A Visit to Another Communist Country

Today I went to North Korea. I stood in their hostile, communist country, and I didn't even get shot at by the intimidating North Korea soldier who was on vigil, eyeing us with his evil eyes and taking pictures of us, apparently an intimidation tactic. I felt pretty safe because I had quite a few US Soldiers and South Korean soldiers protecting me.

Yes, today we concluded the trip with a cool tour of the DMZ between North and South Korea, two countries who are still technically at war.

Warning: If you have no interest in political history, just skip to the headings that interest you. I found this fascinating, and hey, when mom asks if a DMZ is a new band I like (sorry mom- in fairness to you there's an old hip hop band called Run DMC), I figure I need to elaborate here.

The DMZ
What is the DMZ, you ask? Allow me to very briefly indulge myself, because this is interesting. And I'm oversimplifying here so all you political and history buffs, have mercy.

Back in the day, Japan took control of Korea. But after World War II, Korea got out of Japan's clutches thanks to help from their trusty friends, the USSR and the US.

Obvious problem: The USSR was communist, the US is democratic.

To make a long story short, the country was split because the South elected a leader, as only a good democratic would do. The North was designated a communist leader by the USSR (shocking, I know).

Things got ugly when in 1950 the North wanted control of the South and started blowing things up to get it.

Enter the Korean war.

Millions of lives were lost. People starved. Families were split up because of death or separation while the men fought. War prisoners were taken. South Korea was in shambles and things were looking grim.

Three in a half years later, peace talks begin. But they never really reached an agreement. Think of it like this: you and your significant other have it out verbally, then get tired of the yelling and resort to silent treatment. A kind of passive hostility.

So the talks didn't really bring any resolution, but they did agree to stop blowing each other's heads off.

To aid this, a demilitarized zone (DMZ) was set up along the border of the countries. It's 4km wide and each country gets 2km. Under no circumstances can the line between the two countries be crossed. The UN is helping South Korea keep peace in their country, so the US Army is stationed in the South's part of the DMZ, with the South Korean army, to ensure the violence doesn't flare up (and it has periodically over the years). The countries are still technically at war.

Enough of the Boring Stuff, What Did You Guys Do?
Our tour was conducted partially by the US Army and a Korean company. Once again we saw cool things, learned a ton, and saw things the average person doesn't. It was very interesting, if not a little intense. It's quite safe to be there. I mean, if it wasn't, surely they wouldn't do tours. But we did have to sign a waiver stating that we understood we could get injured or killed by hostile action of North Korea. Tourists have gotten roughed up by North Koreans in the past; in the 80's some average Joe was almost killed and to this day talks with a voice box.

We stood in the room where the peace talks to stop the violence happened in 1953. The room is literally divided by a line down the middle of a boardroom table- the North on one side of the room and the South on the other. Standing at the North side of the room was the only time we were permitted to be on North soil. There is a door leading outside right into North Korea (fortunately guarded by a hulky bulky South Korean soldier). In the past, the North Koreans have walked through that door, taken out the guard, and taken and roughed up tourists. Apparently it doesn't happen often, but it certainly has happened.

Walking Through the Tunnel
What's cool is that we walked down the a tunnel that the North secretly tried to build under the DMZ to get into the South. Three tunnels of this sort were discovered in the seventies and another one in the 90's. Man, those North Koreas were short. We had to wear hard hats walking into the tunnel, and I assumed it was for falling rocks. When I started cracking my noggin on the jagged ceiling on the tunnel, I understood the dire need for the helmets. I had to walk like a hunchback. We weren't allowed cameras, but hey, rules are made to be broken. At the end of the tunnel was barbed wire and a wall with big sign that said: MDL (Military Demarcation Line- or the actual line that separates the 2 countries). NO PICTURES MAY BE TAKEN.

I whipped out my camera, crouched down, peered throug the eyehole (didn't want the obvious display on) and snapped a picture before you could say "communism".

"Oh, crap," I said to Lynae. "Is that a window?"

I squinted. Sure enough, I had just taken a picture of the camera that was spying on us from North Korea. There was a window in the wall. Hmph. I'm pretty easy going, but communist governments are a little scary. My trek back through the tunnel was a little brisker this time round, thumping my melon on the ceiling along the way. Thank goodness for the hard hat.

Other Interesting (or Not-So-Interesting) Tidbits
What about North Korea?
It seems to be an undisputed fact that North Korea is the most closed and secretive nation in the world, and one of the most highly militarized societies. Power outages and food shortages occur all the time. 3 million people have died of starvation since 1995. The stories of the propaganda that the North tells their citizens is appalling. Example 1: America is the reason they are starving. Example 2: Everyone wants to live in their wonderful country. (Oxymoron, or what?)

