more korea trip pictures!!!

Just in case you dont know, there are about 3 links for the whole trip...I took a lots of pictures!!
Part 1:
http://www.slide.com/r/A3yr9-Su7T8TgzPqcu_CIHQeUqr6Z1AN
Part 2:
http://www.slide.com/r/oMibonsFlz8JnasZ8YOrOmRpE8s89R4o
Part 3:
http://www.slide.com/r/YKbmG6D4pD__KBfr4cU7zSEmHU9axP5f?view=original
(be aware, there are 106 pictures here...it might take a while for you to see them all...but it took me more than couple hours to write all the descriptions, so plz take your time)
Attn: If you move your cursor (mouse) to the pic, there will be explainations at the bottom of the frame, this is the only way that I can make the pics look bigger to view...

let me know what you think about slide.com, if the pictures are too small to view, I might look for other sources~

These pictures are from my friends' cameras...see I am not lying~~~ I really did meet some strangers, friendly strangers on this trip !!! http://www.slide.com/r/7Ov1sINi0D9UCRxDC94S3916d7ssHZH6?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Last part Korea~ Pictures are here !!

People may worry about safety issue in Seoul, but I found that Seoul is a sleepless city. Even though the working hours are from 8:30a-6:30p, but it is generally understanding that employee/employers stays late afterwards because there are too much work to do, too many tasks to complete. Korean people are the number one stressful people on earth, even Japanese admits that. They work hard, and work too hard. Most of the time, my friends had to stay in their office past 8pm, sometimes until 10pm, and then come back early in the morning again. There are many many shops on the streets that are open 24 hours for the sleepless group. You can walk on the street at 1am and there will be people walking by (sometimes they can be drunks…). I admit that I like working, or like to be called a “workaholics”, but even to me I think working in Korea is a stressful thing, I wouldn’t want to work like this…My friends told me the average age for men to get married are a little over 30, and for women are somewhere at late 20th. They have to work to a point that they can save enough money for their wedding, and for a new apartment. Because of all these, Korean people eats really fast. They usually get one hour of lunch break (that is usually after 1pm…) but they ate super fast, and usually finish by 15 minutes. Both of my friends are jealous at Chinese working classes, because usually they will get one and half to 2 hours of lunch break plus a nap break.

Sorry that I couldn’t write dairy about this trip, but I took all the pictures that I can and put them on the website (http://www.slide.com/r/ebV-LUz14D8GAQr3YLk27f2uuqvEiiqS?previous_view=lt_embedded_url ) take your time and browse through them. It is my whole trip~ 200 some of them. Hope you like them!!!

Korea , more to come, read from the bottom up~~~

Living in korea is expensive, but as a travelling/shopping destination, not too bad…transportation is not a problem, they have a very complicated and detailed subway system. You can literally get to anywhere within Seoul by subway. It is usually cost around $0.90 - $1.20 USD to go one way, depends on how far you go. And as long as you are not in rush hours (7am-9am, 6pm-7:30pm), the subway is not crowded at all. In the subway, they always save 12 seats for elderly, children, sick, and pregnant women. No matter how crowded the subway is, those seats are always open. My friends told me, watch out the middle aged housewives in the subway. They usually rushed in first try to save seats, no rules on that…my friend described it as like American football ^o^. They sometimes throw their bag across the air try to occupy the seat first. Too bad I haven’t seen any crazy lady this time…
The weekend that I was in Korea was a traditional festival time, it is called Dano in Korean. It is a seasonal festival that is the fifth day of the fifth month by the lunar calendar. We have the same holiday in China, but apparently a little different way to celebrate it. Korean people believed that Yang (from Ying-yang, brightness) energy reaches the highest level on Dano. In korea, Dano is truly a holiday, people celebrate it by playing on high swing rides, watch performances on stage, and ssireum (Korean wrestling). It used to be one of the 3 biggest festivals celebrated in Korea. Because of this, I had the opportunity to watch a traditional korean clothes fashion show. The models are too pretty so that at the end of the show, I dragged my friend to the backstage and hoped to take pic with the models…my friend wasn’t even expect that would happen, but it did!!!
In general, I like Seoul. Even though it is expensive, but people are friendly, and fun to watch. Stuff here are cute, and food, very healthy! If I really end up working in China, korea wouldn’t be a bad place to get away. Only 90 minutes to get to, no passport needed as long as I get out in 30 days, and I only plan to spend a weekend here every once in a while. Young people now speaks very good english. I met couple students from Seoul National University (no.1 university in Korea), and because they want to practice English, they asked if they can tag alone with me and my friend (we were talking in English in the subway, later on that day I learned that those students heard us talking, and thought that I was Korean who were raised in America…) Anyway, they were not Seoul natives, which means it is extra hard for them to get into any Seoul university. Now they are master and ph.D students in Chemical Engineering dept, and hoping to study abroad someday. They knew a lot about Korean culture and history (from passing the college entrance exam…), so they were happy to serve as tour guides for the day. Showed me a lots of places. Their original plan was to take some pictures in the nice weather, photography is their hobbit (which by the way, it is a trend in Asia now to have a fancy professional camera…) Anyway, quite an unique experience. At first I thought they were stalkers…:p but end up they are very very friendly and funny students. If they really send me the pic they took as they promised when we separate, I will post the pictures they took on the blog so you don’t think that I am lying…
Another thing amazes me is that girls/women drinks as well in korea. I know American women drinks too, but Korean women drinks for social. You can see girls at dinner table each one holding a beer jug. To me, it was a weird scene, maybe because I don’t see a lots of women drinks at Northgate…I mean, at least not the way I see korean women drinking...it's just weird for me to see women drinking period...especially holding beer jugs and/or soju (rice drink, about 15-20% alcohol)

