Despite of power outage problem had occurred couple of days before, we still decided to take bullet train to Beijing. Cost was 555RMB for single journey for 5.5hours. Surprisingly 5.5hours was not that long as I expected and facility of the train was pretty good except for lunch box.

Bullet train to Beijing

When I first arrived in Beijing, I felt it had totally different feeling from Shanghai. Starting from language, Beijing people were using more ‘err’ sound that, many of taxi drivers had hard time understand me and vice versa. While Shanghai taxi driver would be focus on take you to destination area, Beijing people loved to talk with passenger, even very private matters from your marriage to politics. Another interesting thing was Beijing people seemed to have more sense of direction. Instead of ‘turn left’ and ‘turn right’ they ask you weather they need to go to ‘west or East’ or sign saying ‘ticket office is at north side’.

I have heard about Beijing traffic, but never expect to be this serious. First of all, It was hard to get a taxi and every taxi ride took minimum 1 hour. Local people said, Bus is as much as slow and metro is packed with people all the time that, during rush hour you need  2 shirts to go to work, because you will be wet from your sweat + others by the time you got out of subway station. Not only car traffic, but also human traffic was unbelievable. Every ticket office had endless confusing cues taking about average 1.5 hours to get a ticket. I was bit annoyed the fact that we had to waste a lot of time on waiting on line, while purchase ticket in internet might have saved us time and energy. Wonder when China will introduce online ticket system. “Patient” was the key to survive in Beijing and perhaps that’s why most of people are very calm and lay back style.

Traffic @ Beijing

Feeling of city was very different. If Shanghai buildings are described as tall and thin, representing fanciness & richness, Beijing buildings were short but grand, representing strength and history. Tiananmen Square specially gave me bit of strange tension feelings.

@ Tiananmen Square

We stayed near by houhai lake. on first night, we explored restaurant area besides lake. I felt like this place was like Hongmei road in Shanghai except that they have lake here. This lake had totally different face during the day and night.

Houhai Lake during the day

Houhai Lake @ night

On Saturday, we visited one of popular part of great wall, ‘Badaliang 八大亮’. Seeing endless walls, I just could not close my mouth. It just took my breath away by its grandeur.

@ great wall

One of most important meal I had to have in Beijing was of course ‘Beijing duck’. We went to ‘DaDong’ restaurant and enjoyed delicate duck with lovely friends. At this restaurant, chef will bring the whole duck (including head) and perform cutting in front of you. Meat will be served on the table, and for the bones, you can either take home or ask them to make soup on the spot.

@ DaDong restaurant (Check out chef behind us!)

One interesting episode in the restaurant was that, I unintentionally called waitress as ‘prostitute’. In Shanghai, as calling waitress either ‘Fuwuyuan 服务员, meaning service person’ or ‘xiaojie 小姐 means young lady’ Since I felt that xiaojie feels more affection, I used to call them as xiaojie. When Chinese friend arrived in restaurant, she stopped me using xiaojie, explaining that it can represent prostitute especially in Beijing. No wonder, they were not happy whenever I try to order…

Last day, we went to the Forbidden City, Zijin Cheng 紫禁城. It was magnificent, and half a day was not enough to see all of the palaces for sure.

What surprised me was, there were lots of foreigner tourists, but about 80% were Chinese tourist. I wonder, now that more and more foreigners are interested in China, and wants to come for visit, it’s going to be even more packed then now. At the same time I could felt the power of China that they can certainly be self-sufficient.

Happy to back in Shanghai, little less chaos, but Beijing surely gave me big impression. Amazed how every city can give you such different feelings, and makes me curious, how other cities have different characteristic.

