travel log

Finally I arrived at Inchion International airport in seoul which is quite a modern airport. The facility is quite new and the service is efficient. Maybe it is due to few arrival passengers, I guess. The H1NI flu check is quite loose here, compared with china which is treated over-reactively, commented by most main stream western journalism.

The tourist's information is stunningly helpful which gives me so many free maps, marvelous travel guide book in English which is so beatifully printed. The girl is very polite and kind who help me to find my budget-target guest house finally. The guest house is a kind of OK, considering its price and service, especially its location in this distrct of seoul. The single room is usd26/night, compared with motel of usd35 which is stuffy and dirty. The guests are apparently all students who come from around world. Many of them are from Japan who speak Japanese of course.

The most stunning fact is that the Korean girls are all incredibly beautiful and no wonder so many movie star from Korea are so beautiful. You can imagine how I feel so excited that every five minutes I would meet one movie star in the street. They are stylish, polished with inner inspirations, excuse for my pigeon English as I cannot fully express my shock when I met so stunningly beautiful girl who is waiting at bus station. And as soon as bus arrives, I was more shocked by seeing more pretty girls get off the bus. This is really an exciting city who are flourished with beauties.

During 40min-travel-by-bus from airport to my staying place, I was surprised with excellent service of shuttle bus. They are so well-organised that I find out that taking by bus is quite confortable thing. Another fact is that the subway system is surprisingly similar to Montreal Metro. The map, the style and everything makes feel I come back to Montreal. The travel book listed visa requirement for all passports around world. Astonishingly Canadian passport is the most popular one which allows for half-year stay without visa. As for USA-passport-holders, the longest stay without visa is just 30days. Irony, isn't it?

OK, I need to take a shower and go to bed soon.

Another day in seoul. Where should I start? In the morning, I try to use the bathroom and then realize that this kind of guest house needs your patience as people, especially those girls might take shower forever. Anyway, I think my watch needs to adjust the time zone of Seoul. What am I talking here is like rubbish or gibbish.

OK, I get out finally and take a taxi while it is raining. Then after at least half hour drive, we reached the "NamSan" or in Chinese "south mountain". This is the place where Chinese ambassy is located. And naturally you found out the soul mate for Chinese consulate all around world---FaLunGong demonstrators. Also some old Korean women try all way to show me to some office which is for speed mail. Funny? isn't it? It is operated by a Chinese guy and after that I talked with a vendler who sells phone card to china. Naturally he is from China. From him I know this is called Namsan. Oh, I forget to mention the most important part of my journey, applying visa to China. The travel agent is actually an office from Heilongjiang foreign office. They told me that the visa application is only for three month which is already in a favourable term compared with most foreigners who can only get one-month. After I pointing out that I can get 6-month in Hongkong, they told me to give it a try. But how much do they charge me? 80k for speedy application. Does that mean they may refund me if it is not 6-month? I forget to ask, maybe it is the trick that they try to get more money from me. I don't know.

Walking along the road in Namsan is a really pleasent experience. You see, the munciple govevernent of Seoul is very considerate as they build this road along Namsan. The walking lane is covered with plastics which is slippery-free and bumping-free. It is really good for jogging here. It is really a nice place to walk as it is quite and full of fresh air. I also found one temple for "ZhuGeLiang" or the geniuous military adviser to Kingdom Shu during the "Tri-Kingdom Era". It is called Crouching Dragon Temple". Do Korean people worship this Chinese hero?

I walk for the most of day and then it begin to rain. The thing hits most is that there are many people struggling for survival, just like people all around the world. However, it is a harmony society in the sense that people is doing their best without too much complaint, I guess. This is the truth of life, isn't it? Not the fake view created by Evil Chinese government. In any society, there are poor people who live at the bottom of world. There is no need to cover this. You see, the rich poeple are confident enough to speak aloud that they don't have enough money. However, the real poor people are usually afraid of saying so.

Again the beautiful girls in seoul surprise me from time to time. At night I try to taste the barbebque, there is difficulty of communication with English. Then to all my surprise all the waitresses are from China and then everything is ok with Chinese. The wine in Korea is not that strong as I think. According to the girl, it is at most 21 degree.

Ok, let's stop here.

You see, I just happen to run to this place. I asked the taxi driver to send me to some hotel or motel which costs like 40k and indeed he did what I required. How do I get the price? I remember that in movie My Sassy Girl Friend. Funny?
I begin to wonder why such a small place is concentrated with so many motels? Maybe it is a kind of place where Korean men bring their mistresses for pinky-panky.
Then I try to explore the shopping center after I settled down. Quite suddenly I headed to a special place where many iron-roof flats are covered with thick red flannels in their french-window. And one of these flats is open and a woman is changing. Of course you know what is this place. It is the red-light-zone of Seoul. And can you imagine that is right behind the famouse shopping mall--Shinsegae or New World and Times Square.
The Times Square is a marvelous shopping mall where luxury commodities are presented. In New World, You can even hear the greetings in Chinese through PA.
　

The motel is a kind of OK. YOu have what you need: bathroom, TV, computer, internet, telephone, minibar, water cooler, video recorder, hair dryer, towls, slippers, air condition, automatic vender machine(for condoms?). The room is quite small, but it is a kind of clean, no bad smell. The bed spread is quite white. Even though there is no light in bathroom. The light on corridor is sound-controlled and you can have light in bathroom. I cannot find switch in bathroom. Anyway, the highspeed internet with computer is the best thing about this. Apart from this, the TV has one channel playing "star craft" game playing. Now it is a special game which tests the fighting capabilty of zealots against various enemies, like marines, fire spitter, etc. It is a kind of fun.

