Made in China

Harbour ride boat tour in Busan

My parents first night in Gwangju I took them out for dinner with some friends

View from the boat ride

A Korean beach covered in umbrellas

My parents basking in the sun on the beach in Busan, SK

Most Koreans have a fear of the sun and cover up head to toe

An authentic dramatic Korean performance in Seoul

Saw the performance Nanta our last night in Seoul

Rickshaw's are a very popular form of transportation in Beijing

Most men walked shirtless on the streets due to do horrible heat wave

An adorable kid in Tienaman Square

Entering the Forbidden City

Inside the Forbidden City

Purchased a caligraphy piece in the Forbidden City

The streets of Beijing

Panda reserve

Most children roamed the streets bottomless

Standing infront of the Great Wall

View from the top

Outside the Olympic Stadium

Dumpling makers or brain surgens? You decide.

Our delicious dumpling dinner

So I know it's been about 2 weeks since my trip to China and visit from my parents, but better late than never! It was such an amazing 10 days with them and I couldn't have imagined a better time! Yes, some tears were evident upon their arrival but they were quickly shed and many smiles, laughs and stories were shared. Before leaving for Beijing we traveled to Busan in the South of Korea, took a harbour ride around the sea and laid-back on the beach.

A Korean beach experience is very different from a beach I am familiar with back home. I mean, considering where I was brought up, "beach" wasn't exactly an essential word in my vocabulary, travelling has allowed me to witness the attractive paradise of what a beach has to offer. Since Korean's have a somewhat irrational fear of the sun (parasols in hand if their destination involves stepping outdoors) it was not surprising that the beach in Busan is completely covered in umbrellas, already dug into the sand. I find a great sense of pleasure when I am lying leisurly on a beach chair basking in the sun, cracking my eyelips open every so often when a song changes on my ipod, just to peer at the current and the clear blue sky reminding me that I am completely in my zone. When there are hundreds of umbrellas and parasols distorting your view, as well as Korean's starring and judging you wondering why you are not covered head to toe in fabric holding some sort of shield from the evil sun, it makes it almost uncomfortable to try and get a glimpse of the sea or a real sense of your surroundings.

All in all, Busan was a great mini vacation and nothing close to what we were about to endure in China. Our accomodations in Busan were definitely different than what my parents are used to, but I'm thankful they are so open-minded. My mom, my dad and I ended up staying the night in a Korean "love motel" disgned largely for couples. Since Koreans tend to live with their families until they marry, love motels are catered for couples to spend the night outside of their parents home and come equipped with interesting vending machines and creams. It was kind of a funny experience though and my dad was just happy the room was at least air conditioned. So I am sure the Korean woman working the front desk that day went home with a funny story for her family.

My parents and I bussed to Seoul late Tuesday night, enjoyed a hop-on-hop-off bus tour Wednesday and then watched the performance of Nanta Wednesday night before our early departure Thursday morning. Nanta is a world famous non-verbal, unique performance originating in Korea. There are only 5 cast members, half actors/half chefs who dance, cook and play music all with a variety of kitchen utensils. It was a really neat presentation and something I would definitely recommend to others visiting Seoul.

On Thursday the 29th we departed for Beijing and the next 4 days that follow are pretty much all combined together in my head. It was 4 days of waking up at 6am, hitting as many tourist destinations as possible in one day, and arriving back to the hotel by the early-ish evening. So in no particular order, our days consisted of; the 600 year old Summer Palace, the silk market (where you can literally price the merchanise yourself by bargaining until the tired Chinese retail worker either decides to give up on trying to sell a fake prada watch for $100 or realizes she doesn't have a chance when negotiating with an experienced Jewish father, aka my dad!).
Side story: the silk market is a six story building with various booths of clothing, gadgets and accessories on each floor. To give you an idea of how much you are haggled and harassed here, my parents and I would stand at the end of one isle, take a deep breath and literlly RUN to the other end ensuring no eye contact was made with the solicitors. At one point we were being pulled on and yelled at by 15 different workers that the 3 of us ran to the nearest exit, ending up in an old stair well and apparently interupting another group of employees grabbing a quick bite. It was pretty hilarious when my mom, my dad and I looked at eachother standing aimlessly in the stairwell amongst a family of Chinese retail workers, not quite sure why we were there, how we even arrived at this destination and not quite sure where to go next. Overall, it was a unique experience to say the least and I also learned that I am able to shop even under extreme pressured circumstances.

