我的世界

Even though Yanji is located at the northeastern part of China and very far from big cities like Beijing or Shanghai, it's not too hard to see non-Asian foreigners (e.g. Caucasians, Africans etc). There are number of non-Asian foreigners in Yanji doing English teachers at private institutions, middle/high schools, universities. There's another group of non-Asian foreigners in Yanji doing mission work. Also there are many # of Russians coming from Russia doing shopping etc.

With those foreigners and ppl from my work, we decided to eat DOG MEAT for dinner..yikes

Dog meat in Yanji is even more common than Korea... Plus it's MUCH CHEAPER than what u'll get in Korea too~ with 150RMB (about 20~25$CAD) u can feed 4 ppl .. while in Korea it's about 1-200 CAD for 4 ppl
Many ppl here LOVE eating dogs... no kidding.. even girls who looks like they'll never put a single peace of dog meat in their mouth.. they are craving for it -_- If I ask "let's go eat dogs!" they just say yes w/o any hesistations.. Thus eating dog in here is like eating beef/pork..

Recently, I've been eating dog for once a week in March I don't know why.. But this time was very memorable because I was not just eating with Koreans or Korean decent Chinese but it was with a white dude!!!

A white dude from the USA eating a dog? wow
I remember in 10 yrs ago when I first came to Canada, I don't know why but I talked about eating dogs with other ppl in the class, they looked at me as if I am from like 3rd world... But yeah... 10 yrs been passed and lots of things been changed..

How did he do in the restaurant? He loved it!

He told me that he's from small town in Michigan and grew up w/o eating a single plate of Asian food until he went to Korea for one semester as an exchange student. It was in Korea where he fell in love with (eating) dogs... no wonder he was loving it.. lol

Yup.. it was very interesting dinner and definitely it was very unique :)

I gotta eat (ahem.....) as much as possible in Yanji before I go back to Canada

FYI: Actually dog meat is veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery soft.. it's more softer than beef/porks/chickens.. when they kill it, they put dogs into like hot water and when it's dead, they beat it with a bat or something similar to make it very soft...

Recently, in TIbet as many ppl know is in a state of turmoil :(

Chinese gov't is reporting that there's only like few tens (10) been dead so far but according to foreign reports, few hundreds been dead ..

I wonder what will happen to the status of China being a host nation of this summer's olympic!

However, the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this incident through (foreign news) was.. "okay I won't be surprised to see Youtube being blocked in the China because those ppl will surely put clips from Tibet incident..."

Few months ago, Youtube was blocked in China b/c someone posted a clip from Tiananmen massacre

Wikipedia have been blocked in mainland China since I came b/c someone put some shit about China/Tibet in Wikipedia and I don't see Wiki being unblocked anytime soon :(

As I just checked in Youtube.. I am getting "Problem loading page" .. not too surprised
But this time, I think it's gonna be blocked for extended period of time :(

omg.. what am i gonna do w/o youtube?!

Wangfujing is one of the must visit area in Beijing.. as there are many stores, restaurants and many kinds of food to try

However, things that caught most of my attention are so called street foods
some of them can be delicious.. yet some can be very disturbing

I don't know that guy and also I didn't ask him to pose in front of the bingtanghuru.. I think he's the cashier

mmmm sweet corns~
fried chestnuts

I don't know its name but seemed nice

and the highlight of Wangfujing is:


scorpion/seahorse kebob

I know there are scorpion kebob.. but what the?! seahorse???
those seahorses are too cute to be eaten :( ewwww

I seen many foreign tourists are taking photo with those scorpion kebob, so I decided to give it a try


scorpions being closed up

and here it comes!
me eating a scorpion!!!!!

well it didn't taste that bad...
I thought I would throw up right after my first bite... but I ended up eating two scorpions.. couldn't finish all of them

now I can't say eating dog was the most disgusting food I ever tried
eating scorpion beats everything!!!!

I took a trip to Beijing during this weekend..
I thought 2 nights and 3 days would be enough since I will be taking a plane back to Yanji on Sunday night.. even though Beijing trip was good ,time wasn't enough to tour Beijing completely :(


I wasn't able to visit some of must-see places such as The Great Wall, Yi Hwa Yuan or inside of the Forbidden City :(

I will save them for end June/early July when I finish my term in Yanji and go to Beijing to take a plane to Seoul and then to Toronto :)

Initially, I wasn't thinking about staying in Beijing in end June/July when I go back to Toronto.. but since I missed out a lot in Beijing this weekend, I will definitely be in Beijing for few days before I go to Toronto to finish up my unfinished business in Beijing :)


The first thing that greeted me at the Beijing Airport when I disembarked from the plane was...

"Coffee Time!" (yay~)

When did Coffee Time started its expansion to China..?
Wait... was Coffee Time owned by Chinese?

Anyways.. seeing Coffee Time in Beijing was one of the most surprised store to see in Beijing.. lol


Doesn't the logo and its interior seems similar to the one in Toronto?

When I first saw this store... I was like... "wait? this can't be here?"

