China: The Undiscovered Country

As you may have noticed, I have been somewhat absent from the blogosphere as of late.  My sincere apologies, but I come to you now with tales of adventure.  So begins a two-week odyssey to a distant and exotic place I like to call…

… China.

China is an enormous country, with an equally enormous population.  Two weeks isn’t nearly enough time to see even a fraction of the country, so my wife and I had to decide what we wanted to see.  We decided on three locations: Beijing, Guilin, and Kinmen.

BEIJING

Our trip began, as they always do, at Incheon International Airport.  We flew into Qingdao, before making the final jump to Beijing.  Neither flight lasted more than 1½ hours, but nevertheless we were treated to a full meal on our way to Qingdao.  Did I mention it was free of charge?  Words of advice, jot this down: never, and I do mean NEVER, fly an American or Canadian airline when flying internationally.  Our airline companies forgot what air travel was supposed to be, and instead decided that treating humans like cargo was a better way to look at it.

In-flight meal between Incheon and Qingdao on China Eastern Airlines.

Qingdao International Airport

We arrived in Beijing at around 10pm, and took an airport shuttle to our hostel.  We booked ourselves a four-night stay at the Lucky Family Hostel, not far from the Forbidden City.  This is definitely a great place to stay for the budget-conscious traveler.  It has comfortable beds, a full shower and Western-style toilet (quite the luxury considering the alternative is the dreaded squat toilet – doesn’t that sound appealing?), and the staff are friendly, knowledgeable, and can all speak English.

The Lucky Family Hostel in Beijing

DAY 1 – THE SUMMER PALACE

Our first day in China and Beijing was a wet one, but we set out nevertheless to the Summer Palace.  It started to rain shortly after we arrived, and continued off and on for most of the day.

As with most destinations, photos and words can’t replace actually being there.  So here are a few images to whet your whistle, and some logistics in case you’re in the area and want to check these sites out for yourself.

Suzhou Street at the Summer Palace

The Summer Palace from the North Gate

Xiequyuan Garden (a.k.a. The Garden of Harmonious Pleasures)

GETTING THERE: once in Beijing, the Summer Palace can be reached by taking Subway Line 4.  Get off at Beigongmen Station for the North Gate of the Summer Palace; use Xiyuan Station to go to the East Gate.  The entrance fee is ¥20 ($3.25 USD) November-March; ¥30 ($4.90 USD) April-October.

SUGGESTIONS: as with any major tourist attraction, get there early.  If you want to actually see and enjoy the Palace, you have to get there before the crowds do.  This is especially true in a city of 11 million people.  Expect crowds.

DAY 2 – THE GREAT WALL

When you think of China, you think of the Great Wall.  We sure did, and Beijing lies just outside of the Great Wall, making it a perfect place to see this phenomenal achievement.  There are several locations where you can see the Wall; some have been entirely reconstructed, others are completely original.  We chose to go to the Jinshanling Great Wall, a section of the Wall in Luanping county, approximately 125km outside of Beijing.  This section combines reconstructed sections with original portions, providing visitors with a true appreciation for the marvel that is the Great Wall.  Jinshanling is also a relatively under-visited location, probably due to its remoteness.  If you want to see the Great Wall itself, instead of seeing it as it appears under a sea of tourists, this is the place to go.

Please, after you …

The Great Wall stretches off to the horizon

GETTING THERE: Jinshanling is fairly far from Beijing, and therefore unless you have a car (or a friend with one), your only option is to take a bus.  We booked a tour through our hostel for ¥280 each ($45.50 USD); check with your hotel or hostel for more information.  The bus ride took about 3 hours one-way.  Beware of street dealers offering tours – these “package deals” often have an unannounced stop at a tea plantation or art house, where you will be pressured into buying something.

DAY 3 – THE FORBIDDEN CITY

When you’re in Beijing, after you’ve seen the Great Wall, you have to go to the Forbidden City.  This 500 year old complex housed the center of Chinese Imperial power; 24 emperors called this City home.

The Gate of Supreme Harmony

The complex is indeed beautiful, but this was easily the most frustrating day of our visit to Beijing.  As I’ve already said (and you already know), China is a very crowded country – nowhere is more crowded.  And the “Forbidden” City was anything but, as you can see from the above image.  The crowds, easily numbering into the tens of thousands, were non-stop the entire day.  We had a hard time finding information, ticket booths and entrances are poorly marked or not at all, and with the never-ending wave of people coming behind you, there really isn’t time to actually enjoy what you’re seeing.  But that’s just my opinion.