Korea, finally~~~

Trip to korea was fun. Seoul in general gives me an impression of similar to China. But the buildings look totally different from Beijing, it reminds me of old Chinese apartments. Seoul is a hill city, we climb up and down the streets all the time. I spent 4 nights at my high school friend’s house (apartment, they call them house, but it is a big building, each floor consists of two apartment, in Korea, they consider living in apartments like this are luxury and many people work hard their whole life trying to buy one of the fancy apartments), and gained a first hand experience to encounter Korean culture. I like this way better than going with a tour group. On this trip, I tried my best to eat all traditional Korean food, from the side of the street to small family restaurant. I have to say, I love their food! But people who know me would argue when do I not like eating… So let’s talk about Korean cuisine first. Korean cuisine consists of 3 main part, rice, kimchee, and some kind of soup. Kimchee is not just marinated cabbage, it can be carrots, soybeans, little silver fish, and variety of vegetables. In Korea, everything is very expensive compare to China, my normal meal usually cost about $6 USD, which is really not that bad compare to the States. Korean people uses metal chopsticks and a spoon as their dining ware. The chopsticks are thinner than chinese wooden ones, thus was a little bit more difficult to manipulate. Their bowls for rice are also metal…Even if you only ordered one dish, they will bring you at least 2 side dishes, sometimes up to 7…and they are all different kind of kimchee or vegetables. I like the Korean cuisine, it has a lots of vegetables, for people like me who never remembers to eat vegi, by going to restaurants and eating all those side dishes will cover all the daily needs.
I like people watching, Korean people (mainly refer to girls, cuz they go out on the street more often than boys) has really good skin, at least it appears to me. Koreans believe that white skin is the best (totally opposite from Western thinking, in America, you see more tanned people). So on the street, you see many many white, even pale girls wearing make ups. Their skin care products are all targeted towards whitening skin as well. I think buying cosmetics products are worth it here, because they have their own make up brand and they are all targeted towards Asian skins. My friends told me you can’t really tell if they really do have good skin or it is covered by the make up product. But here, everyone wears make up on street, in the store they even offer Men sections for light make ups…I know what you thinking right now…but they are not homo (pardon my word of choice, ^///^). Every girl on the street wear at least 3 inches heels, what amazes me the most is that they wears them to catch the bus, shopping on the street, walk all the long on hard concrete and…you can see girls wear REALLY high heels run on the street (try to catch the train, bus, or subway)…They start practicing in High school, even though high school teacher wont allow them to do it, but they pack them into their back pack and as soon as school is out, they change them up and put on make ups…I took a sneaky picture of the high school girls on Insa Dong…my friend was laughing at me…

June 1st, National Children's day.

Today is Chinese national Children's day. Due to the earthquake...all the celebration had a little sad tone mixed in.