To my surprise, the haggling didn't stop at the silk market. People were always ready to sell you things on the streets no matter where you were or what time of day it was. I remember walking out of a resaturant after dinner and noticed that it had started raining while we were eating so none of us were prepared for the pool of water we were about to set out into. Just before I was able to think of the best way to get back to the bus in hopes of enduring less rain, a man selling umbrellas came out of no where and i'de say did pretty well for himself!

Moreover, the tour we were on took us to the Forbidden City where we were introduced to some Emperor's nephew who created an authentic caligraphy piece for us. We also visited a panada reserve, Tienaman Square, a cloisonne factory, the Olympic Stadium and ofcourse the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall was definitely a site to see! It was amazing walking up the wall with a 2 year old on one side of me and an 89 year old man on the other. Unfortunatley China was hit with a horrible heat wave which made parts of our outdoor excursions almost unbearable, but my parents, always thinking ahead, brought along battery operated fans with them, which in Asia, is not something the locals are used to seeing. So while the majority of the population is operating manual fold-up fans, my father is enjoying a cool electric breeze by the touch of a button. This might sound like any other mundane act (using a hand-held electric fan) but in Asia, they are non existent and EVERYONE uses those asian-esq fold up ones. So my father, a tall, grey haired (sorry dad), caucasian man, managed to acquire even more attention to himself, if that is even humanly possible.

As beautiful and unique as Beijing was, it was also a little dirty and somewhat uncivilized (or at least compared to other asian countries I have visited). Most children wore bottomless jumpers using the city streets as their throne (if you catch my drift). The heat wave allowed for minimal clothing to be worn on all accounts and most men we saw were shirtless as well. The bottomless babies and shirtless men were not limited to the streets and were also exhibited in museums and fancy restaurants.

Chinese food in China is obviously delicious but also very different from American chinese food. One restaurant my parents and I went to had no English on the menus (something I am used to from Korea) and also no English speaking waiters/waitresses (another challenge I am used to from Korea). However, knowing minimal Korean and not having any familiarity with the Chinese language, made things a little more difficult when trying to order. We saw a picture on the menu which we thought might have been peeking duck, but from some of my scarcily close encounters in Korean restaurants almost eating dog, we wanted to feel certain that what we were about to order was not any kind of domestic house pet. Clearly, verbal communication was not an option, so my mom decided to draw a picture of a duck, I helped her out by making hand gestures to form into a ducks beek and my dad, sitting across the table is quaking like a duck. We must have looked like the strangest family to ever step foot inside this restaurant!!

On the other hand, my parents and I did have some interesting food trying experiences throughout our trip. After a lot of peer pressure, both my parents decided to dip into a traditional Korean snack of Silk Worms (which are absolutely disgusting but are for some reason served as a side for almost every meal). Mine and my dads taste buds are seemingly similar and he also thought they were quite nauseating. My mom, however, noted, and I quote, "taste like chicken"! My first night in Beijing I met up with a friend from University who was completing an internship and leaving for Thailand the next night. So a couple of us went out Thursday evening, caught up over some drinks and had a unique dining experience where both Vince and I tried chicken heart for the first (and most definitely the last) time.

For the remainder of the trip, we were brought to various chinese restaurants with our tour guide (who I will get to later), so having a chinese chaperone made things a lot easier and more comforting. Our tour guide Linda was a sweet woman I suppose, but I think may have been assigned to the wrong bus because even when she was speaking English, I thought she was speaking Chinese. It was very difficult to understand her and by the third day of the tour she completely gave up on speaking English altogether. She might have been knowledgable on the historic sites we visited, but its not like I understood a word she was saying. Ill give her credit though for trying to be funny, however after using the same line of, "If you are not on the bus raise your hand!" kind of got old.

On our last night in Beijing we walked around a market and went to a chinese dumpling restaurant for dinner. As soon as you walk inside the restaurant there is a glass window with about 15-20 workers dressed in white lab coats, wearing face masks, holding sharp utensils and concentrating vigorously on the subject at hand. To someone who didn't know they were watching dumplings being made, it could have easliy been confused with brain surgery! 27 dumplings later, we were ready to head back to the hotel for our last sleep before my parents and I parted ways again. The trip to Beijing and seeing my parents in Korea was almost surreal! Everything worked out perfectly and I was so happy that my parents made this trip happen.

Anyways, if you are still reading, I hope I didn't bore you too much. Ill have a few more entries to come shortly. Only 3.5 months left and then off to Australia for me! Miss you all and will write more soon.

Signing off,

Gillian teacha xx