GETTING THERE: There are three methods to get to the Forbidden City. On Subway Line 1, get off at Tiananmen Square West or Tiananmen Square East. On Subway Line 2, get off at the Qianmen Station.  The entrance fee is ¥40 ($6.50 USD) November-March; ¥60 ($9.75 USD) April-October.

SUGGESTIONS: As with the Summer Palace, get there early.  No, I’m serious…set an alarm!  This place is packed – on major holidays the Forbidden City limits entry to 80,000 visitors per day.  And that’s a minimum!

 Bring plenty of sunscreen or an umbrella.  Water bottles must be emptied before entering the site, and you will have to undergo a pat down and have your bags X-rayed.  Food and water are available for purchase inside.  Generally Westerners are more concerned about personal space than in some parts of Asia; this is very true in China, and the Forbidden City in particular.  Be prepared to be “politely” nudged out of the way while waiting in line, and/or to be completely cut off while waiting in line as well.  It may appear rude, but it’s business as usual here.

DAY 4 – BEIJING BOTANICAL GARDEN

We decided to spend our last day in Beijing at a lesser known site.  After surviving the Forbidden City, we both needed a little time away from the endless crowds and the noise that entails.  Although the garden was not really in bloom (being August), the setting was very serene and relaxing.

Map of the Beijing Botanical Garden

GETTING THERE: Take Subway Line 4 to Beigongmen Station.  Then take Bus 331, 696, or 563; alternately take a taxi to 北京植物园 (Beijing Botanical Garden).  The entrance fee is ¥5 ($0.81 USD).

SUGGESTIONS: This site is a little harder to get to, especially if (like me) you don’t speak or read Mandarin.  However, if you do make it there, all you’ll need to bring is sunscreen or an umbrella.  There are food stands where you can buy food and drinks, a small shuttle service that will give you a “tour” of the grounds, and even hiking trails for the more adventurous.
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As we packed up and left Beijing behind, I was both happy and sad to be leaving.  As the capital of China, Beijing is an enormous city, and is bursting at the seams with people.  But there is so much history, culture, and beauty to be seen there, that four days barely scratched the surface of what the city had to offer.

Next stop, Guilin in Guangxi province.

Taiwan: Lifer Mania Part I

The sun rose on our first morning in Taiwan.  It was going to be a hot and humid day, with a chance of thunderstorms later in the afternoon.  Having already added two new birds to my list, just by travelling from the airport to our hotel, I was anxious to get out and find some more birds.

The top of my list for birding sites in Taipei was the Taipei Botanical Garden (台北植物園), where my research told me Malayan night-heron was a slam dunk.  The Garden is located just a 5 minute walk from the Xiaonanmen subway station.  There is no entry fee, and the Garden is conveniently open from 4am to 10pm.  It’s as if they’re specifically targeting birders with that early morning opening.  Upon reaching street level at the Xiaonanmen station, I pointed out two Javan mynas to Melanie.  This species, like many of the mynas, was introduced to Taiwan and managed to sustain a population within in the country.

The entrance to the Taipei Botanical Garden.

We had no sooner walked through the gate then I found my target bird.  Just to the right, in a closed off portion of the garden, stood a Malayan night-heron!  If only all lifers were this easy.  The Malayan night-heron prefers dark, damp forests over marshes and wetlands.  All of the Malayan night-herons I would see during my time in Taiwan were foraging on the ground, away from water, picking through leaf litter or grass clippings.  These night-herons also seemed unusually acclimatized to humans, and you could walk up to them very close without flushing them.

Malayan Night-heron (Gorsachius melanolophus)

A little ways from the entrance was an intersection of trails.  I stopped here for a moment to take some notes, and in so doing spotted a Taiwan barbet, black bulbul, and several light-vented bulbuls flitting around in the trees.  It was a literal buffet of lifers: almost every hint of movement in the vegetation revealed another species I had never seen before.

This path seems like a good choice.

The intersection had three branches, each of which would meander through the Garden and eventually take me back to where I started.  In times like these, I find it’s always a safe bet to go up the middle.  This path took us towards the Bu-Zheng-Shi-Si Yamen (臺灣布政使司衙門), the Office of Provincial Administration Commission.  Originally built in 1887, when Taiwan was declared a Chinese province, the Yamen (“Imperial bureau”) housed the administrative functions of the regulatory authority Bu-Zheng-Shi-Si.  The Yamen was later dismantled and parts of the structure were rebuilt at different sites, including the Botanical Garden.

