Park. We waited for ages for buses here so spent a lot of time watching the soldiers who looked as bored as we were.

Having seen the sights of Unification Park we made our way back to Jeongdongjin and caught a train to Donghae which was another really pretty route, all mountains and deserted coastlines. Donghae looked like a pretty uninspiring place though we spent less than half an hour there before we caught a coach on to Samcheok, the next stop on our Korean odyssey.

More military maneuvers in Gwangju - this time with pictures!

This is just a quick update on one of my posts from earlier this week about the large scale military parachute drop over Gwangju. I was walking home yesterday afternoon and they were at it again! However, there were two main differences this time:

1. They were parachuting out of planes instead of helicopters this time.
2. I had a camera with me and was able to take a few pictures (though unfortunately it was only my crappy little compact but never mind).

Other than that it was much the same as it had been at the beginning of the week. Plane after plane flew by releasing 10 guys at a time over the Yangbeo-li hills for some kind of military exercise. I have been told that they do this fairly regularly in fact and that there is a military base on that hill somewhere so no need to panic about it. Apparently, they even do this in the dead of winter through ice and snow so I'm glad they're on our side, they sound hardcore!

No, that's not dust on your computer screen, it's some guys parachuting out of of a plane. Unfortunately, my camera is a bit rubbish so they're difficult to make out.

Bit easier to see in this one.

Landing in the hills behind Gwangju.

For any plane spotters out there - what type of plane is this?

Wet Weekend in Gangneung

At the end of last month we went on a weekend trip to Gangneung, a small city on the east coast of Korea in Gangwon province with a bunch of fellow Gwangju Native Speaker English teachers. We were really looking forward to this trip as it had been a really hot, humid week and we had been stuck at school working. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a really wet, miserable weekend that was even quite chilly at times. (so glad I brought a hoody with me unlike pretty much everyone else we were with). I suppose it was the start of the rainy season in Korea so we should have expected it really.

There was a large, possibly artificial lake, in Gangneung with a cycle path circling it. It would probably have been quite pretty on a sunny day.

Pier out onto the lake.

4 seater bikes for hire to ride around the lake. We went to the Gangneung Town Centre which was a cab ride away from the coast where we were staying and missed out on a mass bike ride around the lake. D'oh!

This Korean family managed to do a circuit of the lake on one of the big bikes though. There were at least 6 people piled onto the bike.

The guy who organised the trip had booked a couple of huts by the beach for everyone to sleep in but they turned out to be really small so Rowan and I chickened out and stayed in a nice motel instead - we're getting so old! The idea of sleeping on the floor in a tiny room with 6 other drunk people just didn't appeal somehow! Still they were a good base and the beach was lovely and sandy.

The beach hut that we didn't deign to stay in.

This was a little girl who was staying in another one of the beach hut rooms with her family. She was showing us her (dead) pet beetle.

A close up of the pet beetle and it's home.

We got the chance to fly our lovely kite for the first time since we've come to Korea. It was really windy on the beach so the kite was pulling hard which was exciting if a little tiring.

Despite the weather we still managed to have a good time and saw some interesting stuff. We caught the last World Cup match that South Korea played in i.e. the one they were knocked out of. We even managed to have a barbecue in the wind and drizzle - very British (even though most of the people there were Americans)!

Luke tends the barbecue with the traditional chopsticks. We cooked our own sam gyop sal.

This guy was staying in one of the other beach huts. He found it fun to run up to the foreigners with his live octopus and wave it in our faces to scare us!

Gangneung was host to a couple of slightly bizarre museums including this Gramophone Museum and...

...The Edison Science Museum.

Seemingly Gangneung's one and only nightclub. Tasteful décor no?

This is a typical Korean male shop dummy modelling snug boxers. They always seem to have the boxers very well stuffed in the crotchal regions!

A cool sculpted fountain in Gangneung that was beautifully lit up at night.

This is Jung Ang Market in Gangneung. It was covered and fairly big with the usual complement of food and spice stalls.

Spices, pickles and dried anchovies on a stall in Jang Ang Market.

Dried fish stall.

Soy sauce marinated crabs anyone?

Basket of fresh fish in the market.

Gangneung is quite far north so not that far from the border with North Korea. This meant that there were some rather interesting and unusual sights to see if you looked carefully.

One of the three bunkers built into a hillside on the main road from the sea to the town.

A rather decommissioned looking tank pointing out to the Sea of Japan in a defiant pose.

This is the beach outside the hut/chalet that the other teachers had hired. The white building to the left behind the green fence seemed to be a guard house. Soldiers came to it every night we were there and stood guard all night. One of our group tried to talk to them but they didn't seem keen to chat.

We caught a coach back to Gwangju and the route through Gangwon-do took us through some fantastic scenery. We could see mountains below the road we were travelling on, their peaks partially obscured by cloud and more mountains towering over us with their peaks hidden by further layers of cloud. It was a breathtaking sight, especially for someone like me from the flat lands of Norfolk!

Large scale military maneuvers over Gwangju

There have been many times when I wish I had my good camera with me and this afternoon was definitely one of them. Not only was the weather fine and the light perfect there were also lots of interesting things to shoot on my walk home from school through the rice paddies. A large, white cattle egret landed right in front of me and stayed still for nearly a minute as if waiting for me to whip my camera out - they are usually extremely hard to get a picture of as they fly away whenever I get anywhere near them. There were so many dragonflies of different hues and sizes buzzing around my head and darting back and forth across the little road through the fields that I began to think they were gathering around me on purpose to taunt me as I didn't bother to bring my decent camera out with me and my little compact had a dead battery.

The worst moment of all though was when I noticed the sound of helicopters overhead and looked behind me to see two military choppers that I think were Chinooks flying low in the sky over Gwangju. Trailing behind the second helicopter was a curving line of dots that I realised were parachutes quickly descending to the hills that encompass the south eastern edge of Gwangju in the area called Yangbeoli. I was really cursing then as I had never seen a military parachute drop before and if I'd had a working camera with me I could have got some great shots. Over the next 30 minutes or so I watched as another 7 Chinooks flew over, one after the other and dropped more men onto the hillside. Each copter dropped 10 men so there must be at least 90 guys romping over that hill right now in this intense summer heat. There may have been more as I lost sight of the area once I had walked into Gwangju proper as the buildings obscured my view. Seeing those people jump from the helicopters was quite an impressive sight. At first I could just see a tiny black speck when they first left the copter, then almost immediately, the black speck would bloom into a mushroom as the parachute was released. I tried to imagine what it must feel like to be dropping down in formation over Gwangju like that. I came to the conclusion it must feel a lot cooler and more comfortable then I was feeling baking out in the sun in the rice paddy.

A Chinook - This is what the helicopters above Gwangju looked like.

It was quite a surreal sight considering that Gwangju is really just a small 'one horse' town as our friend Dean put it. I admit seeing a large scale military maneuver made me feel slightly nervous given the current climate in Korea. Perhaps it is a sign of the rising tensions on the peninsular (but then again it could just be a standard exercise). I know that South Korea and the USA are currently carrying out a huge military exercise to put North Korea in its place after the sinking of the Cheonan warship but as far as I'm aware that is happening miles away over the Sea of Japan so this parachute drop must just be an unrelated exercise. It is kind of worrying that the North have threatened to launch a 'sacred war' on th South as a retaliation for the big joint military exercise and even more worrying that this proposed retaliation would be of the nuclear description. I'm just hoping that the guys parachuting onto our hillside are friendly!

Overall, the moral of this story is never leave home without a working camera in South Korea. You never know what you might see.