Who Has the Bigger Penis?
The North errected a substantial flag on their side in the DMZ. Not to be outdone, the South reciprocated with their own flag attached to a bigger pole at 328ft tall. "Preposterous!" said the North. They thumbed their nose once again at the South and installed a 525ft pole of their own with a big ass flag that weighs 600lbs dry and must be taken down in the rain because it's too heavy when wet and rips. Sounds efficient to me. Good thing North Korea has everyone working for the government to coddle this labor-intensive flag.

In North Korea, there are 25,000 (no, that is not a typo) statues of Kim Il Sung, the original leader in 1953 and father of the current leader, spread around the country. Don't ask me how that was determined, but a our official tour was pretty serious about that fact.

Naughty North Korea
Believe it or not, over the years North Korea has pulled some stunts that would make any criminal proud.

I already mentioned the tunnels, which were the North's way of sneaking past the DMZ to be able to attack Seoul, should the inclination arise.

There's been the attacks on tourists and attacks on South and US soldiers. The incidents are isolated and seems to have gotten better over the years, but they definitely have pulled some stunts.

Take a Deep Breath, Denise...
Ok, I am done here. You can blast my rant on the comment sections and tell me how dull and boring I am. But just remember- I warned you.

Tomorrow it's time for me to get back to reality and fly home. I wish I could do the Harry Potter thing and take some floo powder and land in the fireplace at 445 St. Lawrence Ct. But hey, I guess a plane is better than a psychadelic bus blasting hip hop. I am actually ready to go home, which surprises me. And it's a nice feeling because my new home really does feel like home for the first time. Sometimes you need to go away to realize things like this.

This trip surpassed my expectations in every way and thanks everyone for actually caring enough to read about my adventures and respond.

When I get back I'll post some final pics of the DMZ tour and a final video clip of Korea and China.

Stay tuned and see you soon!

Movie!

Here's a down and dirty 5 minute clip I threw together of some of our footage from Thailand.

Neither me, my camera, nor video editing software is professional, so don't be too hard on me.

A Quick Little Update

It's hard to believe that tomorrow we leave Busan to Soeul for a couple days for the final stretch of our journey. In one sense it seems as if I have been gone for a long time, yet in another it seems as if just yesterday I was boarding a plane in Detroit. I guess that's life- time freezes in one sense, yet goes 100mph in another.

The past few days were quite relaxing. I am in the throes of depression because LOST killed off one of the hottest characters of the show. I'll recover. Hopefully.

I've been meeting up with Meaghan on breaks, and eating Korean treats made with kidney beans and sweet potatoes (for the record, pastries filled with sweet kidney bean or sweet potato filling are actually quiet good. So is kidney bean ice cream and sweet potato lattes). We've played games and gabbed and giggled and eaten chocolate and quoted old childhood movies, as only sisters do (he hasn't come out and said it, but I'm sure Kevin won't be too sad to see us go).

The other night Meaghan and I did the trendy Korean thing and visited the jimjilbong, or saunas. We went to the largest one in Asia. Basically you walk around naked (women only) and have a vast selection of different pools, hot tubs, and steam rooms, all various temperatures (some scorching hot, and some friggin' cold). It's very liberating walking around in the birthday suit, if not a little awkward at first because that is something us North Americans just don't do. It's a very relaxing way to spend an evening, and surprisingly inexpensive.

So tomorrow we pack up our bags and trek it to yet another city and say good bye to Busan.

I made a quick and dirty video of some footage from Thailand that was taken on my cheap camera. I can't upload files here, but I think I have a way for people to view it. Stay tuned!

Denise Esser's Top Ten

Top Ten English Signs Found in Asia

Honorable Mention:









(The Chinese are notorious for knocking off. Wal-Mart, beware.)


10.













(If water is potable, does that mean that you can put it in pots only?)

9.










(Better than being against time)

8.




















(Gotta love that pure cashmere, only a couple hundred yuen (or $10 CAD))

7.




















(Watching your step isn't good enough; picking your step is much better.)

6.















(Damn, I hate it when I can't retrieve relics because they're just too far out of reach.)

5.















(I never did find a pearl adornment in that market.)

4.







(What a great deal- those "pure" pearls with such fortune were only a few cents.)


3.















(Too bad that the Barbie doll I brought had to stay in my purse while I climed the structure.)

2.























(Found at a local market- Read the yellow strip at the bottom.)

And the number one sign found in Asia:

1.









(You send you child to my skool and I teach him very good enghlish.)

A Real Protest at Tian' Anmen Square

Tian' Anmen Square. We have all heard about the student protests in the square in 1989 where the military "allegedly" killed innocent civilians, something the Chinese government vehemently denies.

