7 Oct 2012: South Korea, a wonderful close getaway

Greetings all from Northeast China!
It is starting to feel like Autumn here and by the Chinese calendar, it should...we just celebrated the "mid autumn festival" and National holiday week...1 full week of holiday combined with vacation made for a good opportunity to get out of China and have some rest and relaxation on a beach...in Asia, there are lots of beaches, so the decision on where to go was not obvious...except that we both really like S. Korea and there is a direct flight from Shenyang to Seoul that only takes 1 hour 20 minutes..and from Seoul, we can go most anywhere in the world...so we decided to go to Busan, South Korea.  We had never been there...had planned to go there this past summer, but with a couple of typhoons and alot of heat, we opted to just stay in Seoul back in August.  This time, Rod made reservations to take the high speed train from Seoul to Busan and away we went.  The ride on the train was very nice...took us about 3 hours to get from Seoul to Busan and it took us right through the fertile farmland of S. Korea..lots of rice farming.

Rice growing somewhere between Seoul and Busan, as seen from the high speed train

 Once we got to Busan, we checked into our hotel and were able to start relaxing, looking around...and Busan is a beauitful beach resort city.

Just had to take a picture of the toilet...this thing does everything I am not used to a toilet doing...good news is, it also acts like a normal toilet...so you don't have use all of the "features" to use it!

View from our window of Busan, S. Korea

View of the Haeundae beach from the lounge of the hotel

 After spending the night, we took the subway, then a bus up to the fortress walls around he south of the City...evidently China is not the only country who built walls here in Asia...after several attacks from China and Japan in the 1600's, Korea built their own wall...not as monumental as the Chinese one, but a wall, none the less.  It has 4 distinct "doors" (North South, East, West) and is about 17km around the entire wall.  We didn't hike it all (far from it)..but we did hike some and were able to get some beautiful views of the area (and each other!)

Rod and Sarah Miller with the Great Wall of Busan, S. Korea in the background

Rod Miller relaxing on a rock with a view

One of the beautiful views of Busan...and native fall blooming Azalea!

Rod hanging out between two Korean totum poles

The South gate of the Korean Great Wall around Busan

Sarah on top of the great Korean wall

Rod and Sarah on top of the Korean wall, South Gate

Sarah taking a break after walking "a few" Km on the great wall

Rod and Sarah Miller walking up to the South Gate door on the Korean great wall

When we got back from hiking the wall, we got cleaned up and went on a dinner cruise around the Busan harbor...very nice way to top off an already great day!

Sarah & Rod Miller aboard the Tiffany Harbor Cruise boat in Busan, S. Korea

Busan harbor and the Tiffany dinner cruise boat

The bridge over the bay in Busan, S. Korea..full moon in the background!

The next day, we enjoyed a nice walk along the beach..right outside our hotel.

Rod & Sarah Miller on Busan beach..Sarah's getting ready for a jog..not on the beach, but in the park just behind the hotel.

Rod congratulating the Korean Iron man club..they were just getting ready to do their swim (God knows how many miles!)  in the ocean...it was cold...there is a reason they call them iron men!

Rod Miller in the park beside the lighthouse behind out hotel in Busan, Korea

Sarah Miller on the boardwalk in the park in Busan

Rod by the sea in Busan

The dome building on the right is where the G20 had their 2010 conference...glad they weren't there while we were, or we surely wouldn't have been allowed anywhere near!

Rod and Sarah in the Sea of Japan in Busan, South Korea

 After Busan, we went back up to the Seoul and just relaxed for a couple of days (read...Sarah had some retail therapy at the custom leather coat store...no pictures here yet...they will ship in a couple of weeks!)

View from our hotel room in Seoul

All in all, it was a very nice vacation and a nice break.  Tomorrow I head out for Poland and Romania on another business trip...and a couple of more trips this year...then things should slow down considerably for my business travel...just in time for the plant to startup in 2013!

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers!

Rod & Sarah

22 Sep 2012: Shenyang Green space, Pan Jin Red space all in China

Greetings all,
I feel like it's been a long time since I last wrote an update...and it has, over a month!  I've been busy with work and no exciting trips, so, I guess it just starts to be "normal life" after 2.5 years here!  One of the highlights of the last month was Rod and I running a 5k here in Shenyang.  This was our first race in over 15 years...so we started with a good distance of 5k!  The race was in a park here in Shenyang...a beautiful park...been here over 2 years and just now found this place! (Been working too much I think!)
 Here are a few pictures of the park, our bicycle riding, running and just walking along the river here in Shenyang.

