Where is the soul of Seoul?

I have been in Seoul since Saturday. It is... you know, it's a city. It is more clean, more green, more advanced and more orderly than Shanghai. There is less noise, less running around and less trash.

Taxis are big, black and fancy compared to Shanghai, and they have got working seatbelts. And, oh yes! There are no honking car horns.

The people seem more confident about themselves and their lives in this country. More open and smiling.

What do you mean? Why couldn't I know all this just based on couple of days in Seoul? Sure I can. I am just that good.

But for some reason I have not found the soul of Seoul. I don't know what this city is about.

There's the little stream where Seouliers go to... I don't know why they go there. It is a nice little creek, but it is surronded by concrete walls.

Then there is the garden of the Royal Palace. Oh, it felt like a haven on a hot Sunday afternoon.

And the NamSan, aka Nam-mountain. Mountain may be a slight exaggeration, but it is a green and lush and walking up and down you can exercise your poor calves so you can hardly walk the following day. In deed you can...

Oh, and some of the big malls are open until morning, some are open 24 hours a day. You hear that, all of you in U.K. or Australia? That's the way it should be, not close the doors at 6 pm, so that an innocent business traveller doesn't even stand a chance getting there. Yesterday I was working, today I was blogging, but tomorrow I'll go shopping!

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Towering over Shanghai

Shanghai's signature tower, the one and only: Oriental Pearl Tower

Shanghai World Financial Tower opened its doors some time end of last summer, August if I am not badly mistaken. We, and about 1,000,000 other Chinese wanted to visit the place. Due to some restricting factors, like for example that I have to work on weekdays, our options have pretty much been limited to the weekends.

If we are going to go through all the trouble getting there (it is on the other side of the town), we'd decided to pick a pretty and clear day. But once it came, we were off to the Tower. Which was a great idea, but someone else had thought about that too... The queue was so long we figured it would take at least 3 or 4 hours to get in. And once in, you'd propably be squeezed between all the enthusiastic Chinese. No thanks.

Firstly, we were optimistic and decided to try a little later, figuring the first weeks are the worst.

But every time we went back, there were more people than in the Shanghai railway station just before Chinese New Year. So we figured we would have to get there really really early one Saturday morning.

There were many weeks that brough us nothing but cloudy mornings. Then there were weekends I could not get that man of mine out of the bed before it was too late.

So, by early this year we still had not visited the new tower. We'd been to the Jin Mao Tower, which is just beside the new tower, but not quite as tall, and, of course, not as new. So while Jin Mao Tower offers you views from 88th floor, is now comfortable in respect of the crowds, you can get in without queuing, no one wants to go there. Poor old Jin Mao. Actually we took my mother there when she visited, as the queu to the other tower was... longish.

In March when my friend was visiting we decided we have to get her to visit the g** d*** tower. But again, whether was not on our side. Finally we went there on one Friday evening. No queuing at all and the night views were beautiful. I warmly recommend. Taking good photos, however, is difficult, as the windows are bound to reflect...

View from the Tower.

View from the foot of the Tower.

Jin Mao Tower in front, SWFC Tower behind it

There were no queues, but there were still people there. And from what I gathered, mostly Chinese tourists. Why do I thinks so? Well, because they looked Chinese and because many of them were secretly taking photos of us. Not very well secretly, as I noticed what they were doing, but nonetheless. Couple of young men came to ask if they could take a pictures with us. And then some one else came. And then a group of girls. I started to think they took us for someone else. Like, I don't know, someone worth photoing, maybe. ("Photoing" propably doesn't qualify as a word, does it?)

I wonder what they will tell they friends about this picture? "And here we are in Shanghai with two... well, two... two westeners."

Six Harmonies

For a someone, who is called "Six Harmonies", or Liu He in Chinese, this little boy sure looks angry and grudgy. Not harmonious at all.

Besides, he looks like a girl.

If you want to see him, you need to go to Hangzhou.