Andong Maskdance Festival #2 - Arrived
We arrived in Andong and made our way out of the station and onto the street. Our map (printed from the hotel website) showed the hotel should be about 500 yards down the road from the train station and opposite the bus station.
We came to the bus station were hordes of people were coming and going and there across a rather unruly pedestrian crossing across the bus station entrance. Koreans ignoring the red man were wondering across the crossing paying no attention to incoming busses, as the green man appeared the bus drivers failed to pay attention to the red light and were honking at people crossing the road – the usual Korean traffic chaos then!! We navigated our way across the road and began searching for our hotel. According to the map it was opposite the bus station but we couldn’t see it. We decided to wonder further down the road but upon arriving at a school marked much further upon the map it became apparent we had walked too far. There was not option but, using our non existent Korean, to ask someone where it was.
Emily had had the foresight to get the name of the hotel written in Korean by one of her teachers. Whilst I waited outside Emily went into a chemist showed them the Hangal (Korean writing) and asked directions. She walked out accompanied by a Korean woman who said she would show us the way. The Korean woman marched up a side street off weaving her way through the crowds of people gathered around stages set up in the streets. Emily and me followed behind trying desperately to keep up and navigate our way through the crowds without knocking someone out with our rather large backpacks!! The Korean woman called someone on her mobile and then came to a halt outside a Pizza Hut restaurant! She motioned to a guy inside the restaurant who was just sitting down to his dinner! He came outside and we realised he was American, she had decided to find someone who could speak English. He said his girlfriend was inside and she could speak both Korean and English and went and disturbed her from her dinner – how embarrassing! It is amazing the lengths some Koreans will go to to help you out! However it only took a few minutes for her to explain that the hotel was: “Just down there on the left.” We profusely thanked everyone involved using the little Korean we knew: “Kam-sa hammida,” and headed off in the direction of the hotel. It was lucky we asked directions and found someone so willing to help because our map forgot to mention the winding side streets we had to navigate around to find the hotel!
We arrived at the hotel and had a further battle when we tried to check in. We explained to the receptionist that we had a reservation to which he said: “No room, no room.” A nervous few seconds followed as we tried to explain we had booked a room under the name Emily. After looking confused for a while he finally said: “Emily, English!” (as if the English part hadn’t been obvious!) and found our reservation in his book. Consulting his pre-written notes he asked: “How long will you be staying?” before taking our money and checking us in for three nights.
We headed to our room and were mildly disappointed to find it wasn’t a traditional Korean room but happy to find that it was still very nice – much better than my flat! And everything from shampoo and conditioner to cleanser were provided for us!!! Amazing.
As we took-in the room I spotted a lamp on the bedside table that wasn’t plugged in. I was once gain shocked by Korean standards of cleanliness when I moved the bedside table (looking for a plug) to find a used condom wrapper down the back. How could the maid have missed it when cleaning? Not finding a plug I promptly but the bedside table back, leaving the wrapper behind it, and hoped that the contents of the wrapper had been disposed of in the proper manner!
We freshened and decided it was time to go and hunt out some food. After the hassle of finding the hotel we decided finding the festival site could wait until tomorrow.
Leaving the hotel we found that there was still stuff happening on the stages in the street. One was showing a Ti Kuan Do display – the traditional sport of Korea - and the other some dodgy Karaoke. The Ti Kuan Do was pretty spectacular with kids smashing through pieces of wood with their bare hands and feet.
After the Ti Kuan Do finished a Korean guy came on and started talking to the audience the Koreans were enjoying whatever he was saying and were shouting answers back at him, but we couldn’t understand a word so we went for dinner. We looked around a number of Korean restaurants but realised there was a problem when they didn’t have picture menus and we couldn’t read (or speak) Korean. Pizza Hut had an English menu so was an obvious choice!
The streets around Andong were filled with clothes shops. It would have been easy to spend a fortune there as you don’t see this around mine or Emily’s areas! We walked around with the intention of ‘eye shopping’ but made the mistake of heading into Face Shop - a Korean beauty products shop. The shop assistants were very helpful explaining what everything thing was (despite most of the labels being in English). The shop assistants whilst being helpful were overwhelmed by us. They kept telling Emily she had beautiful big eyes and as we were paying the assistants were stood behind me touching my hair!!!! This kind of reaction can make you feel very strange, they seem to think we are these amazing beings because we have big eyes and blond hair despite that we looked terrible after traveling all day and being very tired!!
A lack of content
Just a short post to apologise for not updating this blog much latley.
Things have been very busy. I moved house last Sunday and it was soooooo dirty I have spent the last week cleaning it in preperation for Katrina's arrival later today. Also I was ill last week and the last thing I felt like doing was sitting in a hot internet cafe.
This week is going to be a busy one with Katrina arriving today but hopefully I will get chance to blog the rest of the maskdance festaval, the wedding I went to over a week ago and the kindergarten trip from last Friday.
I had a quiet weekend this weeekend. I spent all day saturday cleaning and all saturday evening and sunday shopping so not much to report. I'll be up to date soon. I the mean time check out the photos of the wedding that I've uploaded to the photos section.
Andong Maskdance festival #1 - The journey
The maskadance festival seems ages ago now, but this is the first opportunity I have had to blog it, so here is the first installment.
We left on the Tuesday of Ch’usok ? a good day because it was before the Koreans started traveling as many of them had to work on Wednesday. After almost missing each other at Yongsan subway station in Seoul, and each waiting for almost an hour in different places because neither of our mobile phones would work. We managed to get to the station in time to grab a McDonalds (how do they always make it taste the same?) before boarding the train to Andong without further incident - Other than having to pee in a hole in the floor at the station! An indignity, which since arriving in Korea I had avoided until then. Why can’t people build proper toilets?
