China

Courtney and I have just got back from a week's backpacking in China. We had a crazy 3 days from me finishing work to getting on the plane. Even then I had problems with my working visa expiring, but as I wasn't going to be doing any work when I got back I could return to Korea on a tourist visa. Cool beans.
Our hostel was a brilliant place, nestled in one of Beijing's Hutong districts. We were about a 20 minutes walk south of Tienanmen Square so had a pretty central location. It was really strange and quite humbling to go from South Korea, where we have a foothold on the language and culture to being dropped right at the bottom of the pile again. Still we managed to fuddle along okay. Our biggest problems arose in restaurants where we seemed to be ordering too little food. Never quite figured that one out.
We had about 5 days in Beijing. We walked around Tienanmen Square, looked in at the Forbidden City, ate fried scorpions on sticks, saw the preserved body of Mao Zedong and rode bicycles. We also spent a day on the Great Wall in Simitai, a 4 hour bus ride from Beijing. It's a very steep section of the wall so can be kind of treacherous in places but means that its also fairly quiet up there. We walked along it for about a mile or so, awestruck that we were there on the Great Wall of China. Our exit strategy off the wall was via perhaps the best form of transport available: zip-line! We also took sleeper trains to and from Xian, where we were saw the terracotta warriors, 6,000 of them unearthed after 2,000 years underground. It was a stunning sight.
Despite the chronic lack of sleep, suffering from Beijing belly and not really knowing what was going on at any moment, it was a fantastic trip. The people of China came across as friendly and most spoke excellent English. The sights were everything we could have hoped for them to be. All in all it was a fantastic experience and a wonderful way to end my time in East Asia.

Wonders of China

The Great Wall - Simitai

Terracotta Warriors - Xian

Terracotta Warriors, Pit 1 - Xian

Beijing

Hutong door

Entrance to the Forbidden City

Inside the Forbidden City

Hutong roofs

Surprisingly delicious

Hutong

Tienanmen Square

The Next Big Thing

So I've finished teaching at OES Kids, Anseong, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. It was a fantastic experience, my first 'real' job out of university and has probably marked the beginning of my ESL teaching career. Now I'm at a bit on an in-between stage as I prepare for what's next for me. Which, if everything goes okay, will be a teaching job in Thailand.
I finished work on Tuesday, had an unexpectedly busy day Wednesday as I sorted out my accounts and stuff for my trip to China. Today has been spent packing as Courtney has been told that she has to move out of her apartment by the end of the week. That leaves us with nowhere to stay once we come back from China. We have a few friends we (hopefully) will be able to bunk with but it was an unexpected and stress inducing piece of news. I'm positive that things will turn out okay.

Packing for China

What would you bring on a trip to Beijing?

With just two weeks until I'm off to China m thoughts are turning to what I want to bring with me. Mainly what photographic equipment I want to take.We're planning on spending most of our time in Beijing with a trip out to see the terracotta warriors. Here's what I have:

> Canon 30D
> 430EX Speedlite (flash)
> 17-40mm f/4 lens
> 70-200mm f/4 lens
> 100mm f/2.8 macro lens
> 300mm f/2.8 lens
> 1.4x TeleConverter
> Tripod

For Jeju I took along the body, flash, 17-40, 70-200, TC and tripod. I hardly got any use out of the TC, the tripod got more use than expected and the flash only got used one evening but it helped then.
At the moment I'm thinking: 30D, 17-40 and 70-200 for sure. I'll also be bringing my laptop to download and review images.
What I'm not sure about is the flash and/or tripod. I don't know how much use the flash will get. Bringing it means bringing a bunch of AA batteries and diffuser, but that's not much of a hassle. The tripod would be handy to have, especially for landscapes and touristy self-portraits of Courtney and myself :) The downside is that its a bulky piece of kit.
This trip isn't a primarily photographic one. I'm going there to experience China and spend some quality time with Courtney. That means setting up and packing down a tripod could get in the way of enjoying the trip. I'm sure Court won't object with my photographing however, I just don't want to. However I really enjoy taking pictures (see earlier post).
After having a night to think about it and talking to Court I don't think I'll be taking the tripod as it has the possibility to limit mobility and that's important for us. I will however be packing the flash. After recently subscribing to the Strobist blog I am thinking about ways to get my flash off camera and also maybe getting a 580ex flash so I can turn my 430ex into a slave. Hmmm, more stuff :)