Bu-Zheng-Shi-Si Yamen

I really liked this flower by the entrance.

The long hallway entrance of the Bu-Zheng-Shi-Si Yamen.  Every inch of the structure was ornately decorated.

A small stream flowed through the Garden, and near the Yamen there was a small footbridge overlooking the water.  A tall bush grew close to the bridge, and it was dripping with birds.  The vast majority were Japanese white-eyes, but several light-vented bulbuls were also foraging there, as well as a single black bulbul which had completely molted its head feathers.  A short distance downstream I noticed an oriental magpie-robin sunning itself on a huge palm leaf.

Japanese White-eye (Zosterops japonicus simplex).  This was by far one of the most numerous bird at the Botanical Garden.

“Taiwan” Light-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus sinensis formosae)

A male Oriental Magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis prosthopellus)

A “Taiwan” Black Bulbul (Hypsipetes leucocephalus nigerrimus), looking ridiculous without its head feathers.

Nearby was a large greenhouse, which housed the Garden’s more predatory plants.  Although the greenhouse was locked, through the windows we could see scores of pitcher plants, likely several different species, covering the whole of the interior.  Many visitors were lining up near one window, which had several large pitchers growing right against the glass.  The greenhouse also had several flower beds nearby, and a small pond with lilypads.  Eurasian tree sparrows and light-vented bulbuls were feeding around this area, and I also was able to photograph several dragonflies near the pond, including a crimson dropwing and a crimson-tailed marsh hawk.

The Greenhouse.  It was closed, but through the windows we could see that the interior was covered with pitcher plants.

A male Crimson Dropwing (Trithemis aurora)

A male Crimson-tailed Marsh Hawk (Orthetrum pruinosum)

We continued on through the Garden.  I was looking for one of the Garden’s star features, the Lotus Pond.  We eventually stumbled onto it – the pond was entirely covered in lotus plants.  Only a few blossoms were in bloom (it was mid-August after all), but the leafy parts of the plants dominated the pond, and the area looked more like an overgrown field than a tranquil pond.  A little egret and two Eurasian moorhens were making good use of the cover provided by the lotus plants.  A common kingfisher briefly buzzed by the area, quickly disappearing into some heavier vegetation around the edges.  On one side of the Lotus Pond there is a small pavilion with benches, so we decided to take a break there and have a quick snack.

The Lotus Pond at the Taipei Botanical Garden.

A nominate Eurasian Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus chloropus).  Click this photo to see a video of this bird preening.

Our reluctant hero never misses a photo op…well, almost never.

Sunlight filters through the trees behind a pagoda at the Lotus Pond.

As we approached, we noticed several photographers camped out in the corner of the pavilion, all of them looking at a large tree nearby.  I couldn’t see anything in the branches, so I went over to see what was so interesting.  It turned out to be a Taiwan barbet nest, and as I watched, an adult barbet emerged from the cavity, flew off, and was followed by a juvenile barbet that stuck its head out of the hole, intermittently calling to the adult for food.

A juvenile Taiwan Barbet (Megalaima nuchalis).  This species is endemic to Taiwan.

As we all took turns getting photos, I noticed three juvenile white-breasted waterhens foraging near the edge of the pond.  The waterhens resembled skinny chickens with long necks.  Watching these birds move and run around, it’s easy to see how birds evolved from dinosaurs.  Take away the wings and add some forelimbs, and you’ve got a small dinosaur instead of a rail.  A group of six grey treepies also put in an appearance, scattering the Eurasian tree sparrows that were foraging in the area.

One of three juvenile nominate White-breasted Waterhens (Amaurornis phoenicurus phoenicurus)

Grey Treepie (Dendrocitta formosae formosae)

Common Flangetail (Ictinogomphus decoratus melaenops)

Having spent the whole morning touring the Garden, it was time to check out some other sites nearby.  Whether you’re in Taipei for a few days, or you only have a few hours to spend, the Taipei Botanical Garden is a must-see location.  No birding trip to Taipei is complete without a stop here.

After a short break for lunch, it was on to the Xingtian Temple (行天宮) and Hua Jiang Wild Duck Nature Park.
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Day List: 13
Lifers of the Day (8): Javan Myna, Malayan Night-heron, Taiwan Barbet, Black Bulbul, Light-vented Bulbul, Oriental Magpie-robin, Grey Treepie, White-breasted Waterhen
Taiwan List (to date): 15
Life List: 512

Exploring Geoje Island (Part II)

The morning dawned bright and early.  It was another beautiful clear day, with only a trace of morning fog far out on the bay, obscuring the view of distant islands near the horizon.  Breakfast would be served for 9:30am, so my first order of the day was to head down to the beach and see what the morning would offer.