Rod & Sarah at the entrance to Wu Li He Park, here in Shenyang

Rod in Wu Li He park..one of the quiet respites in the concrete jungle of 8 million people in Shenyang

The San Hao Jia Qiao Bridge over the river here in Shenyang

Fishermen in the park

Rod and Sarah before the 5k Run in Shenyang

Sarah is in there somewhere...at the starting line of the 5k

Rod & Sarah after the 5k race..by the way, I'm sweating too..just a nylon shirt that doesn't show it!

We were energized by finding a nice, quiet place to walk, run and ride our bikes...for our bikes...the ride to the park is not so peaceful...having to negotiate all the cars, busses, other bicycles, pedestrians and the non respect of general traffic laws does not make it an easy way to get started...but it sure makes one appreciate the park when you arrive!

One of the natural wonders of North East China is the delta of one of the rivers outside of the city of Pan Jin.  It is called the red beach...you'll see why in the pictures below.  I went there with our fellow Michelin expats and friends Tim, Julie , Matthew and Kristy and we had a nice day trip to Pan Jin.
Below are some of the photos from our Saturday outing.  A big Thanks to Julie & Tim who gave me these photos...I forgot my camera and my phone battery didn't last long enough to get any!  :-(

Matthew, Sarah, Kristy, Julie and Tim at the wetlands observation area (That is a concrete tree overhead)

Sarah in front of the Red beach outside of Pan Jin

A house in the middle of the red beach mud flat

Up close, this is what the red beach looks like...just a mud flat with crabs and other critters.  The red beach is actually just a sea grass that turns red in the fall.

Boardwalk over the red beach

As is the case with any tourist attraction, there was a market..this one specialized in selling crabs and rice..some crabs in a cage!

After our road trip, we enjoyed a Chinese BBQ (cook it yourself at the table)..lots of yummy (and not so yummy) stuff...always a surprise to know what you actually ordered!

No trip out of town (and some in town) is complete without getting lost...we were off the beaten path...way off...and came up on some cows, goats and other critters getting herded across the road!

As the sun started to set...we were still on our way...good thing Tim had his GPS and led the driver to the main highway!

So that's about it for the September version of the China Update.  Fall is here in Shenyang...before we know it, Winter will be here too...again!

Hope everyone has a great day and thanks for your continued prayers and thoughts as we pass what we think will be our 1/2 way point on our expatriation here in China...one never really knows, but when we came, we said "yes" for 5 years...we'll see!

Rod & Sarah

12 Aug 2012: Korea Revisited and another Chinese Wedding!

Greetings all,
After a few days in the at the end July in the US for work, I came back to Asia, and Rod met me in Seoul, South Korea.  We stayed in Seoul and of course I did some shopping!  We had thoughts of going to Busan, but given the heat, the fact that it was a Korean holiday and seeing the pictures on TV of a bizzilion people on the beach in Busan...we stayed in Seoul!
While there, we did take the opportunity to visit one of the temples, very similar to the forbidden city in Beijing,  while there was a changing of the guard...something we had not seen before and quite a spectacle!  Below are some pictures.

Changing of the guard at the palace in Seoul (the Korean equivalent of the forbidden city)

Rod and Sarah at he Palace in Seoul

Rod and Sarah with one of the guards at the Palace in Seoul

And a kiss for good luck at the Palace in Seoul!

Just as in China, foreigners are favorite targets for pictures at the Palace in Seoul

In the Chinese horoscope, I was born in the Year of the Rat, and Rod in the year of the Pig.  These symbols are right next to each other on the horoscope and on the clock...evidently, this is something also common in Korea, as we found the horoscope figures in a circle outside the Palace in Seoul

After a week back at work, we were invited to a wedding of one of the supervisors at work, and this time, I was asked to participate.  It is customary for the employer to say something on behalf of the person getting married..so I was asked to do this!  I didn't have alot of time to prepare, but I was able to say a few words in Chinese at the wedding..and they understood it because they clapped when they were supposed to (and it wasn't the end of the speech!)

Here are a few photos of the big affair!

Sarah making a small, short speech at the wedding of Gu Lei and his wife Ran Lulu

Sarah walking down the aisle in reverse after the speech

And then the food...tons of food...all at 10:00am!!  No idea why they order so much so early in the day...so much waste!

Gu Lei and his new wife Ran Lulu on their way out to change clothes

Gu Lie, his wife (after a clothes change), with Sarah & Rod after the wedding

 So, after this big day yesterday, I'm worn slap out...ready to get some rest!
Have a great day ya'll and thank you for your continued prayers and emails!

Rod & Sarah