Ni Hao!

Ahh. To be home. Kind of.
I'm back from my brief visit to Beijing, China, home of great wonders such as the Great Wall, Forbidden City, quality knock offs, and millions of 'let's make a deal' hawkers. I'm not sure which fascinated me more.
I'll start with the hawkers. It's funnier.


There are many tour groups walking around these places in Beijing. Mostly Americans and Russians. We kind of stick out. The hawkers are everywhere. They sell scarves (8 for 100 rmb! no no, okay 9 for 100!), cheap souvenirs, knock off Rolex's, Gucci purses. They find you, they follow you, they pull on you. Emotions range from annoyance to humor to anger. (Male American soldiers really don't like to be touched by strangers.) I found it fairly easy to ignore them, some did not. It's actually funny when it's not you they're stalking. But you must show no weakness!! Otherwise they never leave; they will follow you to the bus. On the third day some of the members of my tour group started taunting them. They'd wave from the bus when we knew we weren't getting off (they flock to tour buses), they'd offer ridiculously low amounts for the goods just to see how long they'd follow and bargain (they'd always go right up to the bus). I bought a couple of things from the hawkers, one of them started to follow me & accost me for more money until a man in our group walked over and he left me alone then.
We also shopped at the Silk Street Market, which is a five story building packed with little booths full of knock-offs of any brand you can think of. You could go in here and walk out with an entire 'designer' wardrobe for about $500 if you're smart.You have to bargain for your purchase, you can't get attached to something, you can't let them know you really want it. They start exceptionally high, you start exceptionally low. Except I would start with what l would pay, it's this or nothing. Browsing not allowed. You have to know what you want. You walk down the little aisle to choruses of "Hey lady, wanna buy _____?" Don't let them catch you looking! No weakness! So at one booth I did buy some 'Abercrombie' sweaters, and I must say they are very good quality knock-offs. So she starts the bidding at 1375 rmb, about $200. (I only had USD and of course they will take it.) So I said no, $40 ( I only wanted to offer $30 but I only had twenties, I should have picked out another shirt!). So we go back and forth and finally I start to leave and she says okay, okay. And I have my sweaters. It's pretty much the same everywhere. And they are some serious drama queens! For instance, I saw a jacket I was considering. I tried it on it was too big. So I said no, and she said I'll make you good deal and I still said no it doesn't fit and she was acting like she was going to cry. Many of them did things like this. Also, all deals are 'secret'; "for you I will sell cheap, but shh, secret price". I always wanted to laugh.
I'm not sure which I prefer; the negotiating system or the waiting for something to go on sale. On the one hand, as an American I really do enjoy my personal space, but on the other it's nice to walk away with your purchase not grumbling about how things are so overpriced these days. It was definitely an exciting experience.

My Asian Kitchen

Since I haven't done anything really blog worthy lately (unless you count getting a little spooked out by our 'threat brief' on NBC attack and instructions on how to use our issued gas masks exciting) here is another recipe post! I've tried a few more new recipes since the last post about food. Not all of them Korean, most of them turning out very well. I got this great cookbook from the library called asian bites by Tom Kine and tried out a few things in there. (I think it's probably about 4 weeks overdue!) A few nights ago we had eggplant fritters from India, pork and cabbage eggrolls from Korea, and stir fried beansprouts. It was all good but the eggrolls were fabulous if I do say so myself! However, tonight we had kalbi, which is a type of Korean BBQ ribs. (Note: Korean BBQ is not at all like American southern BBQ. I believe it's called BBQ only because of the way it is cooked.) I have made it before with a recipe from this website: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4793091 and they are awesome. I was literally gnawing the bone and I usually find that sort of thing quite demeaning. But anyone would demean themselves for these. (Think "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" becomes "What would you do for some kalbi ribs?") I would highly recommend you try them if you can. (Tips: cut down on some of the sesame oil & be sure to use a grill or grill pan.) If you have high blood pressure please eat these with caution!
I also used a recipe at this address: http://famousrecipes.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/stir-fried-rice-noodles-with-shrimp/ to make a stir fried rice and noodle dish I've been trying to figure out ever since I first had the noodles. I've eaten something like this at two different restaraunts here and love it, but I could never figure out the recipe on my own. I altered this one to fit my tastes as well. I left out the shrimp, added peas & carrots, added rice, and used fish sauce instead of oyster sauce (since that's what I had). Adding some roughly chopped yellow onion would probably be good too. This might be a good moment to let you know that my cooking style is a little relaxed. I view recipes more like suggestions than rules and don't typically measure things very precisely. I just kind of feel it. It usually turns out well, until I want to make it again and can't remember what I did!
Sorry no pictures this time. I just wanted to sink my teeth into them and not sit around looking at it!

