Missing in Action (Part II) - KJI's childhood

Sorry again that I haven't been posting anything lately.  I'm in between a trip to China, hosting Chinese officials in Korea, and moving to a new place in Seoul, so a *bit* overwhelmed.  I promise I will write some new blog articles about Wuxi, China (exciting!), a commentary on Chinese drivers (so bad that I was laughing everytime I was in a car), and a new Taxicab Dialogues - Drivers on strike edition.

I do have an interesting story to share.  I was at a luncheon a couple of weeks ago, and sat next to a professor who used to ride tricycles with Kim Jong Il in Pyeongyang before the Korea War started.  Alas, KJI was pulled from school because his daddy had to go answer to his Soviet puppet masters and there was this penninsular war that he was trying to start.  Well, you know I'm interesting in anything about KJI (especially him looking at things), so I obviously asked if KJI was "ronery," but nobody in the table laughed.  C'mon people, where's your sense of humor?  The correct response is obviously "...so ronery."

Korean National Museum

For Coming of Buddha Day (May 28 - paid holiday), I spent the afternoon at the Korean National Museum in Yongsan.  It is the sixth largest museum in the world and the only one that happened to be open on a Monday.

The inside of the museum is gorgeous and reminded me of the British Museum in London.

One of the rooms that left a deep impression was half of the second floor, with galleries dedicated to historical pieces donated by individual Korean donors.  Since 1945, a total of 22,091 items including archaeological artifacts, pottery, wool and metal craft pieces, stationery, paintings, and books have been donated.  These people answered a noble call to leave a legacy of the country's history.

One of the donated piece was this Roman headpiece from Sohn Kee Chung, the 1936 Berlin Olympic (aka Hitler Olympic) marathon gold medalist.  He didn't receive this headpiece until 1986 and that's because Korea was under Japanese rule in 1936.

My family friend from home, Arthur, asked me a while ago to send him pictures of Asian dragons. While I was fulfilling this mission at the museum, I fell in love with Asian dragons ("Yong"), especially the fish dragon.  Here are some of the unique pieces with Asian dragon designs.  You will also note that some are National Treasures.  Yes, Korea has designated things as National Treasures, and National Treasure Number 1 is actually Namdaemun, which partially burned down through arson a couple of years ago.

Brick with Dragon design from Baekjae Dynasty

White porcelain with openwork dragon and cloud design in underglaze cobalt blue - Joseon Dynasty 19th Century

Jar - white porcelain with dragon and cloud design in underglaze cobalt-blue - Joseon Dynasty 18-19th Century

Fish dragon shaped pitcher in celadon - Goryeo Dynasty 12th Century.  National Treasure Number 61!

Buddhist gong

Top of Buddhist bell - Goryeo period 1058.  National Treasure Number 1166.

The second thing I fell in love with at the museum are Korean Lions.  Why?  Because they look like this:

So cute and cuddly and no flowing Simba mane to speak of.  Methinks someone has never seen a lion before.

In case you're wondering, I celebrated the Coming of Buddha Day by seeing Buddha...lots and lots of them.  I always wondered why people sculpted Buddha with his eyes closed.  After seeing the difference between the Indian Buddha statues and the Korea Buddha statues, I understood.  It's not that Buddha had his eyes closed, he just was given slits for eyes.

This is the "Thinking Buddha."  Maybe it inspired Rodin to create The Thinker?

Hall of Buddha statues

China Part II - Beijing, the new Rome

My first impression of Beijing was on the plane as we were approaching the airport.  As I looked out the window and saw the immense-ness of Beijing,  I felt like a person 2,000 years ago seeing Rome for the first time, in awe about how big and expansive and developed the city is.  The enormity and magnitude of the city took my breath away, and I knew immediately that this is where I wanted to be.  It was nice to be greeted by Jeremy Lin at the airport.

We stayed in the Wangjing neighborhood near the airport, and I was treated to real Peking Duck the first evening.  Now I consider myself somewhat of a conossieur of Peking Duck.  The skin of this duck was AMAZING.  It was like eating an M&M: crispy texture but melts in your mouth, not in your hands.  I wouldn't mind never going on a diet again if I can just eat crispy duck skin everyday for the rest of my life.  My overall impression of the Beijing Peking Duck: the ones at Peking Gourmet Inn in Falls Church, VA is still the best.  It's because they have a very unique and flavorful hoisin sauce, they give you an ample amount of spring onions, they have this amazing spicy pickled peppers, and the duck is served with homemade flour wrappers.

