Taiwan 台灣

A short and sweet post on one of my favorite places in the world, Taiwan. It was good to be back there. The friends I had made while I was there have almost all but left. Luckily, I was still able to see one. I was also fortunate enough to see some of the last parts of the island that I didn't get to see when I lived there, namely Taitung county, Jiufen, and any of the little islands off the mainland of Taiwan. I will generalize and say the culture fit comfortably in the middle-ground between Korea's self-conscious rigidity, and China's, sometimes wild, roughness.

Now in the Philippines and a full post on that in due time.

Korea!

Beijing's bustling streets gave way to a short but incredible fast (295 km/hr) train ride to the most coastal Tianjin. I didn't explore it much, but rather flew across the Yellow Sea and landed in Incheon Airport just outside of Seoul. I think in the past, I've always traveled by air with lots of luggage so by the time I get to my destination I'm tired and worn out. This trip I make it to my home around noon and felt still fresh. So with almost no transition I went from the streets of Beijing to the streets of Seoul. Perhaps because the architecture is similar (high-rises as far as the eye can see), the temperature wasn't more than a few degrees warmer, or the height and hair-color of the populace are generally not dissimilar that I found myself very surprised by differences in culture and bearing. I can say undoubtedly South Korea has no interest, universal distrust in, or something altogether different with regards to making eye contact (at least with remarkably funny looking foreigners). This was the largest difference I noticed. The other differences seemed less apparent, but I did get a greater sense of cleanliness and uniformity in Korea. If memory serves Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, so I wonder which if any of these generalizations contribute to that.

After a few days in Seoul I made it down to Daegu and then promptly the next day to Miryang, my old home. My old school was either shut down or merged with a mathematics cram-school as well. Later in the day I went to the kendo school where I trained during the weekdays. As I was going up the stairs I found some people coming down the stairs, apparently the school head had guests. I got to see briefly table full of empty dishes and Soju bottles before being quickly whisked out the door to go to a restaurant where the school head continued and I started to drink. I had to use Google Translate to say many simple things since I had forgotten so much Korean. I was forbidden to help pay the bill, a common theme as we went to a chicken-and-beer (a popular combo in Korea) restaurant afterwords. The table was full so someone grabbed my backpack and put it on a seat at the neighboring table. With my whole life in that bag, it was odd to not have it within arms reach, but then I recalled the stories all of the locals and foreigners alike had said about Korea: (maybe) the safest place in the world. After much chicken and drink I was kindly escorted by the whole party to the nearby jimjilbang, which is a budget place to sleep in Korean cities. One of the kind souls even insisted on paying for my jimjilbang stay, which I thought weird, but was in no mind or linguistic capabilities to argue. I don't what it is, but their kindness seems to know no bounds (nor time limits) I feel like I will always have an incomprehensible second family on the other side of the world. Several great pictures and less than a day later I made it to the airport. On to warmer weather!

China, the middle kingdom as a whole

I'm flying out of Tianjin, China today for South Korea. Maybe it'd be worthwhile to report some findings on the world's largest country while I'm still here.

With plenty of exceptions, it seems like most Chinese people believe that every American (including myself) owns one or more guns, and that if you walk down a street in America there's a ~50% chance you will be shot; because I'm the only American friend of a few Chinese people, I am now the the average height of all Americans; the normal house size everywhere is what you might expect to find in a new Midwestern suburb or Southern manor. Half or more of Chinese people haven't heard of, or know nothing about, the Dalai Lama. Past wars are frequently talked about, either a cab-driver sharing in camaraderie on having defeated Japan together in WWII, or justifying the world's second largest military budget with The Boxer Rebellion as a cause. Despite having little more than practice and routine training, the military is often on the news and related magazines are readily available in stands around the cities.  Work uniforms seem to be more popular here than in the US. In addition, I suspect they could historically be traced back to some American or western WWI or WWII uniform.

There is a general sense of happiness in a surprisingly many people and also a sense of ignorance, but somehow these two impressions seem unrelated with just an impressionable preponderance, and lack correlation. Chinese and generous definitely go together, on more than one occasion a friend or almost total stranger would insist on paying for food or drinks, always within memory citing because I was a "guest." People's opinions of their culture, government, and current events vary as much here as they do in the US, though there is a tinge more nationalism and ample more conservatism here.

Every tourist destination seems to be packed with people daily from a little after opening until closing, I definitely found this devaluing the experience of several places. Very natural scenic places would often have a very artificial walkway or amenities that I found very surprising or would have found very out of place in the US. I think China's immense population leads to the creation of a plethora of simple jobs in order to combat unemployment. I would guess what a modest restaurant does in the US with a team of 10 people on a shift, the average Chinese restaurant would hire at least 15, and probably 20, people to do. I saw on a billboard a list of government-approved virtures, which included 奔小康 (bènxiǎokāng). This translates to "strive for a relatively comfortable life," and seems to come from Confucius' idea of 小康, which is described as a "near-ideal state of society, second only to Datong." Perhaps ideal isn't feasible for this vast population with the current level of technology.