I am not consider as a "children" any more...so I don't really celebrate this day. But today, I would like to talk about Chinese children...the current generation. In Chinese, my generation is called "After 80's" because we were born after 1980. This generation is the first generation after the 1979 Deng xiao Ping's open door policy (for those of you who don't know...you can wikipedia it...), and also we are the first generation of "one child one family" policy. Generally speaking, older generation call us "after 80s", they think we are like flowers in the green house, we couldn't handle stressful situation, and majority of our generation are still living with parents...living off parents... Because of the one child policy, both parents in the family try to satisfy their only child every wish that she/he ever comes up with. I think my peers are better than the "after 90's"generation. How come? after 90s, the living condition got much better, and children's wish are much easier to become true. "after 80s" are just now start entering the working forces, many older people complains about us, about how difficult to work with us. I think every story has two side, I really don't think I am a typical "after 80s" generation. Thanks to the corps, I lived in a big family with over 10 brothers and sisters (my buddies). I was at the Gym last week, and the staff asked me if I used to be an athelet...I guess because my body build (bigger than the general Chinese girls), if it wasn't the corps...I probably can never run this long ...



Anyway~ I still have to talk about the earthquake, because news here are still talking about it. We saw the PLA sending troops in to rescue, major component of the PLA army are composed with "after 80s" generation. They were not afraid, they saved thousands of lives alone with other "after 80s" volunteers. the "after 90s" generation are still in school, but they all donated...little kids brought their piggy bank to the red cross, children asked their parents to donate twice or more...from this incident, people don't look down to "after 80s" and "after 90's " generations any more...one thing I had to point out though...donation should be a volunteering action, from what I heard, it is more like peer pressure now...Yao Ming donated twice because people were complaining that the first he donated to little (half million chinese RMB, over 70,000 USD). When I was hanging out with my friends, one of the questions to ask everyone is "how much did you donate?" If the companies did not donate enough, public would complain...there used to be a rumor that KFC and McDonald's did not donate a single penny, and the government official had to hold a press conference to clearify that they did donate, over a million...I personally think that donation should be a volunteer action, but peer pressure in China is unavoidable...sigh...



Sorry that I am not a good writer, my blog has bunch of random thoughts...please continue supporting me by coming visit again and e-mail me your comments to hanlinYsong@gmail.com, I was thinking about start posting more pic than articles...I am really not good at doing this...pictures speak more than words...



I am going to Korea from 6/5-6/9, then 6/10-6/25 will be in Guiyang. Check back again after 6/14...I should be able to post more pic from Korea...lots of food...and a brand new place. Stay in touch!!!



Pic:

street scene

I wrote this on May 29....but wasn't able to post on that day...so here it is~ I am leaving for Korea from 6/5-6/9, then heading back to my mom's home town -GuiYang on 6/10...so come back after 6/13, by then I should be able to upload all the pic from Korea on the website~
thanks to all my friends who sent me comments about the blog and pic~ I will keep taking more food pic...just to make you jealous :p ~

Pic: http://www.slide.com/r/CUS8X8Cl5D9GkNOdWsE_wtIomuFeWn5q?previous_view=lt_embedded_url


The weather today is the best day that I have been to since my arrival. Last night I had dinner with my elementary school friend and her family. They took me to the infamous “Ghost street”. It is a street filled with restaurant. As night gets darker, it gets busier…one of the reason why it’s called “ghost street”. We were sitting on top of the roof, thus I took a picture of the roofs, those are traditional roof, native Beijing people (beijingnese?? Pekingnese?? No…that’s dog…)used to live in one floor house like that.
I was walking on the street a lot today, to enjoy the beautiful weather! You rarely see clear sky in China due to pollutions. Because of the strong wind, the sky are cleared today. Last time I mentioned that Beijing Olympics is everywhere in the news media. You can tell from the street. Thanks to Olympics, many streets are being re-build and expanded, many high-raise towers are built, many pots of flowers have been planted to decorate the street. I remembered back in the old day childhood memories, when the govt put out tons of flowers on the street for national day celebration, citizens used to steal them and take it home to decorate their own home. Of course, people knows more now. I was glad to see the changes in average citizen’s behavior. When I came back this past Decemeber, people used to block the escalator in the subway for convinience and conversation with friends (the right side of the escalator is used for standing passenger, and the left side are usually opened up for people who are in a rush to get to some where), four months later, I am glad to see that people automatically stand on the right side of the escalator without prompting, though there are still individuals who still block the left side…only a few though. People are changing, in a lightning speed. Beijing is changing in a speed that no one else can compare to.