South Korea and Beijing 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n The only country I had visited in the Far East was Japan, in 2007, and I felt that it was time for another trip to that part of the world.\u00a0 Despite recent adjustments in the exchange rate Japan was still likely to be very expensive, and one of the most attractive alternatives was South Korea.\u00a0 I knew a few people who had been there on business but no one who had been for pleasure, and it did not feature high in the list of popular holiday destinations.<\/p>\n The most favourable route on cost and convenience was from Gatwick via Beijing with Air China, and this was further supported when I discovered that I could get a 72-hour visa-free stopover in Beijing at no extra flight cost.\u00a0 This visa-free arrangement had been recently introduced and even some travel agents did not know about it.\u00a0 It made best sense to make the stopover on the return flight, otherwise I would be jet-lagged for much of the time in Beijing.<\/p>\n The outward flight went smoothly, and I arrived at Seoul Incheon Airport at about mid-day of the day after I left England.\u00a0 As I knew I would be fairly exhausted I had booked a hotel near the airport, and was picked-up by a minibus driven by Smokie Shin, the hotel manager.\u00a0 He was not actually christened Smokie, but acquired the name as a result of his liking for a pop group of that name when he was a student.\u00a0 By the time we reached the hotel, a distance of about two miles, I had decided that everything in Korea was made between them by four companies, namely Samsung, LG, Hyundai\/Kia, and Daewoo.<\/p>\n After a few hours sleep I ventured out of the hotel, which was in a modern business area with shops, restaurants and a supermarket close by. \u00a0The hotel did not have a restaurant and to tide me over until I decided where to eat I tried to get a cup of coffee from a machine in the supermarket.\u00a0 Everything was in Korean, and while I was puzzling over which buttons to press a voice behind me said \u201cCan you help me?\u201d\u00a0 I thought it was highly unlikely, and turned round to see a man with a little girl.\u00a0 He repeated \u201cCan you help me?\u201d and then said \u201cNo, no, I mean can I help you?\u201d\u00a0 He showed me how to get the coffee, and this was the first of many offers of help that I was to receive, but also a typical example of the level of communication that I was to experience in Korea.<\/p>\n Eventually I found a cheap restaurant with pictures outside of rice dishes that looked tolerably appetising.\u00a0 No one spoke English but I got what I wanted by pointing at the pictures and the waiter had the sense to offer me a spoon and fork as well as the dreaded chopsticks.<\/p>\n The next morning all the restaurants were closed, and I finished up getting something from the MinMart and having breakfast in my room.\u00a0 By now I had been reminded of another custom that seems to be standard in the Far East, that of removing one\u2019s shoes on entering most rooms and many restaurants to preserve the polished wooden floors.\u00a0 This was a bit of a problem for me, because some of my socks have holes in them, so I had to sort through them to find some intact pairs.<\/p>\n Seoul<\/strong><\/p>\n At 8.00am I got the free hotel shuttle to the airport and from there a bus into Seoul, which is about 20 miles away.\u00a0 It was Sunday and the journey did not take long, but when we arrived at the City Hall it turned out that it was the day of the Seoul equivalent of the London Marathon, and the place was a complete madhouse.\u00a0 Many of the runners were finishing already, and although some of them looked as if they could run a full marathon others looked as if they would be hard put to to manage 500 yards, and I could only assume that there were classes for various different distances.<\/p>\n This central area of Seoul is very much a business district and could have been anywhere in the developed world.\u00a0 It was only later that I realised that Seoul is actually the third largest metropolitan area in the world, with almost three times the population of Greater London, and larger than Beijing, Mumbai and Mexico City.\u00a0 From here I walked down to Myeong Dong, a popular shopping district which was thronging with people, and then along a road called Toegyero to Chungmuro and the motorcycle shops, some of which were closed because it was Sunday.\u00a0 A length of the street before the motorcycle shops was lined with pet shops, with dogs and cats in the windows in a manner that is seldom seen in Britain today, and which I found unpleasant, although there was no real sign of maltreatment.<\/p>\n The much-condemned Korean custom of eating dogs has almost died out, and many Koreans are strongly opposed to it.\u00a0 It still happens on a small scale, the meat coming from dogs that are bred for the purpose.<\/p>\n The streets in the area behind the motorcycle shops were shabby and lined with workshops and small businesses, most of which were closed.\u00a0 There was a slight third world atmosphere about the place and I resolved to come back later in the week when there would be more going on.<\/p>\n From Chungmuro I went by subway to Namdaemun Market, one of the two big markets in Seoul.\u00a0 As someone with a mortal fear of public transport in foreign countries I actually found the subway quite easy to use, especially considering its vast size and complexity. It is the world\u2019s most extensive subway by length, with 607 stations (the London Underground has 270) and very modern trains and systems.<\/p>\n The market proved to be disappointing, with little to interest me, so after another walk around the city centre I got the subway to Hongik The Express train back to the airport stopped at Hongik University, and on the platform were two cheerful young students of about 19 who started chatting to me.\u00a0 They said they were from Taiwan and assured me that the next train went to the airport, although I thought the indicator said it only went half way.