Moving Day

Yes, moving in. We have been residing in this apartment for 34 days and we finally got our own stuff! It is very exciting. And since we live on the twelfth floor it was a much different move than we've experienced in the past.
That is our building. It is thirteen stories high. Using the elevator to move a household full of belongings is not really the most efficient idea since the elevators in our building here are smaller than American ones and you would be an elevator hog for the day. Not a great way to make nice with the neighbors. So they use an outdoor lift. This is what it looks like from the outside...

...and this is what it looks like when your possessions are hurtling up...

and up at your face.

The extendable rail was taped, yes taped, to the guardrail around our window. The men at the bottom would load some of the things, hurtle it up, then the men at the top would unload over the rail and hurtle it back down. It was pretty neat actually. They don't secure anything on the pallet so I found it slightly amazing that none of our stuff fell off, especially as fast as it was going. It goes way faster than an elevator. But they did a great job. They were the best movers we've had so far. Considering you have two different sets each time you move (one on the shipping end and another on the receiving end) that makes them #1 out of 10. Not bad.

Moving on...hah hah. I love bad puns! There is a little shortcut road that is more like a trail that we take to the camp/post here. It's a pretty nice walk except for a couple places where there are some unpleasant smells, but that's just part of life in Korea. (I kind of think that's really why so many of them wear the surgical masks all the time.) It's all downhill the way there but you know what that means! You got it, all uphill the way back. And it is not a little hill. So it kind of sucks when I make a grocery trip. Here's a photo from the top of the trail.
It's much better in person. I'll take this moment to mention the garden you see in the foreground. Korea is not vast, and so heavily populated that land is scarce. They use every available piece to grow food. You're driving down the highway you look down and there's a garden on the side of the road. And I don't mean like in front of someone's house. It's just free space so someone planted food. It's awesome. And in the cities if it's not food it's flowers. Here's my favorite part of the walk.

This ajuma grows beautiful flowers and I love walking by here. I saw the tiniest hummingbird here a few times. The first time I saw it I thought it was bee, then realized what I thought was the enormous stinger on it was its beak!

Okay, so back to our apartment life. They're big on recycling around here. We even have a box downstairs for clothes recycling. I have no idea what they do with them but that's what the English translation on one says. Here's our complex's recycling unit.
You have to sort it yourself. You also have to buy specially labeled bags just for trash and dump all food waste separately in yet another trash area. (I usually try to make Matt do it. It's pretty vomitous as you can imagine!) I'm not sure what they do with the food. I've heard both composting and pig slop, so I don't know. The man that grows the garden in the picture above digs through the food waste containers every morning so I know what he does with it. At least, I hope so....

Kyongju: Part Two

We got to Kyongju by train and then hired a taxi to drive us around. Before we arrived I had formulated a plan as to where I wanted to go, but as they say "the best laid plans...". We had a different driver the two days we were there, and both of them wanted to take us on what they thought was the best tour route. Since being here I've learned many times you just have to roll with it. So we did. And it turned out pretty well. I still got to see almost everything I had planned on and a little more.
One of the places I had not planned on going but am glad we did was the tomb of King Munmu, circa 681, off of Bonggil Beach. Kyongju is filled with tombs, which you may better visualize if you think of burial mounds, but this is not your typical tomb. This one is underwater. So you can only see it from the beach. There is debate as to whether he is actually buried here or they just spread his ashes here, but whatever. It was really pretty and much different than any beach I've been to. Very rocky, little pebbles to large rocks cover the shoreline and there was an area of large boulders as well.The rocky island above is the tomb. You can't go out to it; even if it was warm enough to swim there are stong rip tides here and they don't offer tour boats or anything like that. Below is Bonggil Beach.

Squid hanging out to dry. It's a favorite snack in Korea. I haven't tried it yet...


