A Good Wall

Nicole had arranged for a driver to pick us up in the morning to take us to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. It is fairly close to Beijing, but not the closest and is therefore less crowded. It seems all the tour buses stop elsewhere and the fact that it was the end of October probably helped as well. We had to take a ski lift to the top of the mountain to get to the wall. There were about 10 watch towers that we could walk between. The wall was sometimes flat stone and sometimes steep steps, and we really had to watch our step because it was uneven more than not. It was unique to see the fall foliage surrounding the wall as I feel that it is not often photographed under these conditions.

There were other people on the wall, but it was not impossible to get a picture with very few people in it. It was an overall relaxing experience and we were able to take our time without feeling rushed to get back to our driver. We had the option of taking a toboggan back down to the bottom, but having watched a few souls fly down the mountain below us, we mutually agreed that the ski lift would do. It was about an hour and a half drive back to Beijing, where we were quickly reminded that pedestrians, under no circumstances, ever have the right of way.

We walked down the street from our hotel to Tiantan Park to see the Temple of Heaven. It was a very hazy day in Beijing and I pointed to some skyscrapers to Nicole. It took her a good 30 seconds to actually see what I was pointing at. We watched the sun slowly make its way down to the horizon. I had done a quick Bing image search before we left (Google was blocked. Obviously nobody ever actually uses Bing under normal circumstances). It looked like the temple was lit up at night which could make for some nice photos. After killing time by doing several laps around the temple, the sun set, but no lights. We waited around a little bit just to make sure, but it became clear that it was going to be a dark temple. When I did eventually get back to the hotel, I image redid my search for the temple at night and realized that the illuminated temple in the images is one I had seen already, but it was not here in Beijing. It was in fact in Central Florida at Epcot's World Showcase. Sometimes the fake is just more photogenic.

We spent the rest of the evening plotting out where to stay in Hong Kong (our next destination) and reminisced about how "relaxing" Beijing had been. I had been cut in line about 5 different times, nearly run over by multiple cars/bicycles/scooters, and narrowly dodged a few snot rockets from passersby. There is not a lot of emphasis on personal space or personal hygiene. "The bathroom smells strongly of urine" seems to be a common TripAdvisor review in these parts. Despite being an otherwise very nice hotel, our own bathroom smelled like someone peed on the wall. This is most likely do to the high probability that this is exactly what happened.

Judging by the signs I see at public restrooms that remind people not to stand on top of the toilet seat, I can only imagine what people are doing at the hotels. Clearly someone stood on the toilet and fired away at the wall and floor. It is the only possible explanation. Beijing is a fine city with a lot of history, but it's really dirty, disorganized, and not the friendliest place on earth. I look forward to our next destination.

The Beijing Airport Olympics

Our flight from Incheon to Beijing wasn't until 1pm, so we could proceed at a leisurely pace to the airport. Despite a minor flow delay to Beijing, the flight was uneventful. The real excitement began after landing. We were entering China using a transit visa or 72 hour visa that would enable us to temporarily stay in the country without an official visa that one has to get at a US embassy or consulate. Such visas require actually knowing the date of arrival and departure -- something we didn't know until yesterday. Upon arrival into Beijing, we waited in line for about 50 mins at customs and immigration before being turned away at the desk for not having the transit visa stamp, which evidently is received at a separate station. It would have been impossible to find on our own considering it was on the opposite side of the terminal and we actually had to reverse through a health inspection checkpoint to get to it. When we filled out some paperwork and returned to the customs line, it was now extending well beyond the ropes themselves.

It was as if two A380s and a cruise ship had docked and we were now behind all of them. After finally getting back to the desk, we were approved and moved onto our next challenge. We now had to take a train to the city. We couldn't buy tickets because the machine wouldn't take credit card.  The nearest ATM was back where we came from, but at the far end of the terminal. 15 minutes later, we returned with multiple 100 yuan notes. I looked at the machine and it indicated that it would take 100 yuan notes, but when I inserted one, a nearby employee shook his head no repeatedly. I was confused. Evidently the machine was not going to take my notes, so now I had to stand in line to pay in person. When we finally got on the train, we rode it for almost 15 minutes only to make a stop at another airport terminal. What does it take to leave the airport? Then the train began reversing direction. Nicole and I looked at each other in terror that perhaps the train just does circles around the airport. Fortunately, it continued toward central Beijing, but that experience should be viewed as a metaphor. In communist China, one has to go backward to go forward to where they had already been,

Once we made a transfer and finally got off the subway, it was easy. Communism could no longer inhibit us while we were walking. We had landed at 230pm and arrived at our hotel when it was dark. After dropping our bags, we walked over to Tiananmen Square. It is more closed off than I remember. We had to pass through a security checkpoint before we could get close. There was some kind of water/light show that began to the tune of music at one point. And in the middle of the square was a giant illuminated bouquet of flowers. I don't know why. Eventually we made our way back to the hotel.

Hopefully tomorrow goes more efficie

ntly.

Korea's Got Seoul

After arriving at our hotel after midnight, we had little difficulty falling asleep despite a malfunctioning temperature controller that was permanently stuck on 84 degrees. That would all have to wait. Our first order of business on day one was the PooPoo Museum (obviously). I found great amusement in the entrance steps which made fart noises as one made their way to the museum. It was a peculiar place which was as much obstacle course as it was poop-related. It culminated in a nearly vertical slide that went down to a poop tree, whose branches consisted of charm/wishes that visitors wrote. I made one about Nicole having healthy bowel movements, which I think she should appreciate. Then we walked to nearby Gyeongbokgung Palace.

There was some sort of guard-training event going on, which we didn't really understand on account of us not really knowing Korean. There were drummers and a stage with announcers and large screens. Nicole compared it to the Hunger Games. With a lack of understanding of the process, we continued walking around the grounds.

After a while, it was already 2 in the afternoon, so we got lunch and took the subway back to our hotel to prepare to meet some former students/friends of mine. I wanted to interview them about their lives as female pilots working in a male-dominated profession. After doing all my questions, we all went out to get chicken and beer at a nearby restaurant.

The restaurant's specialty seemed to be all chicken all the time. It was good to catch up for a bit and enjoy a decent meal, even if it was all chicken. We eventually got back to our new room (we switched because of the broken temp. controller) and took in our view of the city at night before debating what we would do the next day.

New Trip to Asia

As a result of my training over the summer and Nicole's work on the set of Homeland this fall, we had not gone away on a real trip in some time. And that, of course, is if you disregard New York, DC, New Jersey, Richmond, Denver, Florida, and Houston. We had initially had our eyes on a United flight out of San Francisco that would have gone direct to Seoul to start our trip, but for some reason everyone is traveling right now. It would have been a challenge to even get on the flight, much less get business class. We were then settling on Delta, but noticed that elite customers were using upgrades to take the few remaining business class seats. With limited options remaining, we took American to Haneda airport in Tokyo and used miles to take us from there to Seoul. All of this would be in coach. As we had to remind ourselves, there was a time when each of us only flew coach, and it cost a lot of money to do that. More than $1.30 anyway.

What separates this from previous trips is the general lack of planning. We left LAX without a hotel to spend the night at. We only have a general idea of where we'd like to be and when. After a couple days in Korea, we will continue to Beijing, then Hong Kong, and finally Taiwan. I used the airline wifi to book a hotel when we were somewhere over the Pacific. This is all in the interest of flexibility, but there's something to be said about knowing where you'll be and when that probably calms the nerves. Perhaps this is why people do tours...