I was able to see a lot of China, but from so many conversations with other travelers I know there is much much more. If I am fortunate enough to return here in the future, I think the best or most interesting route of travel will be to go along the perimeter of China and see the people who claim Mongolian, Kazakh, Muslim, Tibetan, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, etc. decent.

Recap, and recent findings

Fun and interesting all around. When you're staying in Kunming, China, most people will tell you to go west to Dali, Lijiang, or Shangri-la. Following their advice I went to Dali and Lijiang. One of China's greatest landscapes, Tiger Leaping Gorge, is an hour or two from Lijiang, so I went there with the intention of returning to Lijiang so that I could go to Lugu Lake. Hiking the gorge so many people said Shangri-la is so beautiful and unlike Kunming, Dali, or Lijiang, so I changed plans and opted to visit Shangri-la before returning to Lijiang and setting out for Lugu Lake (and eventually Chengdu). Shangri-la is indeed beautiful, you're up high enough that the clouds are around you instead of above you. It carried a mysteriousness in its air, unless you're downtown or in the middle of a downpour. Those seem to be the same everywhere in the world. At the hostel I asked about places to go and after a nice chat with the receptionist I learned there is a northern way to Chengdu, full of wilderness, I wouldn't make it to Lugu Lake, but it would be as beautiful if not more. So yesterday I got on a bus and rode for 8 hours through windy mountain roads, muddy dirt and drop-offs most of the way. Got to Xiangcheng, slept, got up took another 4 hour trip to Litang (Lithang in Tibetan), and have been enjoying this city since. The architecture, language, and appearance of everything exudes Tibetan here. Apparently it was an old land/kingdom of Tibet, so it had retained much of its flair. The birthplace of the 7th Dalai Lama is enshrined and preserved just a 10 minute walk off the main street. There seems to be a much more heavy police presence here than any other city I've seen in China--small groups sitting on every other block doing nothing and one group of maybe 6 downtown with riot clubs and riot shields arrayed on the fence behind them. Tomorrow I'll be going to the large and partially ancient (supposedly much was rebuilt after a PLA bombing in the 40's or 50's) monastery and then Monday out to Kangding and more surprises. 

I wrote this and then tried to post it at various times in various places. I think it's going to actually go through now because I've made it to Chengdu and am guessing the reason it wasn't going through was China's firewall being nearly impenetrable if you're in a Tibetan region.

Many pictures are up! www.flickr.com/dcpetit, click on Albums for optimal organization. 

Big city, small city, old city; now no city?

This will be a short post, but I might not get the chance to post again for several days.  I landed in Kunming, went to two smaller cities (Dali and Lijiang) with old/ancient towns that, at moments, make you think you walked through a legitimate time machine. Tomorrow I'm getting up early and going to Tiger Leaping Gorge, where I'll walk more than 20km over the course of 3 or so days, staying at guesthouses along the way. Wish me luck!

Bearings in China

A good start to this trip. Landed late at 10:30pm, much confusion and difficulty getting to my room in town, but made it there smiling at ~1:30am. First question I got asked, "have you eaten, you must be hungry."

First day was a trip to The Golden Temple, a lush and stunning hill on the outskirts of town studded with 1600's stone and woodwork from the Ming Dynasty. Very quiet, peaceful, almost otherworldly. After a pleasant morning and early afternoon there, I bused an hour or so to get downtown and got to see the heart of the Yunnan province. Looked like most other large cities with much thought going into efficiency, a little into style, and almost none into history. I got home at 8:30pm and started struggling to keep my eyes open. I'll chalk it up to jet-lag and go to sleep for 10 hours. Goodnight!

Pre-departure discoveries

In my search for the cheapest way to get across the pacific ocean, I've discovered something quite odd. Plane ticket prices seem to go against intuition in a variety of respects. For example, when searching for "flights from SF to Hong Kong in October," I can find one for $250 that makes one stop in Shanghai. My intuition then tells me flying from SF to Shanghai must, necessarily, be cheaper, but when I change only one parameter so it's now "flights from SF to Shanghai in October" the lowest I can find is $290 and it makes a stop in Vancouver. Just to take it one step farther, I should look up how much a flight from Vancouver to Shanghai is in October (and find out where it stops along the way).

What a weird algorithm this must use. Yet, the thing to do mmustbe to find the $250 ticket going to anywhere that stops at where I really want to go before connecting.