I wonder how much a cup of coffee cost there.. hopefully it's less than 10RMB
If a cup of coffee in Beiing Coffee Time costs similar to the Starbucks, then.. it would be sad :(

Inside of Beijing International Airport Terminal 1

the roof reminds me of UFO :p

Definitely the waiting area for Terminal 1 looked more like an airport than Terminal 2 domestic area, which looked no better than bus terminal :(

more pics from Beijing are coming up soon~

hmm

i know jaywalking is pretty common in canada but in (mainland) china, ppl do it w/o feeling any guilt about this

i even find myself doing a jaywalk w/o feeling bad about doing this lol

i found one interesting crosswalk in downtown yanji

ususally those crosswalks have crossing lights on both sides, but surprisingly this one doesn't have it.. wow

view of this crosswalk from the other side
they don't even have crossing light on the other side as well

this is pretty wide road.. 
in toronto, it's like Yonge Street or highway 7

i know (many) people in (mainland) china don't care about crossing lights and they cross it whenever they want but crossword like this..

this one doesn't seem right :(

please go through this crosswalk at your own risk

Yesterday, I went to a supermarket called "Kalma“to buy some stuff (it's like T&T or Galleria Supermaket in Toronto)
When I walked up to the second floor where they sell bunch of ramens,

天哪！（oh my god!)  I never knew this really exists!
The label says: 延边狗肉面 （traditional: 延邊狗肉面）
Yanbian is name of the district(?) where I am at (It's part of Jilin province)

Since this is Chinese product, it's VERY cheap compare to other Korean imported ramens..

It's just 1.2RMB ... For price of one Korean Ranem, I think it's possible to buy 4-5 of those.. lol What a price difference!

I bought 2 of them to try and I hadn't tried them yet :(
I will let you guys know whether I am alive after eating it

it's been a week since Chinese (Korean) new year

I hope you guys had a 春節快樂！
前天 我回延吉，但是， 四個月以後， 我回加拿大

I found some of 春节stuff pics in my hard disk that I want to share with:

This is from my Air China domestic flight from 北京（beijing) to 深圳（shenzhen) on the way to 香港

I took this flight day after solar calendar new year (which is January 2nd) and
they gave all of us on board some treats b/c of new year's day!


guess what's inside of the red pocket with the word 福

I was expecting some special souvenirs or money(lol)
but as you might notice, it was a kit kat chocolate bar haha

(Sorry for not taking a picture of chocolate bar inside of the pocket.. I ate them all before I realized that I should've took picture of it :( )

It wasn't fancy or expensive stuff but just a Kit Kat chocolate bar
but being covered with the red pocket,  this one feels much different
than ordinary Kit Kat chocolate bar lol

the thing that looks like a card in the middle..
I thought it was a free phone card or something like that .. but it was just a calendar for 2008

Even though those things are small but it was definitely a nice surprise.
Surely those things made my journey to HK made more memorable~

Yesterday, I went to Apgujeong-Dong to meet my friend there..

I didn't expect to meet her but she called me at the last minute whether i am available and yeah..

So I went there..

FYI,

Apgujeong-Dong is one of the rich area in Seoul, where there are so many fancy restaurants and stores (and also pricey)
I think half of foreign imported cars in Seoul are in this area..
I saw every model from each brand.. Audi A4, A6, A8 and S4, S8... Lexus IS/ES, Infinity G35, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, VW ...
Given that those cars in Korea are about 1.5-2 or more times expensive than Canada (Mercedes E Class are about 150K$ in Korea.. whereas in Toronto it's just about 80K), presence of massive foreign cars made me amused.. @_@

This place was like Yorkville in Toronto.. ;)

You probably seen this place from K-dramas as well

I was expecting to see some of celebrities.. but not a chance :p


This is 'Galleria Department Store' in Apgujeong
Galleria Store in Korea and this one are not related at all.. lol

This is like... Korean version of Holt Renfrew @_@

One interesting thing..
There are SOOOOO MANY plastic surgery hospital in this area.. not even funny
As Starbucks are in every corner of street in Toronto, there are plastic surgery hospital in every corner of street there.. Some buildings just occupied with plastic surgery hospital.. wtf

No wonder all those girls there looked alike..
When I look at those girls in Seoul.. They don't look TOO natural..
They look more artifical than natural....
Some girls would look kinda natural.. but when I look at some girls..
I was like.. "wtf they even screwed up their face even more by doing surgery :(!"

Now if guys are looking for a natural girl (who had ZERO surgeries) then they'll think those guys are crazy ... :(


We went to rotating sushi restaurant.. and gosh.. that place was somewhat pricey..
I had like 10 plates.. and it was like 60$ -_-;;

If I didn't set my limit.. then my bill could go WAY over to like few hundred dollars
I don't really think that I am not for rotating sushi thingy.. I am more like all u can eat style lol

Then we headed for coffee
OMG.. this was one of the best coffee shop I ever been
The interior was soooooooooo nice :D

This coffee shop, named "Homestead Coffee" made Starbucks look like Coffee Time lol
However, the price was not too bad for fancy coffee shop

waffle... anyone?

