The tour of China is concluded!  Time to go home! Depart Jinshitan by bus at 8 AM => Dalian => Tokyo/Narita => Vancouver => Calgary.  Across the world in 24 hours.

JAL is the best airline I’ve ever flown with.  The food is great.  Two kinds of chicken, salad, sushi, olives and ice cream.

And finally, here I am!  What a trip!

Things you notice immediately about Calgary after being in Asia for 7 months:

1) You call this a city?  Where are the towers?  Where is the industry?  Where are the throngs of people?  This is a small town, at best. 

2) Cars, cars everywhere!  Holy crap, I’ve seen more cars than people.  This is insanity.  Don’t you jackasses ever take the bus?

3) Clean air, trees, and birds singing!  Oh Canada!  You take these things for granted when you live here.

4) Jeez, it’s cold here.  I’ve been living in 30 degrees and humidity for the last month.  No wonder the foreigners always complain about cold.

And in case you were wondering, my first meal when I arrived home was chips and salsa.  Two bowls of chips and salsa.  It was the best thing I’ve ever tasted.

China blog, over and out.

For our final weekend in China, we climbed Jinshitan’s local outdoors destination, Da Hei Shan (Big Black Mountain).

See that fort way up there?  Yeah, that’s where we’re going.  It’s actually not nearly as far as it looks.

At the bottom there is this little temple.  The idea here is to throw a coin into the shrine.  The higher the level you can throw your coin into, the better your luck will be.  Or something like that.

These temples, while common as dirt in Korea and Taiwan, are hard to find in China, since the communists tore most of them down during the cultural revolution.

Another temple, not far up the hill.  The jagged rocks here make for a beautiful landscape, and some great climbing, as we’ll see.  In fact, the Chinese call places like this “geoparks”.

People hang ribbons and banners from the trees.  I’m not entirely sure why, I think it’s some Buddhist thing.

This is the landscape you think of when you come to China.

Near the top, another temple.

The statues here are all very well dressed.

…even the big one.

There’s a booth selling incense sticks.  It’s traditional to light one in the memory of the recently deceased.  I lit one for Pete.

Now we’re at the fort you saw in the first picture.  The summit is not far from here, but it gets steeper.

Ahhhh, the summit.  You should be able to see Kaifatchu from up here, but the view is obscured by the Chinese…err, mist.  Yeah, it’s “misty”.

At the top, there’s a weird installation… and a weird tourist.

Apparently Fan Fan beat us here.

Stopped to do some casual climbing on the way down.  With cliffs like these all over the place, I’m surprised rock climbing isn’t a bigger hobby in China.  This pinnacle was only a short hop from the main cliff face :)

Team Zissou.

Well, only one way down now….

I’m tired.  Let’s ride home.

Da Hei Shan: Not quite the Great Wall, but still pretty damn nice.  And much less crowded.

I’m home now and retroactively adding the last couple updates.  (Pictures upload a lot faster in Canada.)  This is where I’ve been living these last few months: say hello to Jinshitan.

This is Susan’s, the western restaurant where we all go for breakfast on Sunday mornings.  We would not have survived without Susan’s.  Some people ate here almost every day for a year.

The “Rocky Balboa” gym I’ve been training at.  Everything you need, nothing you don’t.  The pool table and ping pong see more use than the weights with the locals.  It’s hard to bulk up on Chinese food.

This is Big Man, he owns the gym.  Nobody knows his real name.  He’s the strongest man in China, and real friendly too.  Speaks a bit of English.

Typical Chinese news stand: 30% Beauty magazines, 60% anime, 10% video games.

Food stands by night in Kaifatchu.  These guys stay open late in the summer, and you can spend all night drinking and eating barbecue.

Quintessential smalltown China

This is the old village, it’s been systematically torn down and replaced with apartment blocks.  This is about all that’s left of it.

The parking lot.  Like I’ve said before, they tear up and replace a different section every week.  Keeps them busy, I suppose… Yay, communism!

Jinshitan’s main street: honk honk honk honk honk

Discoveryland, the amusement park right beside the school.  Quite nice, actually.  And expensive.  I cheaped out :P

Jinshitan is full of brand new shiny apartment blocks like this.  But nobody lives in them.  They’re all empty.  It’s just momentum from their housing bubble.

This is where everyone really lives: the old soviet style apartment blocks.