Chongming Island is 3rd largest island in China, governed by Shanghai city. Ferry was used to be the only option of getting to the island but now due to the EXPO, since 2009 there is bridge-tunnel between island and Shanghai. Public bus runs everyday.  (20RMB per head)

However, we decided to take a ferry thinking that it would be more romantic and gives real feeling of  going to the island. There are several ports but one we took was Wusong Port. (Add: No.100, Songpu Road, Baoshan District// Tel: 021-56671202/ 021-56671205/021-56673346- no English  service)

At Wusong Port

Port is located near Songbin metro station (Line 3) and from there; taxi can take you to the port straight. (12RMB- or you can also walk 10-15 mins) There were only 2 ferry going to Chongming Island on that day, which were 7:20 AM (1hour+/16RMB per head) and 8: 20AM (2 hour+/ 12RMB) but there was no ferry coming back to shanghai.

Arriving foggy Chongming Island  my first impression was not so good. All the taxi drivers, carriage drivers, hēichē(Un registered taxi) driver were coming towards to get us. They even start physically fight in front of us. Hearing that most popular place in Chongming Island is Dongping National forest Park( 东平国家森林公园), we quickly got taxi to get out of hectic scene.

Taking taxi in Chongming island is SUPER EXPENSIVE!. Beginning price is cheaper (10RMB) than Shanghai(12RMB) but meter machine goes up crazy. (now i realized, Taxi driver might have tricked the machine) From the Chongming port to Dongping park, there is direct line public bus which only cost 4RMB.

At Dongping National Forest Park (Enterence -70RMB per person)

The park was really nice. Just that it would have been perfect picnic if we have prepared sandwich, wine, blanket, book, some fruit in advance. (not much restaurants is around this area) As this park is largest man planted forest in Eastern China, size is enormous. There are all sorts of different trees, birds, flowers and insects in the park. I specially like the fact that, due to it’s huge size i can enjoy the nature without disturbed by other people.

Not only peaceful nature, but also many outdoor activity is available in the park

Relaxing @ Coffee Bar

Another interesting place was BBQ place. Joop keep saying he smells BBQ but I thought he is too hungry. Both starving, we were heading to main entrance to have lunch, but we saw camping sign. Just to check out if we can use facility of camping site in future, we changed our direction and walk towards camping site. And indeed, there was camping area  as well as place to do BBQ. There were lots of youngsters eating BBQ and hving fun.

All the necessary equipment for the BBQ   can be rent (min 30RMB) meats, vegetables and other BBQ food can be bought in the site. With 66RMB we enjoyed nice spontaneous BBQ.

With satisfied stomach, we decided to head back to Shanghai. Arriving Shanghai,Seeing people everywhere packed and noise of the car’s honks and construction sounds, I felt like I have entered different world. and seems  my trip to Chongming Island has already fell in to reminiscence category.

It was nice to have break from the city and enjoy nature. (Although it was half man made nature) I never realized that I missed nature this much until I came here today. Now that i know what to prepare next time, coming summer i look forward to have perfect picnic @ Chongming Island.

며칠 후면 우리민족의 대 이동이 시작되는 설날이다. 이런 설날에 네덜란드 사람들은 무얼 할까? 음력을 세지 않기 때문에 당연히 별다른 특별한 일이 없다. 오히려 구정을 세는 우리나라와 중국의 문화에 더욱 신기해 한다. 1월을 훌쩍 넘어 2월 중순에나 새해라고 하면, 과연 새해 기분이 드느냐고 반문하기도 한다.

그러면 신년을 세는 네덜란드는 과연 새해에 무엇을 할까?

네덜란드에는 새해에 아주 특별한 이벤트를 연다. 바로 Nieuwjaarsduik 이라고 불리는 새해 다이빙이다. 위의 비디오에서 볼 수 있듯이, 엄청난 수의 사람들이 얼음장 같은 바다에 새해 첫날 뛰어드는 것이다.

