Jay K.
[The frozen train window]
Ep32. One day adventure in Shenyang
As I told you guys in the previous episode, the last destination of my winter trip was Dandong, but now let’s rewind a bit and let me talk about Shenyang. I was originally going to only visit Ha’erbin, Dandong, and Tumen. The main purpose of the trip was visiting the Sino-North Korea border cities and to think about N. Korea and S. Korea relationship. However, because there is no direct train from Tumen to Dandong, I had to stop over at Shenyang, a transport hub as well as the provincial capital of Liaoning province.
Taking an overnight train from Tumen, I got to Shenyang around 8am and my train to Dandong was leaving at 5pm, thus I had a whole day to explore the city. Even though it wasn’t a part of my original plan, I decided to enjoy a day tour in Shenyang.
Having a breakfast at Yoshinoya near the train station, I first went to see Mao’s statue located at the center of the downtown. You know I love this kind of things: Mao, communism, and so on. Mao was magnificently standing amid the bursting metropolitan. After taking pictures around the statue, I moved on to the imperial palace of Shenyang. The palace was very similar to that of Beijing—Forbidden City, but much smaller and simpler with some Manchu features. It took less than an hour to see the whole palace. I ate lunch at food court inside of the department near the place. It was delicious! I found that place in my lonely planet, my one and only tour guide.
[The Mao statue]
[Imperial Palace in Shenyang]
After having lunch, I took a bus to the North Tomb, burial place of Huang Taiji, the founder of the Qing dynasty. The tomb set in the middle of Beiling Park. The park was very disappointing. There was nothing except pine trees and snow, however it was very peaceful. There were local people enjoying the winter park. The day was almost over when I was walking out of the park. I took a bus again back to the station where I started the day in the morning.
I really enjoyed the day in Shenyang. I didn’t expect much from Shenyang and didn’t get much in the end in terms of tourist sights. However, it was nice to be a stranger and wondering the city for a day. It was like an adventure. I took buses to every place. Sometimes I was lost and sometimes I was proud of myself finding ways to the destinations. I was completely dependent on my lonely planet. I was a complete stranger, but at the same time I was like just another local person; taking crowded buses, eating at the department store and so on.
From Ha’erbin to Tumen, from Tumen to Shenyang and Shenyang to Dandong, I wrote pretty much about everything I witnessed during the trip. Now I need to finish my journal of the winter trip. Quick statistics: I visited 4 cities and 3 provinces in 8 days. I took trains for 55 hours in total. I slept 3 nights on train out of 7 nights; it was rough. I spent almost 300 USD for the whole trip.
What are the differences between my winter trip and the summer one? Of course the biggest difference is the length of the trip. The winter trip was much shorter. I didn’t stay at hostels during the trip, so I made fewer friends than during the summer trip.
I was much more like a local during the winter trip than when I was travelling during the summer. I took a Chinese book and read on trains, thus, no local person doubted that I was one of them until I spoke a word. I was also very used to the train system in China, so didn’t get lost or anything. I knew what to expect. I was also more used to the bus system so I hardly used taxi. Sometimes I was proud of myself being more like a local, but I also realized I still need to work on my Chinese. If I spoke more than a sentence, local people realized I was a foreigner—some people thought I was a Korean minority. Many people thought my Chinese was too poor to be a local but too good to be a foreigner.
[At Beiling park]
What did I learn from this eight days-long winter trip? I achieved what I wanted to achieve. Planning this trip, I wanted to have alone time and wanted to think about the unification of two Koreas. I also saw beautiful ice sculptures in Ha’erbin. To tell the truth, I was sick of travelling when I was on the trip. I was tired of crowded buses, uncomfortable train seats, and freezing weather. I wanted to give up sometimes. I wanted to forget everything and just go back to Beijing and rest.
However, ending this journal, I don’t regret anything—the trip was fun and meaningful like any other trip in my life. Although I had fun during the winter trip, I don’t think I am going to have another trip in China. For the moment, I am tired of travelling—I think I said this after the summer trip too. I am sure you guys are also tired of reading my travel journals.
The trip is over. The journal about that trip is also over. However, my journey isn’t over yet. I am going back to China in a week. I will try to write one entry about Korea and the rest of my winter break before I leave here. I honestly don’t want to go back to China.
[Back to Beijing]
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