We also saw the oldest observatory in East Asia, and I thought I read the oldest building in Korea as well. The Cheomseongdae Observatory was built sometime around 634. There's a whole bunch of symbolism in how it was built and number of bricks used, etc, but I won't go into all that. It's a really old building, and kind of pretty; there's not much else to say about it. Here's the picture!

We also walked around a place called Wolseong Fortress, but there's nothing left except some stones stuck in the ground that you can only see because they are marked. Nearby was Sokpinggo, an ancient ice storehouse which is an attraction in Korea.

the outside of Sokpinggo

some of the Silla tombs; they are scattered in groups all around the city

Folk Craft Village


Stone Pagoda of Bunhwang-sa

from Gyeongju National Museum

Kyerim Forest: These trees were beautiful! They are probably a thousand years old. There's also a crazy legend about a baby found here in a gold box, with a rooster crowing beside it. When the baby was taken from the box by the king, he was named the crown prince and named Alchi Kim. However, he surrendered his crown to the king's actual son after the kings death. Eventually, the sixth generation descendent of Kim did become king.

We also made time for fun for the girls and went to Gyeongju World, an amusement park. Carrie had a blast riding the kiddie rides and poor Emily was so upset because she was too small for most of them! Kyongju was great; I really enjoyed our visit. I didn't do any shopping until about the last hour we were there waiting for the train and I think I missed out! The little bit of the shopping area I went through was great! So I may go back just for that!!

Flashback: Silla Dynasty

Sokkuram Grotto.

We went to Gyeongju (or Kyongju) this weekend to see the sights. And boy do they have sights! I think you could live there for years and not take it all in. Gyeongju was the capital city of the Silla (or Shilla) Dynasty for almost 1000 years. The city and surrounding area is covered in historic sites built by the Silla, many of them designated "World Cultural Heritage" sites by UNESCO. Gyeongju is called "a museum without walls". Even without the history it is a beautiful area.


Its crowning glory is Bulguksa Temple (above). It has existed since 528, although all the wooden structures were burned down in 1593 by the Japanese. (Note 1: The Japanese invaded and apparently ravaged Korea in past history. The Koreans hate the Japanese [and vice versa] and many things are blamed on them. Whether they are all true or not one can only guess.) The most admired part of this complex are the stone stairs, called bridges. (I don't know why.) There are two 'bridges' each comprised of two staircases. They are: Chongun Gyo, Paegun Gyo, Yonhwa Gyo, and Chilbo Gyo. They still exist with their original stones from 1200 years ago. Therefore, you are not allowed to walk on them. The below is Yonhwa & Chilbo Gyo. (Sorry, I couldn't rotate for some reason.)

Besides the temple the setting is just beautiful. Even with the crowds it seemed like such a peaceful place. We were there I think at the peak of fall foliage beauty and it was simply gorgeous. There are two famous and historical pagodas here also. Tabotap was covered in scaffolding and such for repair. It is also featured on Korean coins. The one pictured here is called Sokkatap.

This is a large temple complex, but I won't bore you too much! I'll just post a couple more pictures...

Another Buddhist site we visited was Sokkuram (or Seokguram) Grotto. It was built around 751 (the two books I bought have different years) and from what I understand still exists almost exactly as it was except for some structural reinforcement. (Note 2: I'm not sure how much I read is the whole truth and nothing but and how much is braggadocio.) The inside of the grotto contains carved stone statues pertaining to Buddhism and as I don't know or understand much I'm not going to try to explain. But apparently all this stone encased in this grotto building suffered no deterioration from humidity for over 1200 years due to the Silla's "scientific and architectural genius". They blame the ensuing deterioration on the Japanese effort to reinforce the structure in the early 1900's. (Remember note 1?) You are not allowed to take pictures of the inside so if you want to see you'll have to google it. It's worth a look. Once again, irregardless of the grotto temple and Buddhist statues the setting is phenomenal. It's set near the top of the mountain and the trail you walk up is lined with the beautiful fall foliage and rocky cliff sides. It was really magnificent. In the first picture below, the building on the left farther up is the grotto temple; the other on the right is the souvenir/snack shop - yes, even at super old "world heritage culture" historical treasure sites capitalism thrives! In the picture of Carrie & me the building behind us is the grotto.

From the top; next to the grotto.

Taken on the drive up to the grotto entrance.