…typical quality Chinese construction.  They had to tear up the ground to fix a pipeline or something.  Nice of them to put the bricks back.

Jinshitan’s main export is seaweed.  The fishers bring it in from the bay, and a crane loads it onto trucks like these, which take it…wherever it goes.  A truck like this drives by every 5-10 minutes, from sunrise to sunset.

People who buy it will string it up on clotheslines to dry.  I have no idea what they do with it.  Mostly, I think they just eat it.

Chinese fishing boats anchored in the bay.

There are a lot of old-ish women like this who sit and sell seafood, vegetables, or candy all day long.  I think most of them are widows.

The gang out at a fancy hot pot restaurant.  One thing I will miss from China is hot pot.  It’s basically buffet-style soup.  This is the fanciest hot pot joint in town, everyone gets their own little bowl and camp stove, and you can choose your own sauces from the sauce buffet.  Once you figure out which sauce is good, it’s delicious :)

This was my science classroom.  This is the one room I’ll really miss, science class was the best part of my day.

Study hard and you can be like Yao Ming.

Ruby Bar, our favorite place in Kaifatchu.  It’s our favorite place because it has a foosball table, and the bartender is a cute young chinese girl who kills me at foosball every time.  Also, apparently it’s still christmas in July.

Dragging my sore and broken body out of bed the morning after Hallasan, I decided my final day in Jeju should involve something a little less strenuous.  So I headed south to the little town of Seogwipo for the day.

Seogwipo is just a nice place.  If I looked up “nice place” in the dictionary, there would be a picture of seogwipo.  It’s pleasantly warm, full of parks and greenery, and with a nice view of Hallasan to boot.

And lots of little creeks where the kids play.  Just a nice place.

This rock is a big tourist attraction.  There’s a path where you can walk around, but it’s a protected nature area, like most of Jeju’s coast.

Koreans like to pile rocks even more than Canadians do.

This is on the rock.  Those volcanic flows make for some neat formations.

The rock on this island is very non-porous, so you get puddles like this everywhere.  Like the crater lake, I guess.  Down here they look like tidepools, but above the tide.

Look closely.  Yes, that is a bridge over an isthmus.  No, I don’t understand it.

Then I visited this waterfall.  Let’s talk about this waterfall.  This waterfall has been developed as a tourist attraction to the point of absurdity.  I was trying to find a way down to it by following the park pathways, but there seemed to be no way in.  Like trying to undo a bra clip, this confused and infuriated me.  But from down here, I saw that the entire area has been enclosed by a fence, and the only way in is through the ticket booth.

As the water flows from the waterfall to the sea, they have built a series of artificial dams.

…creating ponds in which they have placed these enormous carp.  They look small here, but these things are like 2 feet long.

Further along the coast, there’s these neat volcanic rock formations.  Yay, geology!

Then another waterfall.  No way am I paying 2 more bucks to walk down to this stupid waterfall.  Especially when that money could be spent on ice cream!

And Jeju orange juice.  Jeju oranges are a big export.  In korea, they get excited over Jeju oranges like we get excited over mandarin oranges.

Seogwipo: just a nice place!

This concludes my tour of Korea.  Jeju gets an A+

Arrived home to a nice surprise today: the water pipeline into Jinshitan has ruptured and the whole town will be without water for a couple days.  What fun.  Clearly they are in need of my expertise.

Today I successfully dragged my lazy ass out of bed at 7 am to go climb Hallasan.  Here’s how it went:

I think this is where the trail starts.  Is this where the trail starts?  Hold on, let me check the map…. yeah, this is where the trail starts.  Ok, let’s go.

Here’s the route: 8 km up, 9 km down.  Took me 7 hours.  Most exhausting hike of my life.  I am not cut out for this mountaineering stuff.  I’m sticking to rugby from now on, 80 minutes max.  Just to rub it in, there were old people and children who made the same hike.  Koreans are crazy.

I am not!

I decided to go up the gentler East face and down the steeper North face.  About 2/3 up, there’s this rest stop where everybody takes a break, eats instant noodles, and gets ready for the sprint to the top.  There were some monks here making the trek in their monk robes, which get really gross and sweaty.  There’s a gold mine waiting to be tapped in breatheable monk robe materials.

Almost there!  The peak is 1940m elevation, but the starting point is about 600m.  My ears kept popping from the elevation changes.