Nice eh?

Me and my cousin arrived at Seoul World Cup Stadium just on time to start the match

It was really cold at night but I could see number of people make their way to stadium from subway station

As expected there were many scalpers who were (desperately) trying to sell 1st class ticket (which cost 50000won) for 3rd class ticket price (20000won)

I was like..."damn! i shouldn't bought those tickets from before if i knew there are scalpers who are trying to fire-sale tickets...

Our seat was at second floor.. row 41, I was expecting way up above but it was at the first row at the second floor....... not bad


I didn't expect this game to be a sellout but crowds like this seems.........
very dissapointing

Only about 1/4 of maximum capacity (about 68000) showed up... I guess
Both sides of the first level of the first class section were somewhat filled.. BUT
Opposite of supporter's zone...
nearly empty.. :(

Ushers who suppose to watch over stadium seemed to have no interest in doing their job because of very small # of crowds..
They were like.. "just sit wherever u want"

So after 5 miutes, we went straight down to the first level and stayed there till the end
Free upgrade~~~yay
I felt kinda sorry for those ppl at the first class who paid full price for ticket.. lol
I nearly did that but good thing I didn't lol

National anthem for Chile and South Korea played.. OMG look at the stand..

As South Korean national anthem played, those supporters, known as "Red Devils" raised giant Korean flag.. Very emotional
It'd be nice if there was more spectators..

Stretching durin halftime

OUCH! one Korean player fell down and medical staffs for Korean team are on their way to the rescue lol

Koreans didn't have any impacts during the first half.. Their offence was dissapeared, passings never worked out and they allowed some scoring chance to Chile..

Fans are getting anxious to see at least some good plays... :(

It was VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY cold... my feet were freezing

Well, in second half, Korean offence was somewhat came into the life but it wasn't enough to end their nearly 500 minutes of goal droughts... :(

They had some good chance but never connected to goal..

Instead of they score a goal, they let Chile scored a goal... The final score was 1-0 Chile... :(

It was fun to watch and cheer with supporters as we sat in supporter's zone.. But it would been much nicer if Korea scored a goal and bit warmer..

Plus.. since they didn't put their names on their jersey.. I had no idea who they are except few players from before... I think 1/2 of roster was changed......

I expect better result from them later :(

I, personally think that Seoul has one of the most complicated subway system in the whole world and it makes more sense when you compare Seoul subway system to our 'red rocket' TTC subway system.. lol

First, I introduce Seoul Subway map~ Don't get freaked out!

So, how do you think about this..?

Pretty complicated .. huh?

FYI, compare this to Hong Kong MTR lines


In that Seoul map, there's 10 lines but that was few years ago's version, thus there is a major modification and there's 12 lines running right now (which is not shown on the map). I think argh....two or three more lines are being built

When I left Korea in 1996, 4 lines were running and line #5 was under construction. Thus in 10 years, they doubled # of subway lines in Seoul to 12

When Seoul doubled # of subway lines in last 10+ years, what did TTC do?

The answer is ...
.
.
.
.
Yes...
That's what they built for 10 years!!!!!!!!!!! (yay)
I think those TTC ppl should learn "bbal li bbal li!" (quickly! quickly!) attitude from Korea lol Torontonians should learn how to do things quickly rather than correctly and slowly
Moreover, it's sad to hear that TTC's threatening to close that line :( because they are running out of money... aiya

This is typical interior for Seoul Subway
Compare to TTC subway, it's more wider and one good thing about the seat is during winter, it's being heated.. :) While train is moving, you can move from one car to another.. I tried to do same in TTC but when I tried to open door to go to another car, operator gave me a dirty look.. -_-;;

Being able to use cell phone in the underground subway is also a big plus as in Toronto, you can only use your cell phone when subway is above ground (e.g. High Park, Yonge/Bloor-Rosedale, Davisville, etc) For some lines, there's TV installed in every car so you can also watch TV as well.. ;) I doubt that TTC will install cell phone antenna in subway so that we can use cell phone in subway.. They have no money.. what do you expect .. *sigh*

During weekends or off-peak weekdays, it's not surprised to find vendors or beggars walking around subway trains to sell you some stuff (they always say they are forced to sell those products because their factory's being liquidated or closed down..) or beg for money.. Often, they do some performance (sing, play music, do all those demonstrations) so just sit back and enjoy the show~ (This will help you to kill some time in subway as 30-40min subway trip is average in Seoul)

They do announcement for station in Korean and English so even though you don't know Korean that well, you can travel around Seoul using subway w/o that much problems.. That's good.. ;)



They installed screen door in many stations.. When subway stops in the station, doors will be open so that you can board the subway. They had to made screen door to prevent people from committing a suicide .. -_-;;;

However the only downside about Seoul subway is for the most stations, when you want to transfer from one line to another, you have to walk for A LONG DISTANCE.. At the worst case you have to walk for 15min to change lines :(

Well, that's about it for Seoul subway system~!