A Few Sights In Shanghai

Following my assignment in South Korea, I had a back to back assignment in Shanghai. However, after vacationing in Japan, sightseeing in South Korea, and knowing that it was my second trip to Shanghai, my itch for adventure was subdued and I stayed relatively close to my hotel in the French Concession. 

French Concession

Yuyuan 

Hairy Crabs

My local colleagues were fantastic hosts and I enjoyed a fantastic range of authentic dishes in a variety of styles. Every meal was a new adventure and as a result, it turned out to be my favorite trip to China so far!

One Last Stop In Seoul

After our day of moderately successful sightseeing, I felt the need to see at least one more thing in Seoul before our departure. Luckily, Bongeusa, the head temple of the Seon Buddhism, was across the street from the mall that was connected to the hotel. 

Unfortunately, it was a grey and cloudy day with light drizzling, but I'm still that that we went. It was a good way for us to end our trip to South Korea. 

A Moderately Successful Day Of Sightseeing

MH and I came up with a great plan to visit the historic areas of Gyeongju. Little did we know, South Korea had other plans for us. When we arrived at the KTX train station at 9 AM, the train we wanted was full and the next available train to our destination was at 12:30 PM. 

Since we had some time to kill, we did some local sight seeing in Seoul and visited the Changdeokgung palace, a world heritage site as an "outstanding example of Far Eastern palace architecture and garden design." - UNESCO 

With a hour and a half left to spare, we went to the National Folk Museum of Korea which is located within the grounds of the Gyeonbokgung Palace.  The museum had a lot of great exhibits and nicely highlighted Korean history, lifestyles, and culture. 

We finally made it to Gyeongju by 2:30 PM and immediately jumped on the local bus to go to the Bulguksa temple. The temple is at the end of a hilly path and the slow moving crowds made hard to get there quickly. When we arrived at the temple, we took our photos and then high tailed it out of there. The sun was starting to set and we still wanted to visit the Seokguram Grotto.

According to the website, you can catch the bus from the Bulguksa temple to the Seokgurum Grotto. However, the bus runs on 30 minute intervals and we were cutting it close to the closing time. The information desk at the Bulguksa temple told us that the Seokgurum Grotto closed at 5:30 PM so we made the game time decision to follow the map and hike there ourselves. Long story short, we didn't make it. After huffing and puffing up the hill for 25 minutes and with the Seokgurum Grotto in sight, some tourists headed in the opposite direction kindly informed us at the Seokgurum Grotto closed at 5:00 PM. Fail. 

[WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY PHOTO OF THE SEOKGURUM GROTTO]

The trip home didn't make our defeat easy to swallow either. MH and I waited at the bus stop in the dark for over a hour and a bus never came. Worried that we were going to miss our train, we hailed a cab and jumped in, too bad the driver only spoke Korean and proceeded to drive like a mad man, going the opposite direction on one way streets, through narrow residential alleys, and a couple rice patty fields. If anything bad was going to happen, I was convinced it was going to happen right then and there. We later discovered that he decided to take the back roads to avoid the horrendous traffic on the highway and we arrived at the train station on time, safe, and sound. 

Seoul Lantern Festival

After a long week in the office, I was excited to hit the streets of Seoul and check out the Lantern Festival. 

"One of the capital's flagship events, the Seoul Lantern Festival is a visual feast of hundreds of thousands of lanterns hand-crafted by local and international artisans. This year, the lanterns will interpret the theme "Seoul's Roots, the Lifestyles of Our Ancestors" - and will highlight Seoul's 2000 year-old history and many traditions." - VisitSeoul.net

The variety of lanterns were really cool. However, after walking down the Cheonggyecheon stream for a few blocks I decided to call it a night. The festival attracted hoards of people and working through the crowds to see the different lantern displays wasn't pleasant. On top of that, the aromas from the fried street food carts ended up being more than my nose and stomach could handle so I decided that heading back to the hotel was the best idea before I started feeling too queasy. I'm totally weak sauce, I know.