네덜란드의 공식 Nieuwjaarsduik 사이트에 의하면 2010년 해에는 거의 만 명의 사람들이 이 행사에 참여했다고 한다. 공식 행사지는 (공식 행사 말고도 여러 군데에서 같은 행사가 이루어 진다고 한다) 네덜란드의 해변으로 유명한  Scheveningen 였으며 물의 온도는 6도, 기온은 -1도 였다고 한다.이런 추위에도 불구하고 사람들은 비키니와 수영복만 입고 겨울 바다로 뛰어든다. (물론 우리나라는 정신 수양의 목적으로 겨울 바다/강에 들어 가는 것이 그다지 놀라운 일이 아니지만 말이다)

새해 다이빙은 네덜란드뿐만 아니라 캐나다, 이탈리아, 영국에서도 이루어 진다고 한다. 하지만 행사 규모와 참여 인원이 가장 큰 나라는 네덜란드 이다. 이 행사는 1965년, 전 수영선수인 Jan van Scheijndel에 의하여 시작되었다고 한다.

위의 사진과 비디오를 보면 모두가 똑 같은 모자를 쓰고 있는 것을 눈치챌 수 있다. 이는 바로 Unox 라는 네덜란드 회사가 이 행사를 후원하기 때문이다. 모자뿐만이 아니라 겨울 바다에 몸을 담그고 온 사람들에게 그들의 상품인 콩 스프도 무료로 나누어 준다고 한다. 끝내주는 마케팅이다.

네덜란드 사람들은 왜 겨울바다에 뛰어드는 걸까?

가장 큰 이유는 새해를 새롭게 시작하기 위해서라고 한다. 우리나라의 목욕재계와 비슷하다. 나라를 불문하고 무언가 큰일, 새로운 일을 시작하기 전에 몸을 씻는 것은 다 똑같은가 보다. 목욕재계의 의미 말고도 다른 흥미로운 이유들도 찾아볼 수 있었다. 어떤 사람들은 새해 다이빙이 술 깨는데 최고 이기 때문이라고도 답했다. (네덜란드 사람들은 보통 12월 31일을 친구들과 파티를 하며 보내곤 한다. 어쩌면 그래서 본인들이 겨울바다에 뛰어든다는 사실 자체를 모를지도 모르겠다)

또 다른 흥미로운 점은 2년 전부터 Geenstijl 이라고 불리는 블로그 사이트에서 새해 다이빙을 하는 사람들 중 아름답고 섹시한 여성을 찾는 것이 유행한다는 것이다. 이 사이트에 2년 전부터 아름다운 여성을 웹사이트에 올리기 시작했다. (아래 사진 참고) 그러자 폭발적인 반응이 일어났고 사람들이 이 여성을 찾기 시작했다. 결국 이 여성을 찾기는 했지만 그 이후 별다른 일은 일어나지 않았다. (한국이었으면 이 여성은 스타가 되지 않았을까 싶다. )

다음 번 네덜란드 행 비행기를 타는 것이 언제일지는 아직 미정이지만, 내년 새해에는 네덜란드 겨울바다를 뛰어들어보는 것도 색다르게 한 해를 시작할 수 있지 않을까 라는 생각이 든다. 혹시 아는가? 2011년의 아름다운 여성으로 내 사진이 사이트에 뜰지도.ㅋㅋㅋ

My color is 12-14.

What color are you?

Today (5th of Dec), the Netherlands is celebrating for Sinterklass day. (Also called Saint Nicolas’ Eve). From my observation, Dutch seem to celebrate more of Sinterklaas day than Christmas that rest of the world would usually celebrate (25^th of Dec).

What would happen in the Netherlands today is, children would put their shoes nearby fireplace in the evening and find present in the next morning.

But what makes different from normal Christmas is about Sinterklaas and Zwart Piet. Normally from our knowledge, Santa Claus remains ‘mysterious’ but in the Netherlands, you can actually see Sinterklaas. (They say Santa Claus and Sinterklaas are differnet, but i find it pretty much same. well, at least concept is same, isn’t it?)

Anyway, Sinterklaas would visit Children’s home or school with black Piet (Zwart Piet) who carries big sacks and a white horse. Sinterklaas would call out children’s name and ask if they were been naughty or not.(Just like Christmas song we sing all the time ) If he/she have been good this year then present will be rewarded but  if not, Zwart Piet would take him/her inside his sack and take them to Spain.