Korea is a concentration camp for beauties. I mean women here really understand their position in this male dominated society. They have to use their beauty to exchange to fulfill their life value. Is it hard to believe_ Me are using mustle or brain to obtain some social resource to survive. How about women. Apart from reproduction ability, they have to contribute something when population is already a social disease to control. Then it comes the price of beauty. You have to understand that in this world, everything comes with price and if you want to get something, you have to exchange with something you have. And in order to get something more, you have to invest more. As for women in Seoul, they understand that value by purchasing cosmetic operations which proves to be true value+increasing. You see, you cannot just buy some cheap creams, or fibrics to put on to increase your charming. The world already advances to the age that you cannot cheat eyes of men by using these cheap tricks. You have to rebuild your body either physically or chemically. That is true economics of society and korean women demonstrate this very well to world around. The bodies of labourers are part of production power, disregarding their genders. When we talk about bodies of laborer, we really mean the physical body or brain. Is there any difference to rent your body to a capitalist staying in skyscraper or in coal mines.

Actually I am now in Incheon Airport, sitting in a free internet lounge. I should say, Korean is a much good place to visit as the facility is very good and considerate. For example, you may not be able to find such free internet lounge around world. Free WIFI? Maybe. But here you are experiencing some newest models of notebook. Like the one I am using, is probably one of the hottest models girls might be seeking. It is the thinnest model from MSI, if my memory is correct, of which the thinnest part is just 0.5mm, like razer? I am kidding. However, like the computer I am using in my motel, the keyboard is Koreanized and characters are also in Korean. I cannot even type in Any English characters in the address bar of IE. The only way for me to surf internet is by typing everying in "notebook" from accessory program and then copy&paste. Anyway consideering it is free of charge, what else can you explain?
The Inchion International Airport is really a wonderful airport. Not only all the equipments are new and advanced, the designer also injected many elements of green environment. for example, there is a "star-gardern" which is build in the "air". What I mean it is a gardern hanging in the air of waiting lounge. Does this remind you the ancent Babylon's Hanging Gardern? And almost everywhere in the airport you can see some plants here and there. This really add some life among the concrete and steel.
The subway system in Seoul is so much complete that it even becomes too complicated for me to figure out. Sorry for being an idiot in this path-finding. I mean the subway system must be four or five times larger than the one in Montreal. And can you imagine that the municiple government have spent more than thirty years to pay back the debt for constructing the subway system. Therefore you can imagine how big the whole system might cost in Seoul. And I haven't mentioned the auxiliary system which connects Seoul to Inchion which are exactly two seperate city. The reason I am mentioning about this is the fact that Xiamen municiple government cannot even support a simple light-track system. The BRT is costing like seven billion chinese dollar. And it is very clear that subway is much more expensive than light-track which is also much expensive than BRT system.
　

Before I started my trip to Seoul, I googled some comments in internet. And many guys from China comment Seoul like this: The city is shabby and has fewer skyscrapers than Shanghai and so on. At the end of my trip, my conclusion is that those comments are quite inaccurate. First of all, I don't really like skyscrapers as it has nothing to do with common people. What can you gain from those magnificant buildings? Are they the symbols of city or success of business or just signature of wealth of local capitalists? On the other hand, the public transport system is more closely connected with everyday's life of common citizens. And indeed it costs much more to build subway than a bunch of skyscrapers which brings more benefits to local economy. For example, the public transport system not only ease the traffic jam, but also provides underground shopping centers, small shop which is way of many small business rely on. People from China are more or less blind in seeing these facts when they are misguided by Evil Chinese government's propoganda.
Let me just give you one more example to illustrate my point of view. In Seoul, you can always find something you cannot imagine in china. It is the scene of poor people's tin-roof cottages all around Seoul. In china, you know, the Beijing or any other municiple government would definely banish these poor people from living in city. Why? It destroys the view of prosperous economy. But do these poor people have rights to live a life they are pursueing? In the constitution of USA, or the Declaration of Independence, it says something like this. We believe everyone is born to be equal and entitled with the rights to pursueing happiness of life. And doesn't those people have the rights to live where they are? This downtown gutter area have long been proof of examples of efficiency between Chinese dictatorship over Indian democracy because Indian politicians have no way to force those homeless people to leave their tin-roof cottage in Bombay. What happens if Seoul municiple government tears down those cottages, roadside small factories and move them to somewhere else, like suburban? It may make Seoul look much better. However, those poor people probably cannot survive any more. That is the factor of life. And the so-called harmony of society can never be reached.

I keep asking myself what I gain from my travelling. Obviously I am forced to go this trip to obtain my Chinese visa. (God damn evil Chinese communist dictatorship! You see, the whole world is open and welcome Canadian passport holder except China. Many country don't like USA, like Korea, but they do welcome Canada who is benign and harmless to any country on this planet. Why is China government doing this? Because they are only serving their own group interests.) However, the travel makes me thinking and exploring. You see, life is already a misarable tragidy for almost everyone because everyone has his/her problem. If you keep thinking about your pains in heart, it only drives crazy. One good way is to think about other people's pains which more or less relieves your bad feeling. It can be called the phylosophy of human life. People are buying some cheap sympathy by giving some of their social resources to exchange for some psychological balance. This can be called way of life. I feel much better when the trip ends here because I see the good and bad side of other people's life.
OK, let's stop here as the flight might be scheduled for boarding soon. And if you reach here, I would be much surprised because I don't believe anybody would spend time to read these garbages, especially they are written in poor pigeon Chinglish which is sometimes more like gibbish.