\u00a0 We all got on, and in due course it turned out that I was right. When we boarded the next train, which was the correct one, they sat with me and started talking again.\u00a0 They informed me that they were ear, nose and throat specialists who had been attending a conference in Seoul. A good example of how difficult it is for westerners to judge the age of oriental people.<\/p>\n On the road<\/strong><\/p>\n The next morning I checked out of the hotel and collected my car from Avis at the airport terminal.\u00a0 I had ordered a Ford Focus-sized car, but the one that was put in front of me at the roadside was a silver Hyundai Sonata, like a big Mercedes.\u00a0 After a brief car condition check the man from Avis fixed the large and expensive satnav to the windscreen and explained how to use it.\u00a0 It was programmed in English and was immensely complicated, like all modern gadgets.\u00a0 With some difficulty we put into it the name of the town I was going to, Chuncheon, and I launched out into the mad Seoul traffic.<\/p>\n From the rather basic map that I had it seemed to me that the most direct way to Chuncheon was via the motorway (Expressway) skirting Seoul on the northern side, but after a while I realised that the satnav was taking me round to the south of the city.\u00a0 By the time I had gone through three toll booths with my wallet being emptied at a great rate I was convinced that I was going the wrong way, and turned off into a town called Gunpo.\u00a0 The intention was to buy a proper map and find out where I was, but Gunpo was not a good place for doing that.\u00a0 From a quick check on the shops and a supermarket in the main street I concluded that maps were unobtainable and no one spoke English.\u00a0 Back in the car I tried to get a solution from the satnav but only succeeded in messing it up completely.<\/p>\n In desperation I drove on for a while and found some signs with road numbers, but they did not tie up with anything on my small-scale map so I pulled into a service station to see if I could find someone who could reset the satnav.\u00a0 Luckily there was a man there who spoke little English but did understand the satnav, and he managed to put Chuncheon into it again.\u00a0 Full of hope, I set off following the instructions from the American lady whose voice came out of the 8 inch screen on the dashboard.\u00a0 Unfortunately she did not confine her advice to giving directions, but churned out a constant string of mostly irrelevant comments.\u00a0 These included \u201cSpeed bumps\u201d, \u201cSchool zone\u201d, \u201cIn 700m the speed limit is 80kph\u201d, \u201cParking infringement penalty area\u201d, and my favourite \u201cApproaching traffic volume monitoring area\u201d.\u00a0 If there was nothing else she would say \u201cDrive carefully\u201d.\u00a0 This extra information could no doubt have been switched off, but I could not see how.<\/p>\n She took me back to the Expressway and after a long time, distance, and more tolls I was ordered to turn off on to route 46 towards Chuncheon.\u00a0 This was an ordinary main road running through open countryside but lined with buildings for mile after mile.\u00a0 By now I needed something to eat, and stopped at a place with several roadside food stalls which had big pots bubbling away full of strange unidentifiable substances. However, tucked behind some trees was a traditional coffee house with a complex of ancient buildings.\u00a0 Someone directed me into one of them, which involved the shoe taking off procedure, and when I saw the set up and menu I realised that this coffee and cake was not going to come cheap.<\/p>\n Despite that the place was quite busy, but the most worrying thing was the low tables, which are all right for the locals who have been brought up with them, but a nightmare for elderly westerners.\u00a0 The table tops are about 18in above the floor, so you have to kneel, sit cross-legged or stretch your legs out straight.\u00a0 A cushion is provided on the floor, but the real problem is that there is no back rest, and however you sit it becomes agony after a few minutes.\u00a0 Luckily I was placed at a table at the side of the room, where I could wedge myself against the wall with my legs straight out.\u00a0 As expected, the coffee and cheesecake were good, but the price undoubtedly included a substantial component for the ambiance.<\/p>\n Some distance before Chuncheon the road became route 45, still built up and slow going, with a lot of traffic lights.\u00a0 The approach to the town was scruffy and the first hotel I came across, called Hotel Petite, had screens across the car park entrance, usually an indication that it catered for clients who wished to be discrete about their presence.\u00a0 The next two were similar and rather run down, and another sign pointed to Hotel Zipper, which did not sound over-promising, though I am sure it would have been to some people.\u00a0 The satnav took me to the City Hall, where I thought there might be some tourist information, but it was closed for the day, and dusk was rapidly drawing in.\u00a0 Nearby was one the many small manned police stations that are commonly found on street corners in that part of the world..<\/p>\n I went in and told the two officers that I was looking for a hotel in Chuncheon, Their English was practically non-existent and after about five minutes of getting nowhere one of them picked up the phone and held a short conversation with someone in Korean. He then passed the phone to me, and on the other end was a lady who spoke quite good English.\u00a0 She said they told her I wanted a hotel in Chungchang, which was a very long way away.\u00a0 This was a disappointment to me, because I thought I pronounced Chuncheon really well, but apparently that was not the case.\u00a0 Anyway, she explained to the officers what I wanted and they told her they would take me to a hotel nearby.\u00a0 A few minutes later I followed them to the excellent Sejong Hotel with their blue lights flashing, though no siren.