 It was relatively cool near the water; with all the mild weather (at least mild as compared to what I was used to in Canada for late March) it was easy to forget that winter was still going on.  My friend the great crested grebe was still foraging close to shore, but I was unable to locate his compatriots or the Pacific loon from yesterday.  The bay itself was relatively empty, with a few Vega gulls and black-tailed gulls flying around.

 Depending on who you talk to, there can be just one species of herring gull or there can be three.  I’ve read some of the research into this, and I tend to lean towards there being three species, rather than just one overarching species for all the herring gulls in the world.  The breakdown of herring gulls (which are split into three species by the International Ornithologists’ Union [IOU] but remain one species by the American Birding Association [ABA]) is the American herring gull (Larus smithsonianus), the European herring gull (Larus argentatus) and the Vega gull (Larus vegae).  Bird nomenclature and taxonomy are constantly in flux, and it can be a full-time job keeping up with all of the revisions, splits, and lumps, which says nothing about having to go through field guides once a year to update the species name and Latin binomial.  Just preparing for my move to South Korea required updating my primary field guide A Field Guide to the Birds of Korea by Lee Woo-Shin, Koo Tae-Hoe, and Park Jin-Young.  The whole process took several weeks, but considering it was published in 2000 and is the only English-language field guide available for the Korean peninsula specifically, it was worth the effort.  I supplemented this guide with the more recent Birds of East Asia by Mark Brazil, which functions as a great cross-reference book for subspecies identification and recent splits that Birds of Korea doesn’t even have plates for.  But I digress…

The bay was quiet, so I turned my attention to the cliff edge above me.  There was sparse vegetation on the cliff face, but a small gully near the base of the cliff provided some ground for a few small trees and shrubs to take root.  It was here that I found the bulk of my birds for the morning.  It started with hearing the call of a varied tit, by far the most colorful and interesting tit (or chickadee, for my North American friends) anywhere, in my opinion anyway.  The tit was singing high on the top of the cliff, but eventually began working his way down to the beach.  It took a lot of waiting, but I finally got a shot of this striking bird.

A nominate subspecies Varied Tit (Sittiparus varius varius) at Nambu-myeon.

There was also a lone vinous-throated parrotbill, which I found odd as I rarely encounter this species without at least a dozen of his closest friends in tow.  The parrotbill is a very social and gregarious bird, and often forms flocks of 40+ birds when foraging.  I noticed a small skulking bird in some hanging vegetation, and at first I thought it was another parrotbill.  But finally getting it in the binoculars revealed its true identity as a Japanese white-eye!  And shortly after I found another white-eye foraging nearby.  The white-eyes resemble bright yellow-green vireos with huge white eye rings.  They are very distinct, but their small size makes them hard to locate in dense vegetation.

This menagerie of birds was scattered when a flock of large-billed crows, until then staying high over the cliffs, descended in a flurry of activity and cawing that sent the smaller birds undercover.  A couple of crows took up position on a large snag, and I got off a few shots before they flew down the beach to join a larger group picking at scraps of trash left on the beach.

Two Large-billed Crows (Corvus macrorhynchos mandschuricus) near the private beach at Nambu-myeon.

I left the beach to have my breakfast, and soon after our group was packed up and loaded onto the bus.  We were scheduled to take a ferry ride to the Haegeumgang formation, then skip over to Oedo to view the botanical gardens.  Our bus took us through Nambu-myeon along a coastal road that gave us all excellent views of the coastline.  We arrived at the ferry at around 10:15am under beautiful skies.  It was forecast to become cloudy by midday, but thus far there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  We were a bit early for the ferry, so we spent some time admiring the view of Haegeumgang from a quaint patio overlooking the ferry dock.  I found a single white-cheeked starling in the parking lot by the ferry, and an oriental greenfinch near the patio.  Otherwise it was the ever-present large-billed crows and a few Eurasian magpies and brown-eared bulbuls.

A map of Nambu-myeon, with the locations of Haegeumgang and Oedo Botanica.  The dotted line shows our route from the pension to the ferry, and the route the ferry took around Haegeumgang towards Oedo.