My little friend being carved.  Check out the fast knife skills!

They carve the duck differently than at Peking Gourmet Inn.

My real purpose for going to Beijing because my uncle was going to be a guest lecturer at Tsinghua University.  My uncle's lecture was on Noise Control for Petro-Chemical Plants in China, and I think the students really enjoyed his lecture from the feedback and questions they asked in the end.

One of the posters advertising the guest lecture series.

My uncle's bio, all in Chinese.

Afterwards, our driver spent the afternoon driving us to the Olympic Bird's Nest and Tienanmen Square.  In memoriam of the 23rd anniversary of Tienanmen Square Massacre this week, here are some of the picture I took.  The square size is no joke and I can see how the Communist Government was able to roll the tanks in.  And those aren't pollution monitors: it's networked security cameras that are installed in every lightpost to prevent smelly people from opening tents and making a temporary permanent residence for the Occupy Tienanmen Square movement.

The Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium

Tienanmen Square

Monitoring cameras on every light post

The big picture of Mao at Tienanmen Gate

This area in Beijing is known as "Chinatown".  Yeah, I'm confused too.

I had some free time in the afternoon before another farewell banquet and karaoke, so I went to get my nails done.  I had an adorable Chinese boy who individually painted each nail.  It was 70 yuans (~$11).  Unbelievably cheap!

China Part I - Weihai Dreaming

June 6 is Korean Memorial Day (also known as D-Day for WWII history buffs), so no work and I finally got a breather to log my trip to China.  If you're wondering how many holiday's I've already had since arriving in Seoul two months ago, I'm wondering the same thing.  I think I've had four paid holidays: (1) Election Day, (2) May Day, (3) Coming of Buddha Day, and (4) Memorial Day.  It would've been five if Children's Day/Cinqo de Mayo fell on a weekday.  Oh well, my next holiday won't be til August 15, which is V-J Day and when Korea gained their independence from Japan in 1945.

I was in China for a business trip a couple of weeks ago.  The first leg of the trip was Weihai, which is located in the eastern part of China and is a resort town.  For a couple of days, I was going to serve as an acoustic consultant and engineer.

Apparently, the outfit was too big for me and makes me look like a blue penguin.

At first, I was told that it was a Chinese plant and I was actually looking forward to seeing anti-suicide nets and dormitories.  But it turned out to be a semiconductor plant so everything was clean and pristine and the people actually received a decent wage.

Weihai is less than an hour's flight from Incheon, the main Seoul airport.  I was expecting a rigorous and burdensome process through immigration.  Instead, it was pretty painless, except the immigration officer asks you to choose a buttons to evaluate his performance that looks like the pain scale when you go to the emergency room.

I had less than five seconds to decide if the immigration officer's performance made me: greatly satisfied, satisfied, checking time too long, or poor customer service (e.g., take out to the back and execute immediately).  I was caught off guard because who would've guessed that the Chinese were asking for feedback on their performance?  I wish I could rate TSA's performance.

The best part about this business trips was being pampered.  We stayed at the five-star Bliss International Hotel.

The indoor courtyard

Intricate furniture carved from wood in the hotel lobby

Every meal was a feast and we had a driver to take us around anywhere the whole time we were in Weihai.  I even was treated to a genuine Chinese foot massage!  I was a bit paranoid in the beginning about the Chinese monitoring me through hidden cameras and stuff in the hotel room.  Why?  Because things were a bit too suspicious.  When I was taking a shower, I wouldn't even touch the faucet handle yet the water temperature kept on changing.  I also spent the first evening looking everywhere for the hairdryer.  The next day, the housekeepers kept the hairdryer out in a place for me to find easily.  I just assumed that they were watching, so kept on repeating, "Long Live Mao!"

I was very impressed by Weihai.  Their 15 miles of coastline was covered with parks and bike paths.  After waking up in the morning after spending an evening in Weihai, I felt magically refreshed and felt some of the stuffiness of Korea evaporate.  It must be the Baijiu, my new drink of choice.

30% Wendengxue Baijiu

One of the parks adjacent to the beach area in Weihai

I love how this boat got left behind by the tide.  The people are digging for clams.

Feng Shui