<\/p>\n Once sorted I walked down into the town and was amazed at the size of the shopping centre and adjoining market.\u00a0 It was all quite smart and tidy, and it seems that I had approached the town from an unfavourable direction.<\/p>\n The east coast<\/strong><\/p>\n Although it is known to us as the Sea of Japan, the Koreans call the ocean here the East Sea, as they are unwilling to acknowledge any claim that the Japanese might have to it. Sokcho seemed to be a pleasant small town, with a wide sandy beach and typical out-of-season seaside Jeongdongjin<\/strong><\/p>\n My guide book suggested that it might be possible to stay at the Sun Cruise Resort, but it did not cater for individual travellers, and I had It appeared that the number of restaurants in Jeongdongjin exceeded the number of visitors currently in the town, and most of them had tanks in front of the windows containing large plump fish from which one was presumably expected to select one\u2019s dinner.\u00a0 Like most meat or fish-eating Britons I am a coward and prefer to be less involved in the demise of the creatures that I eat, so I sought and found a place where the food was more discretely prepared, albeit not so fresh.<\/p>\n The next morning I drove up to Unification Park and was the first visitor of the day to the submarine and warship, which was ideal because Before entering the submarine I took a hard hat from the rack at the entrance, a wise decision because within moments I had hit my head.\u00a0 The vessel had a definite World War II air about it, and it was hard to believe that it had been in service as recently as 1996.\u00a0 The crew\u2019s quarters were below and not accessible, but how 26 people could exist in there I could not imagine.\u00a0 The moral of all this is that if you want to join a navy don\u2019t go for the North Korean one.\u00a0 By comparison the battleship was the height of luxury, although I don\u2019t suppose the Mountains, tunnels and everything Korean<\/strong><\/p>\n Time to aim in the direction of Seoul, which I wanted to reach in the afternoon of the next day.\u00a0 Taking the coast road northwards I turned off on to route 6, through the Odaesan National Park, another region of beautiful tree-covered mountains, highest of which is 1563m (approx. 5000ft.).\u00a0 More tunnels and then a minor road to a run down small town called Anheung, where I braved a scruffy restaurant (there weren\u2019t any smart ones) for lunch.\u00a0 It was as cheap as it looked, but I did not suffer any after effects.\u00a0 On to Wonju and then the Expressway to Yongin, my night stop.\u00a0 The Apart from the name of the hotel absolutely everything I could see in Yongin was in Korean and I seemed to be the only westerner in town.\u00a0 At the reception I picked up a free map which had no English on it, and it took me some time to work out which way up to hold it. I went into a burger bar for a snack, and as I was sorting out my money the young lady behind the counter reached forward, touched the hairs on the back of my hand and giggled. I said \u201cDo you think that\u2019s funny?\u201d, and she just giggled again.\u00a0 Oriental men do not have hairy hands, so I suppose if I am hard up I can always go to Yongin and earn a living in a circus freak show.<\/p>\n The reason for staying in Yongin was that I wanted to visit the Samsung Transportation Museum the next day. \u00a0Samsung is a vast Because I was going on an organised tour the following day I had booked two nights at the Namsan Hill Hotel in the middle of Seoul, and it proved to be very difficult to find, defeating my satnav. In the end a kind man in a car led me there using his satnav, and even he found it difficult.\u00a0 It was not too far from Chungmuro with the motorcycle shops, which I wanted to see during working hours.\u00a0 The streets behind the main road were a hive of activity, mainly motorcycle workshops or printers, all with their wares spilling out into the road.\u00a0 Piles of paper were stacked up everywhere (presumably the weather forecast was good) and \n \n The De-militarized Zone<\/strong><\/p>\n For a long period up to the end of World War II Korea was occupied by the Japanese.\u00a0 In 1945 the victorious powers agreed to divide the country into Russian-occupied Communist North and American-occupied capitalist South.\u00a0 The division was around the 38th<\/sup> parallel, with Pyongyang as capital of the North and Seoul capital of the South.\u00a0 In 1950 war broke out between the two sides (each blaming the other for starting it) with support eventually coming from many other nations on both sides of the political divide. In 1953 an armistice was signed by various parties including the UN, but not South Korea, so technically the two Koreas are still at war today.\u00a0 At the end of it all the whole country lay in ruins, but South Korea has recovered to become one of the world\u2019s ten strongest economies.\u00a0 North Korea, meanwhile, is one of the world\u2019s most unstable states, and certainly the most unstable to have nuclear capability, with warheads permanently lined up in the direction of Seoul.<\/p>\n The border between the two countries is a 4km wide de-militarized zone (DMZ) still under UN control, and in the middle of it is the Joint Security Area (JSA) in which meetings between representatives of the North and South are periodically held.\u00a0 Citizens of certain countries, including the USA and most of Europe are permitted to visit the JSA on organised tours under strict UN supervision.<\/p>\n Before leaving home I booked via the internet a tour with a company called DMZ Tours\u00a0 for the day before I left Korea.\u00a0 The instructions mentioned a dress code to avoid offending the North Koreans, basically \u2018smart casual\u2019 \u2013 jeans ok but no sleeveless shirts, shorts, flip-flops or other scanty attire. At 9.00am I was picked up from my hotel by a young man of about 20 named Choi, who took me on a hair-raising drive through the alleys and streets of Seoul to the Lotte Hotel, which was their headquarters.