Would you believe me if I told you that for the brief 1/2 hour we were in square today, a protester set himself on fire? Apparently this doesn't happen too often. The drama surrounding it was intense. Sirens, shouting, people running to see what was going on. I pulled out my video camera and only just started recording when our Chinese tour guide ran up to me and shouted, "no cameras! Put your camera away!"

Apparently the Chinese government doesn't want anyone recording things like this that "don't happen." A few minutes later I whipped it out again and got reprimended again.

"What will happen if I get caught?" I challenged.

"They could take you in and question you and make things difficult. It's just better not to. It's illegal to record things like that."

I certainly don't want to mess with the Chinese government so I put the camera away. (Incidentally when I went to download the video it wasn't there. I think the Chinese government erased it because I would never make a dumb mistake with my camera.)

I never actually saw the guy flare up. I did smell something awful burning, and saw the ambulance take him away. It was quite fascinating to witness something to random, something you might read about in a book. Our Korean tour guide said she's been to the square about 100 times and has never once seen a real demonstration. She said the protester would go to the hospital to get his burns treated and probably be tossed in the slammer for 5 years. The Chinese tour guide said that no one will know what happens to the protester- the Chinese government would never tell them.

It is interesting being in a communist country. In some ways they are moving away from it in the sense that they can work for private companies, but censorship still seems prominent, and freedom of speech is definitely not allowed. When we asked our Chinese tour guide about the student protests in 1989, he said, "we are told something different. We are told that the students killed the soldiers. We are told that the students were bad and their ideas were not right and that they were beating the soldiers." Notice he prefaced it with "we are told", not "this is what happened." (Someone should ask the government how unarmed students could so easily kill armed soldiers.) He also mentioned that for years dirt-poor China was told that they were rich compared to the Western world. It was only in the past twenty five years when Western movies came to China did they realize that this was a lie. There are other examples of this censorship, but alas, I have much to write about. I am not one for organized tours, but having a real local to talk to has been very interesting.

The Chinese who are poor and old and unemployable gather in parks and sing and dance and play music and cards to pass their time. It's such a neat sense of community. They have nothing, yet they seem very happy. It was -7 degrees today, probably colder with the wind chill, and as we were admiring the Temple of Heaven, we saw dozens and dozens having fun and laughing while dancing and playing games in the frigid weather. It's a reminder of the old, but true, cliche: happiness comes from within. I did get some neat video footage of this (and it actually worked) and hope to post it because it captures the culture beautifully.

We also saw the Forbidden City today and went to a tea house and some markets to shop. The days are jam packed full of things to do and see. A few times in busy areas our guide laughed and told us that some of the Chinese from rural provinces were pointing at us saying, "look, real foreigners!" Apparently the rural and poor parts of China have never seen "real" white people; only on television or the movies. If they happen to visit Beijing and see white people, it's a big deal for them. This was obvious today when a couple different times some Chinese people came up to us, laughing and gibbering, communicating to us through motions that they wanted their pictures with us. And they were so excited! It was amusing, really. Probably the closest I'll ever get to being famous.

On this note, you know how we think all Asians look the same? They all think we look the same. I would have thought with our different eye and hair colors that it would be different, but not so. Our tour guide informed us of this, and Meaghan and I have been mixed up several times. I know we look alike, but our hair is way different. They cannot tell us apart at all. Once someone even thought I was Lynae.

Our grand finale for the day was a stunning Chinese theatre show. It was like Broadway, but better, and for a quarter of the price. It was jam packed with Kung Fu-- real stuff as these guys are actually trained in a Kung Fu school. The lights, sets and costumes were spectacular. There was no singing as our Broadway shows have; rather all Kung Fu style dancing, real Kung Fu moves (hi-yah!), acrobatics and gymnastics. It was breathtaking. And for my guy friends, yes we saw them lay on knives, break wood over their heads, and even break a concrete slab that was laying on some guy's abs with a sledgehammer. It was beyond professional and highly entertaining. The Chinese know how to achieve perfection and defy the limits of the human body.

Well my time in Beijing has sadly come to an end. Tomorrow our wake up call is at 4:30am to catch an 8:00am flight back to Pusan. China has exceeded my expectations. It is so rich with culture and history. I think sometimes us North Americans tend to view it as communist, poor, cheap labor, full of people who speak in a language polar opposite to our own...but it's an amazing place. Probably one of the better countries I've been to. And Lynae and I conceded tonight that the food was even better than Thailand (yes, our Chinese guide has been ordering for us and the food is amazing, despite our original mishap on the first night). Happy New Year!