"The born traveller - the man who is without prejudices, who sets out wanting to learn rather than to criticise, who is stimulated by oddity, who recognises that every man is his brother, however strange and ludicrous he may be in dress and appearance - has always been comparatively rare."

Enemy Territory

The visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entry into a hostile area and possibilty of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action. The Joint Security Area is a neutral but divided area guarded by United Nations Command military personnel on the one side (South), and KPA personnel on the other (North). Guests of the United Nations Command are not permitted to cross the Military Demarcation Line into the portion of the Joint Security Area under control of the KPA. Although incidents are not anticipated, the United Nations Command, the United States of America, and the Republic of Korea cannot guarantee the safety of visitors and may not be held accountable in the event of a hostile enemy act.

In this day and age, you have to sign waivers for practically everything, but this is certainly one of the most interesting ones I've seen. On Saturday, Sharon and I went to the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the 4 km boundary separting the north and south. We went through the USO at the army base in Seoul, and since we had to be there so early in the morning, we went up Friday evening after school, got a good middle eastern dinner in a shopping area in downtown Seoul, and then stayed with different friends we have in the area.
The tour was really well done. After driving north to the border, we entered the only area that can be entered in the dmz. [Side note: the term dmz is probably the biggest oxymoron ever.] We went through all the different checkpoints and heard a short presentation on the history of the area, and then saw some of the buildings. In the middle of this area, there is a clearing with a cluster of several buildings with a concrete line going through the middle. The buildings belonging to the south are blue, and the northern ones are grey, just so you don't get confused. Southern soldiers stand behind their buildings in a taekwondo stance, half their body behind the building so they can jump back if they need to. Northern soldiers stand back further, peering at the southern ones. It is very surreal... tense because everyone is on guard, but calm because everyone is just standing around. It's very quiet; a physical stalemate, broken only by a few incidents through the years when people have attacked each other or tried to defect. There are definite rules for tourists... wear nice clothes and keep your expressions neutral so you can't be used in propaganda, don't point or wave your arms so you don't start a war, and stay in a double-file line so snipers can pick you off easier if they get bored. We did get to go into the building where they sometimes have meetings between the two sides.

Divided table/ Standing in the North

Later on the tour, we saw an observation building and the Bridge of No Return, which they used to exchange POWS. After the war, the pows got to choose which country they wanted to live in, but once they went over the bridge, they could never go back. We also got to go down in a tunnel the north dug in the 70s to attack the south. When people in the south started hearing weird noises, they sprayed water in the ground, and when a geyser shot up, they discovered its location. Now they turned it into a minefield.
The whole thing was kind of weird, and some of it was like a time warp since the buildings are from the 50s when the war ended. The day we went was rainy and really cold, so by the time we got home we were completely chilled. But the rain was okay since it is kind of a sad place anyway, and we could still see the important things through the fog. It was a good reminder of how divided this peninsula is, even though you can't tell it in the south, and of the conditions that exist in other places. The war wasn't that long ago; several of our students talk about their grandparents coming down from the north. But even still, it is amazing how little our students know of the war. It's led to some interesting discussions this year. Sharon and I were both very glad we could go on the tour. I'm not sure what it says about a country when one of the main tourist attractions is a war zone, but we did learn a lot.

China: Walkin' the Wall

To continue my China narrative: Sunday morning I met up with a good friend from college, and she took me to the Summer Palace. The emperors used summer palace as a main palace, or an alternate palace to use for vacation since it is surrounded by a beautiful park with a lake in the middle. Once again, it was very crowded so we didn’t spend a lot of time exploring the main buildings in the center of the palace, but we walked around the grounds a lot. The flowers were blooming and most the trees have leaves on them now, so it was beautiful. We climbed up to the Tower of Buddhist Incense, a tall temple on a mountain with great views. The Summer Palace has lots of traditional architecture, including a round bridge and the infamous marble boat. According to one legend, a queen who wanted to be emperor wanted to be on the water but didn’t like boats, so she essentially built a stone dock that looks like a boat. According to another (non-so-interesting) tradition, it was a tribute to the navy.
After thoroughly exploring the gardens, we enjoyed a delicious Chinese meal and hung out at her apartment. It was great to catch up after almost 2 years of not seeing each other! We had dinner with several other people from college who also teach there, and it was crazy how many of them I knew, either from living in the dorms, different classes, or even my job grading engineering papers! It was a lot of fun to see them again and hear about what they are doing, and the meal of Dai food (an ethnic group in southern China) was excellent. Chinese food is definitely at the top of my list of favorite foods (along with Thai).
The next day I hung out with the friends I was staying with, playing with the kids and looking around the neighborhood. After lunch, three of us took the bus 2 hours up to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. The wall is absolutely incredible… it stretches along forever, snaking up and down along the top of the mountains, and this section curves around so the wall surrounds you in almost every direction. They say when the Great Wall was built they connected lots of existing walls, especially around the cities, and built new sections until it eventually stretched almost all the way across China from the desert to the ocean. It was originally built of stones and earth to keep out invaders from the north. This section was a good hike since the wall is really steep; at times you walk on ramps and at times steps, some so steep they are almost like a ladder. Every so often there is a watchtower that the wall goes through. You can’t go on forever since it hasn’t been rebuilt all the way and is broken down, but we spent a couple hours on the wall. Fortunately, in the afternoon after a holiday there were not many people there, and it was kind of a medium day as far as visibility is concerned; not bad but not great either. As the sun started to sink down, it got a little clearer and the wall looked more golden. I was so happy I finally got to see it! Now I can die happy :^)
I left Tuesday afternoon, after spending the morning with our friends in the area they live in and getting lunch on the street at the morning market. It was very nice and encouraging to spend a lot of time with them, and I had a lot of fun with their kids too. I consider this trip my real spring break since my other one wasn’t real relaxing. This one was a good balance between seeing tourist things and spending time with people I hadn’t seen for a long time.
As far as thoughts on Beijing go, I was amazed at how nice a lot of the city of Beijing is; it has lots of trees, a lot of the buildings are modern, and it is kept up decently well for Asia. Complements of the Olympics, probably, but I enjoyed it. [Speaking of the olympics, I didn't have time to see the famous olympic buildings, but I did see the Belodrome where they had bike racing, and also the torch/dragon tower people stayed in.] It was a fair amount warmer than Korea, even though it is farther north (one of the great mysteries of life), but it is very dry and dusty now and I constantly had junk coating my throat. It was also interesting to see how it was similar and different to Korea and Korean culture after living in Asia for a while. I'm putting a lot of pictures up… I took a lot more good ones, so if you want to see more pictures of my trip, ask me in person and I’ll show you them!