\u00a0 At least it made up for not going on the roller-coasters at Everland.<\/p>\n The coach took about an hour from Seoul to the Camp Bonifas American army base at the entrance to the DMZ. Most of the passengers were European or American, and our guide was a lady of Korean origin with American citizenship, as South Koreans are not allowed in the JSA.\u00a0 She spoke English extremely fast and was sometimes difficult to understand as she outlined what we should and should not do in the JSA.\u00a0 Several times she told us that we would be well looked after \u201cIf something goes wrong\u201d, but did not specify what that might be.\u00a0 I pointed out that all the soldiers around the bus were wearing hard hats and asked why we were not being given them.\u00a0 She laughed and said \u201cThe soldiers will take care of you if anything goes wrong\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0Also mentioned was that we might not be allowed into the JSA because six South Koreans who had been taken prisoner in the north were being handed over during the day.<\/p>\n On entering the DMZ our passports were checked by a Korean soldier who stayed on the coach, and we were driven to a building and On to the restaurant for lunch, which I struggled through with chopsticks, although all the people around me seemed to use them with great skill. \u00a0We were then put on an army bus with a soldier driving, our passports were checked again and before reaching the JSA building \u00a0we had to sign a United Nations Command disclaimer, the first sentence of which read<\/p>\n \u201cThe visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail entrance into a hostile area and the possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action\u201d.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Another paragraph read \u201cVisitors will not point, make gestures, or expressions like scoffing, abnormal action which could be used by the North Korean side as propaganda material against the United Nations Command\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n We were now at the bit most of us had come for, and to my relief we were allowed in and taken to a room where the joint North\/South meetings are held.<\/p>\n We were then ordered to stand neatly in two lines outside the building, facing the North Korean headquarters about 200 yards away.\u00a0 More photographs, and the lone enemy soldier on the steps of the building opposite Back to the bus and back to earth, in the form of the gift shop, with everything from postcards to T-shirts to chocolates.\u00a0\u00a0 As we drove away from Camp Bonifas we could see on the north side of the border the world\u2019s largest flag on the world\u2019s tallest flag pole, a product of an ongoing one-upmanship contest between the two sides.\u00a0 Our guide said the flag weighs 600lb and is too heavy to blow in the wind.\u00a0 She also said we were on The Most Dangerous Road in the World, although I doubted whether it was more dangerous than the streets of Seoul with Choi driving on them.<\/p>\n Crash!<\/strong><\/p>\n The next morning I had to take the car back and get my flight to Beijing.\u00a0 Despite the problems I had had with the satnav I decided to entrust it with task of guiding me to the airport from the centre of the third largest city in the world, a distance of about 30 miles. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It seemed all right to start with, but after about an hour of wide streets, narrow streets, underpasses and U-turns I realised that I just wasn\u2019t getting there, and simply turned north on a busy main street on the assumption that it would take me to the east-west expressway.<\/p>\n Eventually it did, and after a while I came to the inevitable toll-booth.\u00a0 Just as I pulled up to the window to pay there was a jolt and loud crash from behind.\u00a0 For a moment I couldn\u2019t believe it, and I don\u2019t think the driver of the other car could either.\u00a0 We both got out and looked at one another and the cars.\u00a0 As far as I could see my car was not damaged, but there was some damage to his, another Hyundai.\u00a0 \u00a0He indicated that we should go across to a parking area on the right hand side, which meant crossing about five lanes of traffic, but somehow we did it.\u00a0 He had very little English, but I got the feeling that he was a nice bloke and seemed to be admitting that it was his fault.\u00a0 He gave me his business card which said in English on one side that he was a research engineer with a big company.\u00a0 My phone would not work, but I asked him to ring the car rental company, which he did, and handed me the phone so that I could speak to them. I told them I would bring the car in but might be late.\u00a0 The other man also spoke to them.<\/p>\n When I got to the airport the man from Avis looked at the car, took the other man\u2019s business card and said it was ok.\u00a0 The amazing thing was that when I got home a few days later there was an email from the other driver saying how sorry he was.\u00a0 It was the first accident he had ever had, and he was concerned about whether I had suffered any injury.\u00a0 He told me not to worry about the damage to my car because it was covered by his insurance.\u00a0 A refreshing change from the dog-eat-dog attitude that has become the norm in England.<\/p>\n Beijing<\/strong><\/p>\n As mentioned previously, I was planning to stay in Beijing on the recently introduced 72-hour visa free basis, but I was not sure about the actual procedure.\u00a0 My flight times would give me 71 hours there, and in the event it was very easy. Immigration was quick and my passport was stamped in English and Chinese with the permitted period of stay written in.\u00a0 Travel was allowed not just within the city of Beijing, but the whole province, which includes several sections of the Great Wall.<\/p>\n The Airport Express and subway were also amazingly cheap and easy to use.\u00a0 At all points of entry to the subway system bags were X-rayed.