The party at the summit!

Obligatory proof picture.  Yes, at the top there is a crater lake.

Still not green at this time of year.  Hallasan is a great showcase of how the wildlife changes with elevation.  On the way up and down you pass through several distinct biomes.  Hallasan has the greatest diversity of wildlife found in Korea.

At the top, nothing but rocks, grass and tiny shrubs hiding from the wind.  From here, you should be able to see the entire island, but the infamous Jeju fog usually blocks your view of the coast.  Here you can see that much of the trail is built of stairs (either stone or wood), probably about half of it.

Around 1900m, the short scraggly korean conifers take over.

The North face was much more jagged and scenic.  Better in every way, really.  For all of you reading this who plan on hiking Hallasan in the future (so, nobody), I would suggest going up and down the North side.  You’re not missing much (other than instant noodles) on the East.

Below 1800m you have deciduous trees and ferns.

I was wondering how they got stuff up and down the mountain.  There’s this vehicle mounted on a monorail that follows the trail on the North face.  Next time I’m breaking my leg just so I can have an excuse to ride this thing down.  But how the hell does it stay balanced?

Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

A little lower, flowers appear.

Then there’s a brief layer of cedar.  Felt like Vancouver here.

Then in the gentle slopes below 1000m it turns into a green woodland paradise.  Incredibly picturesque forest down here, great place to spend the day if you don’t feel like climbing a mountain.

…as these ladies seem to have figured out.  They’re the smart ones.  Should have stopped here and played in the pools all day.  Damn hike almost killed me.  I must have drank 10L of water that day and I still gave the waitresses a heart attack when my leg cramped up at dinner and I jumped outside going “ow ow ow ow!”

Tomorrow: recovery day!

Today’s itinerary: Mount Halla (Hallasan).  Depart 7 am, return 5 pm.  4 hours to the top of the volcano, 4 hours down the other side.

Today’s reality: sleep in ‘till 9, make breakfast, ponder life, play on computer, set out for easier attractions after lunch.  Professional tourist.

So today I visited Seongsan (Sunshine Peak) and Manjonggul (Manjong Cave), Jeju island’s #2 and 3 attractions, respectively.  Hallasan is #1.  We’ll get there tomorrow (cross your fingers.)

Hallasan is THE volcano on Jeju, but it is by no means the only one.  There are probably near 100 smaller cones dotting the landscape, all of them a classic collapsed shield volcano:

Here’s one of many I passed on the 1-hour bus ride to Seongsan.

Also wind turbines.  Good on you, Korea.  Jeju is quite a windy place, especially at altitude, as I learned quickly on my climb.

There is probably no place on earth like Seongsan.  You will soon see why.  From a distance, it instantly jumps out at you.  It’s connected to the mainland by a stretch of land only wide enough for a road.  The “town” at its base is composed entirely of hotels and restaurants, each of which sells the exact same menu for the exact same price.  I’m calling the competition bureau.

Quite crowded, even on a Thursday.  There’s only one trail to the top, and you can’t leave it.  You just have to join the procession.  They’re very serious about protecting their world heritage sites, and they never stop reminding you that it is, in fact, a world heritage site.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s just a big rock sticking out of the ocean. We have those in Oregon.”   Oh, you’ll see.  You will see.

As you climb, there are some pretty ocean views.

And jagged pinnacles.

But then you get to the top…. and you see why there is no place like it on earth:

Stop flashing gangster signs, asian lady.

Yes, Seongsan may be the world’s only perfectly isolated bowl rising vertically from the sea.  According to some list, it’s one of the 7 natural wonders of the world (although I think there’s more such lists than wonders by now).

From the air, it looks like this.  No, I didn’t take this one, smart ass.  Apparently it’s an ancient volcanic crater which has been miraculously eroded equally from all sides, forming this perfect circular bowl.  Must have been an amazing place for the natives to play (when they weren’t devoting every spare minute to spamming statues).  Of course, no one is allowed into the crater now.

After Seongsan, it was off to one of Jeju’s other world heritage sites (they have a few).  This one is a 7-mile-long lava tube big enough to carry a train.  It made for some fun long-exposure photography.  I should have taken more pictures, but here I ran into some teacher friends and they didn’t feel like waiting while I played with my camera.  Jackasses.

