vacation (2)

The way my vacation days work this year is identical to the way it worked last year. I get two weeks off, one over Christmas and one sometime during the summer. I already had my summer vacation, when I went to Busan. Last year I went to Jeju Island, twice. So, you might say I haven't made the most of them.

That stands to change this Christmas. Yesterday before work I applied for a travel visa to China. Barring any unforeseen problems with the visa, I'll be there from December 26th until January 2nd.

It looks like it's gonna go down like this: on the 26th my friend Andy and I are going to fly from Seoul to Beijing. While there we will see the Great Wall, Forbidden City, and as many other things as we can pack in. On the 29th we'll take an overnight train to the coastal city of Tsingtao, where we'll meet up with another friend. Tsingtao is famous because it's the home of China's top selling beer in the States. The three of us will explore Tsingtao, which apparently has a lot to see. We'll also probably be drunk a lot. Then we'll fly from Tsingtao back to Seoul.

The trip is gonna cost me a pretty penny, more-so than my friends, one of which is a Canadian and the other a Brit. For them the visa costs about $60, but because I'm an American and China hates me, it runs me $200. Couple that with the transportation costs and I'm already in pretty deep. However, from what I've read it's pretty cheap to live in China. I was especially happy to hear that beer runs about 30 cents. I thought about going to Japan, which is much less expensive to get to, however living there is a lot more costly. Hopefully it all evens out. Either way, I'm willing to spend some cash for a good time.

And how often do you get to travel to the birthplace of Eastern civilization?