\u00a0 One thing that I could not understand was that the stations seemed to be almost empty most of the time, yet the trains were absolutely packed.\u00a0 It was a considerable problem getting on with my wheelie case and fortunate that I only had to go for four stops with one change.<\/p>\n The hotel was about 800 yards from Nanluoguxiang subway, and the lane itself was massively crowded at about 5pm on Saturday,\u00a0 making it very hard work to get through with my luggage.\u00a0 Ancient buildings on both sides had been converted into caf\u00e9s, fast food outlets, gift shops, a self-service bank and backpacker accommodation.<\/p>\n Chinese addresses are more logical than those in Korea, and the hotel was more or less where I expected it to be, though nowhere near where it was shown on the map on the Booking.com website or that of the hotel itself.\u00a0 On the internet I had read stories of taxi drivers who had been completely unable to find small hotels in Beijing, and before leaving home I spent a considerable amount of time with Google maps and other information to make sure where the hotel was located.<\/p>\n When I entered the reception there were three people behind the counter, a lady and two men who looked like gangsters.\u00a0 None of them spoke any English at all, but we managed a small amount of communication via a laptop and Google Translate.\u00a0 They searched through my passport looking for a visa, and eventually found the stamp showing the dates I was permitted to stay in Beijing, and after a brief discussion decided that it was sufficient.\u00a0 The room was basic but quite large and clean.\u00a0 Good value for \u00a327 per night, which I paid in cash because, as expected, they did not take western credit cards.<\/p>\n By the time I went out for a look around and to get something to eat it was dark but the whole area was a hive of activity and I felt completely safe even in the narrow hutongs behind the main streets.<\/p>\n The Great Wall<\/strong><\/p>\n The plan was to spend my first complete day in Beijing on a trip to the Great Wall, and the second day on an electric scooter tour of the city in the morning followed by a further exploration on foot.<\/p>\n Several sections of the Great Wall are within one or two hours travelling time from Beijing, the most popular ones being at B\u00e4d\u00e1l\u01d0ng and M\u00f9ti\u00e1ny\u00fa.\u00a0 The latter is said to be better and less crowded than Badaling, and I had an ulterior motive in Mutianyu, because\u00a0 en route I was hoping to visit a classic car museum at a town called Huairou.<\/p>\n \u00a0The most usual way of getting to Mutianyu is by taking a bus from Dongzhimen Transport Hub in Beijing to Huairou and then a minibus to the Great Wall, but I was aware from various reports that any attempt to reach the wall by public transport was fraught with problems from hustlers and con men who try to relieve tourists of large sums of money on the way.<\/p>\n \u00a0Dongzhimen Subway station was four stops from Nanluoguxiang, and the Transport Hub was nearby.\u00a0 The 916 fast bus was easy to find, with a small queue which I joined.\u00a0 As soon as I got on the bus I discovered that it was necessary to have exact money to put into a machine for the fare, which I did not have, so I had to fight my way off to sort out some change.\u00a0 A man with a blue jacket who appeared to be from the bus company shouted at me.\u00a0 While I was sorting through my bag for the money two girls came up to me saying that they were from Taiwan and asked if I would share a minibus with them at Huairou.\u00a0 I said I would because I knew it would be a problem on my own.\u00a0 Before I could find the money the man with the blue jacket grabbed me by the arm, bundled me back onto the bus, and sorted out change for the fare once I was sitting down.<\/p>\n \u00a0It then became apparent that the two girls were actually part of a group of five girls and two boys who worked for a sports marketing company in Taiwan, on a sort of company weekend away.\u00a0 They said the man with blue jacket was a minibus driver who wanted to take them from Huairou to the Wall, but they did not know whether he could be trusted. My instinct was definitely that he couldn\u2019t, but as they could speak the language I just decided to see what would happen when we got to Huairou.<\/p>\n \u00a0According to what I had read there were several bus stops in Huairou where minibuses were waiting to take people to the Wall, and sure enough at one such place Blue Jacket indicated that we should get off, which we did.\u00a0 My Taiwanese friends argued with him for a while \u00a0You can either walk up a long steep path to the Wall, or go up on a chair lift.\u00a0 My friends decided that we would go on the chair lift and a couple of them went off to get tickets.\u00a0 Blue Jacket was clearly not pleased about that, because they were cutting out the middle man, and he made another attempt to get me on my own but failed to do so, as I made it clear that I was staying with the others.\u00a0 It was difficult to understand what was going on, but I gathered that we were supposed to be at the bottom of the chair lift by 4.00pm for Blue Jacket to take us back to Mitianyu.<\/p>\n \u00a0The chair lift was as scary as chair lifts always are.\u00a0 I sat with Ariel, the leader of the Taiwan group, and\u00a0talked intensively to avoid showing how terrified\u00a0I was.\u00a0 At the top the view from the Wall was superb, but somewhat limited by the grey haze that is said to be caused by pollution from Beijing, about 30 miles away.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0It was not clear how far the others intended to walk, but I knew I couldn\u2019t walk as far as we could see.\u00a0 The path was mostly quite wide, 15 to 20 feet, with walls either side and battlements, but it was not easy walking, with uneven stone setts and long flights of steps up and down most of the way.\u00a0 The steps were of irregular height and tread width, becoming steeper and narrower every few hundred yards near the watch towers.