The entrance.  Ooooooooh, spooky.  The whole thing was quite well-developed.  Every tourist attraction in Korea is well developed.  In Canada, we have an outhouse and a ranger station if you’re lucky.  In Korea, even the smallest attraction has a restaurant, visitor centre, nice landscaping, clean new roads, and of course, full wireless access.

With the water dripping from the roof, you get some nice splash effects with the long exposure time.

And some nice ghost effects.

And some nice jackass effects.
“You have to stand REALLY still.”
“Like this?”

…

Ok, that’s a lie, I told them to move.

Still, neat place.  I think they threw some of those old mill stones in the puddles to be used as stepping stones.  Well, it’s not like anybody else was using them any more…

Tomorrow: Hallasan, for real!

Posting out of order… forgive me.

I’m back in Seoul!  You know what that means!

Awwww yeah.  1-0 gg no re.  Still got it!

Seoul in spring is a beautiful city.  In Dalian, we don’t even have leaves on the trees yet.  What gives?  Seoul is right beside us and it’s already hot and muggy. 

You can tell it’s summer now because there’s cotton candy at the palace.

The palace is looking vastly improved from January.

…and 100 times as crowded.

For good reason, I suppose.

It’s hot here.  Just ask this guy.

Korean bars have funny names.  Ho Bar is actually a franchise.  There are 10 of them in Hongdae district alone. 

Ho Bars 5 through 7.  Okay, maybe they’re double-counting a bit.

Here’s a good place to take the lady.

And this is just…. I don’t even… really?

I’m back, baby!  This time on Jeju island, Korea’s tropical* vacation hot spot.  Geology nerds will get that pun, along with most other things on Jeju, as Jeju appears to be the world capital of stones and geology.  Their marketing logo is the traditional stone statue carved by the locals hundreds of years ago (think Easter Island), and these things - originals and replicas - are EVERYWHERE.  They have so much volcanic rock on this little island they don’t know what to do with it.  Porous stone is the material of choice for building your backyard fence, or just piling into a mountain bigger than your neighbour’s.  This place has got lava balls up to its….err, eyeballs.

Today I visited the stone park, where all manner of ancient stone carvings are on display (some original, some replicas) along with the Stone Museum, one of a few geology-themed museums on Jeju island.  Let’s take a look:

This is where the gods rose out of the earth…or something like that.

Jeju’s #1 export: little stone statues.

Happy statue is happy.

Hey, I wonder if I can… okay, never mind.

Entrance to the Stone Park.  What’s this all going to be about?

Jeju totem pole: wood body, stone head.

A priceless archeological relic!  An ancient stone mill!

Apparently Jeju has more priceless archeological relics than they know what to do with.  They just pile the damn things in the field.  “You found ANOTHER one?  All right, fine.  You know the drill.  I’ll get the bobcat.”

What do tadpoles and Jejuites have in common?  They’re both SWIMMING in stone-age artifacts!  Zing!

I wonder if this one’s an original…

Mexican stand-off.  Speaking of which, Korea has excellent mexican food.  Who would have thought?

I wasn’t sure about building a fence out of tombstones, but after a while I got to lichen it.

Ancient burial sites.  Replica.

Into the forest I find strange characters.

…Whom I proceed to mock.  Cultural insensitivity: the return!

Suddenly there are more of them.

I think they’re watching me…

How many of these damn things are there?

…oh crap.  The class photo.

And these are their pots!  Seoul National Museum, take a lesson from this!  See this?  This is the proper method of displaying 5000 pots.  We’ll talk later.

And these are their houses.  This was called the replica ancient village, but I’d call it a replica ancient town.  Enough houses here for hundreds of people, easily.  Why on earth did they need to make such a big village?  Heritage park, you got nothin’ on this.

These are the big ones.  Front right: grandpa simpson.  Back middle: “solidarity” statue.

Well, I suppose you can never be TOO careful…

Hey Korea, we invented that one!  You can’t take that from us!  That one’s ours!

Jeju island: please stop giving archeologists grants.  You’re starting to look like the crazy old lady with the russian doll collection.

About to write a test, student walks up to me and opens his wallet.  Uh-oh.  Turns out he just wants to show me some foreign currency his parents brought back from their trip to Africa: 10 000 Guinean Francs!  Whoa!  How much is this worth, he asks?

As it turns out, about $1.50….