My dutch boyfriend told me that as for children, they would feel Spain is really far away that If Zwart Piet would take them they would never able to come back home. Plus Zwart Piet’s apprearence is really scary for Children. (Recently in the Netherlands, some raise voice that Zwart Piet is symbol of of discrimination that they should change color in to green. I am not sure, if that is going to happen soon though) He also used to get scared that he had to behave in front of them, how sweet.

So! As I said before, this year this Sinterklass visited Shanghai in China just for me. Somehow, Zwart Piet did not come but I guess it is either to save some travel expenses or I have been really good this year.

I got present which size is big as I am. A Christmas tree!!!! It is my first time in my life to have REAL Christmas tree. (I usually had plastic Christmas tree when I was young, every year same tree but I still loved it)

In a blink, whole house smells like forest and existence of Christmas tree encouraged my Christmas spirit, Christmas song  has been playing ever since in my house. Tomorrow I will be going for Christmas shopping to find some nice decorations! Yes, I am going to have long Christmas this year.

Thank you my dear Sinterklaas.

Everyone Happy Sinterklaas day~

weather was good for running and I was super nervous.

7:30 am, race started. I set to myself  rule that i will just focus on cathcing up person infront of me, and not let other people benid me go over me. But i guess that was too much ambitious plan. after while i got too tired and decided to just stick with my own pace.

What i liked about shanghai marathon is that every once in a while, there were people dressed up with drums and scarves to cheer runners. also people on the street shouted ‘Jiayo!’ (menas go! go! in chinese). It really helped and gave evergy.

Where i reached 14km, I had really bad mucle pain on my both calf. Oh i never had that pain and whatever i do, pain got worse. But seeing other people running made me keep going. (I have to point out that some grannies can really run!!) Another amazing thing was, while i was running, i wasn’t thinking of anything. I was running with blank mind. That was new experience.

Finally I did it!

21km half marathon in 2 hour 17 min 38 second. I was ranked 346th among women. My first half marathon and I am proud of my self

PS. I thank my boyfrined who inspired me to achieve new goal. ( although i was blaming him why he subscribed me for this marathon when i reached 17km)

“Who would have imagined that I would met Korean friend that I met in Sweden in Shanghai!!”

Actually this is my second time this suprising event have happened.

Last June, while I was having one month vacation in The Netherlands, I got Facebook message from my high school friend from Kenya.

“Oh! Suna! Are you in The Netherlands? Me too!! We have to meet!!”

And Just like that I had reunion with a friend that I haven’t meet for 7 years.

The night we meet, we talked and talked until we see the dawn.

People are everwhere thesedays. Yes, Of course we can contact them through E-mail and phone but let’s be honest. We do not contact everyone every other day. Yet we all go to Facebook at least once a day (at least I am) and check what other people are up to. So I think it is the facebook that keeps everyone connected. It truly fulfilling purpose of social net-working.

One day, If I get to meet Mark Zuckerberg, I would really like to thank him, for real!

Now, I am waiting for next surprising event. Who will be my thrid suprise contact?

First I typed “South Korea”

Was I too proud of my country or can it be serious? The result was really shocking. It said, 87.8% think South Korea negative, 12.1% positive and 0% do not care.

I thought this is because many of people do not know the difference between South Korea and North Korea. So I tried “North Korea” which  gave me second shock!

Only 0.2% negative, 0.6% positive and 99.2% were don’t care.

With term “Korea”, 1% negative, 19.2% positive and 79.8% don’t care.
This is better result than “South Korea”, but still it represent that Korea generally do not have positive reputation. Plus compare to other neighbouring countires, Korea is definately low on positive side.

It is so heartbreaking to see all these result, however, we can learn from the painful result.

Even if, negative reputation could be cause of ‘North Korea’ it is clear that  still a lot of people do not know or don’t bother to know about Korea.

It was also irritating for me to serach 3 times to find out about my country yet other countries needed to be typed only one starndard name, which is pretty normal.

Well Korea!! We gotta show the world how good pleasant and positive Korea can be and hopefully in near future, I can search Korea with one name not seperated.