<\/p>\n \u00a0It was agreed that if I could not keep up the others would go on and I would just wait for them to come back.\u00a0 In the event they \u00a0I suppose we walked about two-thirds of the way to the highest point that we had been able to see from the chairlift, and that was much more than I had expected to be able to do.\u00a0 On the way back some of my friends had to stop for a rest and asked me if I had been in the military!<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0As my turn approached I noticed that a lady two places in front of me was all ready to go when the man in charge said something to her and after a few words she got off the sledge looking absolutely furious.\u00a0 A voice behind me \u00a0At the time and place agreed with Blue Jacket a Transit minibus came along driven by a much pleasanter young man and took us all the way to Beijing rather than just Mitianyu, so the transport was actually quite a good deal in the end.\u00a0 To avoid the traffic on the motorway he took us on country roads most of the way and it was interesting to see that the built-up area of Beijing was smaller than I would have expected, much smaller than Seoul. \u00a0In the suburbs were vast blocks of flats similar to those in Russia and Eastern Europe.\u00a0 It had been a good day, although the car museum will have to wait for a future visit if I live long enough.<\/p>\n \u00a0More Beijing<\/strong><\/p>\n In the course of my research into the trip I discovered on the internet a company running half or whole day electric scooter tours of the city.\u00a0 The business was run by a Canadian named Nathan Siy\u00a0and I booked a half day tour for the morning of my second full day in the city.<\/p>\n \u00a0By now I was aware that the silent electric scooters are very widely used in Beijing, having almost been mowed down by them several times when I was walking through the hutongs.\u00a0 They are classed as bicycles, unregistered, and as far as I could see can be ridden by anybody, although they are considerably more powerful than the electric bicycles sold in Britain.\u00a0 Normal motorcycles are subjected to restrictions in the city and are seldom seen within the fourth ring road,<\/p>\n \u00a0The appointed meeting place was at Exit A of Ciqikou subway station and I got there a few minutes early.\u00a0 Some people were standing around but it was not possible to tell who was waiting for the tour and as I was the only westerner it was unrealistic to ask anybody.\u00a0 In due course a tall young Chinese chap turned up on an electric scooter, introduced himself as Herbert and said there would be just the two of us.\u00a0 So it was to be a personal guided tour.<\/p>\n \u00a0Herbert went off to get another scooter and came back with one that fell over as soon as he put it on its stand, something that, by the look \u00a0Currently I have three motorcycles, ranging from a 6bhp monkey bike to a 98bhp Honda Hornet, so I was not expecting to have much difficulty with the electric scooter, although I don\u2019t think I had ever ridden any sort of scooter before. \u00a0The only slightly odd feature of it was that if the twist grip \u201cthrottle\u201d was kept in one position for more than three seconds it would maintain that power level until either of the brakes was applied, a bit like a cruise control.\u00a0 Anyway, Herbert appeared to be satisfied with my riding ability, so we set off into the traffic.<\/p>\n \u00a0Most of the main streets in central Beijing are very wide with marked lanes at the side for bicycles and other low-powered vehicles.\u00a0 There is often a degree of physical separation in the form of lightweight marker posts.\u00a0 We started on one such road and shortly turned off \u00a0Eventually we emerged from the hutongs into a modern pedestrianized shopping area and rode for some distance across the paving.\u00a0 As Herbert parked the bikes he chatted to two policemen, so I assumed that we were not guilty of any traffic violations.\u00a0 We walked through to Qianmen Dajie, a wide pedestrianized street lined with \u00a0From here we worked our way northwards, stopping frequently for Herbert to explain the sights as we came to them.\u00a0 His English was quite good and he was certainly passionate about Beijing, which he referred to proudly as \u201cmy city\u201c. His knowledge of the history of the area seemed to be excellent and he was always able to answer my questions.\u00a0 After each stop he would shout \u201cLet\u2019s go\u201d, jump on his scooter and press on quite hard to the next attraction.\u00a0 A lot of concentration was needed at times when we crossed big junctions with heavy traffic in all directions, but I did not find it really difficult.<\/p>\n \u00a0We stopped to look at the entrance to the Forbidden City, but could not go in because it was closed on Mondays.\u00a0 Next on the agenda \u00a0To my mind this was a good way to see the city in a short time, although it would not be suitable for anyone who was not used to riding bicycles or motorcycles in heavy traffic.<\/p>\n \u00a0After saying goodbye to Herbert and getting something to eat I set off on foot to Tiananmen Square via some of the hutongs that we had ridden through.\u00a0 On one side of the square is the Great Hall of the People, where a conference of some sort had just finished and the red carpets were being rolled up and taken away.\u00a0 In the square itself is the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall which had enormous illuminated signs placed right across the front of it, presumable intended to inspire the populace in some way.<\/p>\n \u00a0On the north side of Tiananmen Square is the Gate of Heavenly Peace with a huge portrait of Mao.\u00a0 It was amusing to see that each of the![\"Deoksugung](\"http:\/\/bevistravels.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/012.jpg\")
