Busan & Qingdao

The computers weren't working yesterday so I'll play catch up today.  A couple of days ago, we were in Busan, South Korea.  It was a delightful day.  We had about an hour bus ride north of the city which took us through very nice countryside, then we toured the Tongdosa Temple.  It consisted of several buildings in the foothills with a stream running through it.  It is still used today and stores the oldest Buddha written artifacts.  There were several "church ladies" polishing brass which reminded me of Bobbie A. and friends.  It was very peaceful to walk around.  Next, we visited the U.N.Memorial Cemetary commemorating those who died in the Korean War.  There are 36 Americans buried there who I think represent the 37,000 who died in the war.  Sixteen countries have flags and memorials there.  It was beautiful but sad.

We'll be back to Busan in a week and plan to check out the city on our own.  What we saw as we drove through looked very nice, with good roads, shiney cars and traffic under control.  A big draw back is the smog which never went away.  (Tom, you are needed here.)  Brian was Dock Supervisor all afternoon as he overlooked the delivery of food and other supplies.  Enthusiastic dancers and singers in beautiful native dress entertained us before we sailed, then the Captain sounded the horn and we were off on another sailaway.

Yesterday we hung out on the ship and went through Chinese immigration which wasn't too bad.  We couldn't take any foreign written material with us when we went to see them, but it went rather smoothly.  Today, we visited Qingdao, China.  The smog was gross.  Everything looked gray and it was difficult to see very far in the distance.  We toured the Tsingtao Brewery which was built by the Germans.  They provided lots of beer to sample and the tour was pretty organized and through.  Next we went to the former German Governor's House and then to a German underground bunker.  The Germans were a major influence on Qingdao even though they controlled it only from 1899 to about 1906. 

Our English dinner friends are becoming more and more fun. We've checked out all of the bars and found a fantastic view from one that is very high up, called Skywalkers.  We like to go there for sunsets.  The food has been very good and we've liked some of the muscians.  Tomorrow we'll be in Dalian, China.  I'm doing that one on my own as Brian says he has seen enough of China.  Ha!  We have several more Chinese ports.