The ferry dock and the Haegeumgang.

At long last our ferry was ready to depart, and we were quickly escorted aboard.  There are many ferries that go around the Haegeumgang formation.  The formation has dozens of caves carved into it after centuries of ocean erosion.  When the ocean is calm, the ferry pilots challenge one another to bring their boats in the closest to these caves.  It’s a rather harrowing experience as a passenger, but the pilots’ skill is unrivaled and they maneuver their boats to within a few feet of the Haegeumgang cliffs.

I think our pilot would have brought us in closer, if only the cave was large enough to accommodate more of the ship…

After experiencing the Haegeumgang close up, we circled around the edge of the formation, taking in the amazing geology and enjoying the cool ocean air.  Flocks of black-tailed gulls followed our ship everywhere it went, and I also saw a great crested grebe and a brief glimpse of a Pacific reef-heron around the edge of the Haegeumgang formation.  As we left the formation behind on our way to Oedo, I noticed a congregation of great cormorants roosting on the cliffs above.

One of the Black-tailed Gulls following our ferry towards Oedo.

A few of the locals would throw crackers and dried fish to the gulls, attracting more and more of them as we made our way to Oedo.

Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis) on the cliffs of the Haegeumgang.

On the crossing to Oedo, I noticed a raft of Pacific loons, about seventeen in all, but otherwise it was just the black-tailed gulls escorting us to Oedo.  Years ago, the Korean government began selling off the small islands off the coast to private owners.  The buyers of Oedo, being nature-lovers, turned it into a botanical garden, and now the island, opened to the public, is a popular tourist destination and source of income for the local economy.

We had about an hour on Oedo before we had to return to the mainland and begin the long trip back to Gwangju, so I split from the group to make the most of it.  There was a continuous sea of people over the entirety of the gardens, and most were dressed just as colorfully as the flowers and plants.  The skies were beginning to darken with clouds, but the fresh blossoms and flowers still lent plenty of color to the greying environment.

Tulips at Oedo Botanica.

A view of the Oedo Botanica.  This view only covers one section of the gardens.

With so many people around, the birds were laying low.  On three occasions I heard a beautiful melody being sung from the vegetation, but I could not locate the bird no matter how hard I looked.  I’m sure I raised some eyebrows with the Koreans: who was this strange foreigner with binoculars staring into a mess of branches for minutes at a time?  After two failed attempts to locate the source of this beautiful song, I was beginning to get frustrated.  At the summit of a small hill overlooking the whole of the island, I found eight Pacific swifts making aerial maneuvers above the island.  These large swifts have long forked tails and white rumps.  They are one of the largest swifts in Korea, second only to the white-throated needletail.  The long forked tail distinguishes them from the smaller house swift.

I was enjoying watching the swifts, a new species and the first swift species to be added to my list since 2008, when I heard that song coming from below me in the Venus Garden.  I hauled it over to the garden, determined to find the source of this song and check off another species.  It didn’t take long to zero in on the right tree, and finally I was able to get a glimpse of my quarry: a Japanese bush-warbler!  Old World warblers are a large family of relatively drab, uninteresting, and extremely similar-looking birds that have remarkably beautiful songs.  They are the equivalents of our North American wood-warblers that thrill birders during the spring migration, but the Old World varieties more resemble our sparrows than the colorful birds that delight us in the spring.  Nevertheless, I was thrilled to see the bush-warbler, even if it looked just like a red-eyed vireo without the red eye.  The bird darted into a low shrub, providing me a brief chance to get a photo before disappearing into the garden.  Surely this is one song that I won’t forget in a hurry.

A Japanese Bush-warbler (Horornis diphone cantans) in the Venus Garden at Oedo Botanica.  This rather drab bird has the most melodious song.

Alas, the hour flew by, and I had to return to the ferry to catch my boat back to the mainland.  Before returning to Gwangju, we stopped for dinner in a different part of Nambu-myeon, where we had some delicious 김치 찌개 (kimchi jjigae), a style of stew made with Korea’s world-famous kimchi.  The soup is nice, flavorful, and spicy, and it really hits the spot on an increasingly damp and cold day.  Before leaving Geoje Island, I spotted a sign for the Hallyeo Haesang National Park (한려해상국립공원-거제), which is a known breeding ground for the elusive fairy pitta.  The Park is the only location on the Korean peninsula where this species can be reliably located; only Jeju-do and Jindo Island to the south are better spots for this species.

Methinks a return trip to Geoje is already in the making…