<\/a>Close to City Hall is Deoksugung Palace, one of five in the city. It consists of a number of ancient and beautiful buildings, apparently all empty, with two more recent neoclassical ones that are used.\u00a0 As I left a ceremony was taking place in front of the main gate with people in traditional costume.<\/p>\n<\/a> University.\u00a0 It was not the university that I was aiming for, but an art gallery called TrickEye and its associated Ice Museum. TrickEye was supposed to be an exhibition of Tromp d\u2019Oeil, which have always fascinated me, but in the event the pictures turned out to be rather poorly executed, contrived as a means of family entertainment rather than any sort of art.\u00a0 The Ice Museum had ice sculptures ranging from a full-sized car to the interior of a house, with bathroom including toilet.\u00a0 Too cold to stay there for long.<\/p>\n<\/a>One of the few attractions in the Chuncheon area is the Soyang Dam, which I managed to find the next morning with the all-Korean map that I had picked up in the hotel.\u00a0 The associated reservoir made by any standards a beautiful scene, enhanced by the backdrop of tree-covered hills in autumn colours.\u00a0 At last I had broken away from the fast and furious traffic of the Seoul area on to relatively quiet rural roads passing through good countryside, though still with ribbon building at times.\u00a0 Around a place called Inje the road went through tunnel after tunnel, some of them one or two miles long, before a long, fast stretch to Sokcho, a coastal resort.\u00a0 As I approached the coast there was noticeable military activity in the form of low-flying jets.<\/p>\n<\/a> resort atmosphere.\u00a0 From there I drove down the coast, stopping to look at a couple of other places on the way to Jeongdongjin, where I planned to stay for the night,\u00a0 A few miles before Jeongdongjin is a length of coast known as Unification Park, which was the site of an attempted landing by a North Korean submarine in 1996.\u00a0 The shore line here is protected with fences and watchtowers manned by soldiers, with the actual submarine set up on dry land as a visitor attraction.\u00a0 On the same site is a former American warship that served in the Korean War and later the South Korean navy before being hauled out on to the same said dry land and opened to the public.\u00a0 I resolved to look at these the following day.<\/p>\n<\/a>A really extraordinary place, a contender for the title of Tackiest Seaside Resort in the World.\u00a0 On entering the town from the north the scene is dominated by what appears to be a full-sized cruise liner precariously balanced high on a cliff top, as if deposited there by a giant tsunami.\u00a0 In fact, it has never been any closer to the water than it is now, and was purpose built on site as a hotel and conference centre called the Sun Cruise Resort.\u00a0 On a promontory below at beach level is another odd construction in the form of a schooner, which is apparently a restaurant, and most of the hotels in the town are characterized by wedding cake architecture straight out of a Disney production.<\/p>\n<\/a> to try my luck with the other weird places. It took me a while to find one that was open, and when I booked in I was given a bag containing a toothbrush, toothpaste and a razor.<\/p>\n<\/a>submarines cannot accommodate many people at one time.\u00a0 The story of the submarine is pretty grim.\u00a0 It arrived with 26 North Korean spies, three of whom carried out a surveillance mission on a nearby airbase. When they returned to the vessel it got caught on the rocks and had to be abandoned.\u00a0 To protect classified information eleven non-military crew members were killed by the others, who then attempted to reach North Korea overland.\u00a0 Thirteen were killed by South Korean forces, one was captured and one was unaccounted for. In the words of the South Koreans on the information board \u00a0\u201cThe incident was a great shock to us and incurred our wrath\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/a> people who served on it thought so.<\/p>\n<\/a>Yongin Motel, shown on the satnav, proved to be inaccessible, but then I saw Motel Cinema, which looked quite decent.\u00a0 There was no sign of a cinema, but maybe the motel was built on the site of one.<\/p>\n<\/a> corporation and the Samsung Foundation has invested money in cultural ventures including the acclaimed Leeum Samsung Art Museum in Seoul.\u00a0 The Transportation Museum is in a spectacular modern building adjacent to a vast theme park called Everland, also connected with Samsung, and when I arrived the place was full of school children, quite literally hundreds of them.\u00a0 Nevertheless I managed to have a good look round and would rate the museum as no more than average for the quality of its exhibits.<\/p>\n<\/a>the printers were standing by their machines waiting for orders. The businesses were serviced by a constant stream of vehicles, mostly motorcycle-based three-wheeled pick-ups, things like tuk-tuks, or tiny vans.\u00a0 There were many small motorcycles with big steel frames on the back, loaded with goods towering above the rider.<\/p>\n<\/a> shown a film of the appalling life that people lead in North Korea.\u00a0 A lady defector from the North, a former naval officer, then answered questions about the conditions there.\u00a0 Back on the bus, depressed and full of hatred for the enemy, we were taken to a view point where we could see some distance into enemy territory, including a mock housing estate that was built to create the impression that everything was going well on the other side of the border.<\/p>\n<\/a>In the room was a table with the exact border between North and South running through the centre of it, so that the parties involved are on their own territories.\u00a0 Two South Korean\/UN soldiers were in the room, but, to my disappointment, no North Koreans (sometimes there are).\u00a0 However, the really important thing was that we were allowed to walk round the table into North Korea, thereby acquiring what the Rough Guide described as \u201csome serious travel kudos\u201d.\u00a0 Surprisingly, photographs were permitted at this point.