Seoul

After China, we went to Seoul, South Korea.  Lovely sites, good shopping, and great food!  I'd like to visit Korea again to see more of the countryside rather than the big city.

street food!  pictured here are hot dogs, sausages, corndogs, and fish cake on a stick.  My favorite street food was hotteok, a sweet filled pancake that is pan or deep fried.

A trip into North Korea, crossing the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the buffer zone between North and South Korea.  The USO tour allows you into the conference room where the two countries have their talks.  Here you can see the guards which watch the border at all times of the day.

N Seoul Tower, or Namsam Tower, a communication and observation tower which gives a great view of the city

lovely Korean architecture which incorporates the surrounding landscape

part of the Korean War Memorial

China

I was so impressed during my trip to Beijing and Xi'an.  China does not disappoint with it's size and grandeur.  We visited a lot of the touristy sites ... the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, Summer Palace, Terra Cotta Warriors ... and saw some things the locals may find ordinary, but I found delightful.

love this wedding videographer's commitment to getting the shot during weekend traffic

I always make it a point to visit McDonald's in foreign countries though I rarely visit in my own.  I love taro! and in China they have taro pie.  It's not as good as fresh taro, but it is deep fried (unlike McD's pies in America which are baked)

The Great Wall is a must see.  It's difficult to capture it's magnitude in a single picture.  Up close you don't see the length.  From far away, it looks like a skinny line.  It's massive.  And steep.

We visited the Great Wall at Mutianyu and took the ski lift up, walked along the wall, and took the toboggan down. 

The highlight of my trip was seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi'an.  Over 7,000 soldiers, horses, and chariots were built to protect Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife.  They are larger than life with unique expressions, facial hair, and hairstyles.  Archeologists are still excavating the pits to dig up and assemble the remains which were destroyed by earthquake.

the coop

 

The chicken coop in my friend’s backyard with 6 hens.  I don't know the breeds, but the white birds produce white eggs, the brown produce blue and green eggs, and the black produce brown eggs.

 

Hello, ladies!

Honeydew and ice water on a hot day.

Gorgeous eggs that my friend gave me.  She gets about 5 eggs a day. 

They are smaller and taste different from the eggs I was eating before.  More of an aftertaste, but I can't describe much more than that.