<\/p>\n<\/a> raised his binoculars and looked at us.<\/p>\n<\/a>Although I spent a considerable amount of time studying the area before the trip I still had very little idea what it would be like.\u00a0\u00a0 Most of the planning was done with the Lonely Planet guide and associated map.\u00a0 It was difficult to decide which part of the city to stay in, but I eventually settled on Nanluoguxiang, one of the remaining hutongs or old alleys that has been preserved and made into a popular tourist area.\u00a0 On Booking.com I found a Super 8 hotel in Nanluoguxiang at \u00a327 per night, which seemed improbably cheap.\u00a0 Super 8 is at the bottom of the Wyndham Hotels range and the second cheapest motel chain in the USA, but I have stayed in them many times there.\u00a0 Super 8 is actually a franchise and it seemed that this hotel had only just joined the brand.\u00a0 There were no reviews and apparently it did not take western credit cards, but I was so intrigued that I decided to go for it and booked three nights in advance.<\/p>\n<\/a> and then said they had agreed a price, including me, which seemed ok.\u00a0 Blue Jacket tried to separate me from them but I insisted that I was with them.\u00a0 The minibus turned out to absolutely tiny, based on a little Chinese van like a Suzuki Carry or Bedford Rascal.\u00a0 I sat in the front next to Blue Jacket and the other seven were all crammed into the back, which they seemed to enjoy.\u00a0 The poor little van, with an engine of 1.0 or 1.2 litres, really struggled but eventually we reached Mitianyu.\u00a0 Blue Jacket forced his way ruthlessly through the traffic, shouting all the time at everyone and everything until we reached the access point for the Wall, which was high on the hill above.<\/p>\n<\/a>The Wall stretched away into the distance, following the contours of the hills to a point several hundred feet higher than our position.\u00a0 It was an awe-inspiring sight and I found it impossible to imagine how such a substantial structure could be built over a distance of more than 500 miles.\u00a0 Started in around 200BC it was built, rebuilt and reinforced over two millennia with two or three million people working on it.\u00a0 Most of the existing sections were built during the Ming dynasty (1368 \u2013 1644) and those in the Beijing area, including this one, were restored quite recently.<\/p>\n<\/a> stopped every couple of minutes to take photographs, mostly of each other, and we did not really walk very far before sitting down to eat the food that we had bought from stalls near the chair lift.\u00a0 I took some photos of the group and of the iconic views through the battlements or lookouts in the watchtowers, which were like the classical pictures of Chinese landscapes with foliage in the foreground.\u00a0 The weather was perfect.<\/p>\n<\/a>When we got to the top station of the chair lift I realised that there was an alternative way down in the form of one-person sledges on a stainless steel slide like a bob-sleigh run, and then found that we had tickets for it.\u00a0 As we waited in the queue we could see that the black plastic sledges had a lever at the front that was pushed forward to go faster and pulled back to brake.<\/p>\n<\/a> said \u201cIf they ask your age don\u2019t tell them you are over 70, because no one over 70 is allowed to use the slide.\u201d\u00a0 They didn\u2019t ask my age (I don\u2019t think they could speak English) but I have to say that it was a very long way down and by the time we got to the bottom the muscles in my lower back were at breaking point.<\/p>\n<\/a> of it, had happened a good few times before.\u00a0 It was time for the short training session, so Herbert showed me the operating instructions for the bike in English on his smart phone and sent me off to ride around the posts on the paved area adjacent to the station.<\/p>\n<\/a> into an area of hutongs in which people were living and working in the old buildings, as they always have done.\u00a0\u00a0 It was all a bit of a mess, but that is what tourists want to see, rather than the sanitized new developments that the authorities seem to think they ought to see.\u00a0 The people living in such areas are undoubtedly poor compared with many of those working in the huge office blocks a stone\u2019s throw away, but it was hard to tell whether there was real poverty.<\/p>\n<\/a>modern buildings in the style of old Peking. I asked Herbert whether he preferred them to the original ones, and he said he did.<\/p>\n<\/a>were the beautiful Houhai Lakes, followed by the ancient Bell and Drum Towers which were used to mark the time of day.\u00a0 It was then a fast ride back to Ciqikou via Tiananmen Square, taking in some more hutongs, which I really enjoyed.\u00a0 We rode along one side of Tiananmen Square (said to be the world\u2019s largest public square) but were not<\/a> allowed to stop and eventually arrived at Ciqikou at 2.00pm, 4\u00bd hours after we left.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>For some time I had been looking for a new backpack, and I noticed that Herbert had a very smart one with Swiss army style badges on it.\u00a0 Just off Tiananmen Square was a shop selling luggage, so I wandered in for a look round, and sure enough there was a backpack just like Herbert\u2019s.\u00a0 When I examined it the shopkeeper quoted a price which I thought was too high, but as soon as I turned away the price started to tumble and came down to the equivalent of about \u00a320, which is probably less than half of what it would have been in England.\u00a0 It appeared to be a genuine Wenger one, which would no doubt be made in China anyway, so I bought it.\u00a0 We put my existing backpack inside it, complete with contents, and I continued on my way.\u00a0 This is to be the first stage of my new Young Tour Guide image, even though I am not a tour guide.<\/p>\n<\/a> three immaculate soldiers guarding the area in front of the building had a casually-dressed kick-boxer type in front of him, to keep the crowd at bay.<\/p>\n