Boarding the train it felt as though we had walked into the first class compartment. There was masses of leg room (odd considering Koreans are fairly short!), foot rests on the back of the seat in front and the seats were comfy (well for the first hour!). A man selling Kimbap (a traditional Korean food) wizzed his way down the train before we set of. Then the train departed and we headed out of the city and into the beautiful Korean countryside.
Looking at the rolling hills, lush green fields huge mountains, farms, traditional Korean houses and miles of rice paddies it made me yearn for the freedom of a car. But despite the longing to see parts of Korean that are hidden to us city dwellers I’m still not convinced I’m brave, or stupid enough to drive in this country! Gazing out of the window I realised that some of the countryside we passed though was not unlike that you would see traveling through parts of England, but it was without the ugly housing and industrial estates that are frequently situated beside English train lines.
As I stopped gazing out of the window and came back to reality I realized a mother and daughter had got on the train at the last stop and were sitting on the seats beside Emily and myself. Normally I would barely have noticed them but they were shamelessly staring and talking about us, they were even leaning forward to get a better look! Is there nowhere in the country where people don’t feel they have the right to stare? Sitting on that train with my every movement being watched made me feel so uncomfortable. I was glad when they got off. But my relief was short lived as they were replaced by someone else who staring was equally unsettling!
As we neared Andong the train emptied out and I finally felt comfortable enough to doze off for an hour before arriving.
Finding the hotel and checking in was another adventure in itself. Stay tuned for the next instalment.
The other side of the blackboard
Sitting in a disruptive class trying to ignore the messing around it occurred to me that I was suddenly on the other side of the black board (so to speak).
After spending what feels like my whole life (well I guess technically it has been my whole life) in education suddenly I was the teacher. I was sat at the front of the class holding the sacred items of a teacher – the whiteboard marker and rubber. Items that in my youth I longed to get hold because they symbolised power! Thus I was (at least supposed) to be in control of the classroom.
But sitting in a room full of pre-teen boys it certainly didn’t feel like I was in control! And in reality I wasnt. The fact that I had given them something to do and then turned most of my attention to scribbling in my notebook probably didn’t help the situation. I’ve hated this particular class from day one and after spending weeks battling with them I have realised that I can force them to work. It they don’t want to do the task, quite simply, they won’t. The teaching materials don’t help the situation but that is another post in itself!
The one piece of knowledge that keeps me sane while they chatter, play fight and winge every time I ask them to do something is that regardless of how little control I have over the classroom, I do have the power to make the kids stay behind after class when they desperately want to get out and gossip or play computer games with their mates. I remember that feeling of intense anticipation when a teacher made you stay even one minute after the bell went, it gives me some satisfaction to know I can invoke the same feelings in these kids!During my last six weeks as ‘Jenna Teacher’ I have regally found myself emphasising with my old school teachers. Defiantly a position I never dreamed I would be in! I can now see how annoying it is when no one in the class wants to listen to you. I have even begun to understand just how frustrating it is when no one in an entire class speaks and no one ever volunteers answers.
During my first week I walked into a classroom and it literally felt like I had got up on stage and everyone had left the room! For an hour not one child spoke, the whole room just stared at me with vacant expressions, even the phrase: “You understand?” was met with a stony silence! After three lessons of silence, and finding out that these kids were supposed to have a good level of English, I realised the silent lessons couldn’t go on, especially as it was supposed to be a conversation class!! I stood in front of the class and almost begged them: “What do I have to do to make you speak?” The response was the now familiar silence. Defeated I sent them home early and slumped back to my desk wondering what to do.
Their next lesson was a presentation task, naively I thought this might bring them out of themselves and encourage them to speak more in class. How wrong I was! After giving them instructions and handing evaluation sheets to the class, the first student very quietly mumbled his way through his presentation not looking up from his paper once! I asked the rest of the class to give him their evaluation: “Did he speak loudly and clearly? Did he look at the audience at least three times?” I asked… Silence. Ok try again. “How was his presentation?” to this one girl just managed to very quietly squeak “perfect!” This became the standard response for the rest of the lesson every presentation was ‘perfect’! No amount of coxing from me could get them to answer otherwise.
Six weeks later this class are still a problem, with me having to coax words from the one member of the class that has developed a voice. But the class has depreciated in size and normally only two students attend so at least this means there is always 50 per cent of the class with a voice!
There are plenty of other classes worth a mention at a later date. This was a short insight into two classes I dread walking in to. Luckily the rest of the classes make up for the terrible few hours I spend with them every week.
Things are busy this week as I moved yesterday. Will post again as soon as I get chance.
Killed for reporting?
I’ve just been browsing the BBC website, catching up on the happenings on the other side of the world when I came across a story about the inquest into the death of the ITN journalist, Terry Lloyd, killed in Iraq in 2003. (BBC story here.)
The inquest found that Mr Lloyd had been unlawfully killed after he was shot in the head by the American military whilst in a makeshift ambulance, after being hurt in crossfire. Mr Lloyd's Lebanese interpreter, Hussein Osman, was also killed and French cameraman Fred Nerac is still officially classed as missing, presumed dead. Belgian cameraman Daniel Demoustier was the ITN crew's only survivor.
The BBC article reported that a spokesmen from the US Defense Department said an investigation in 2003 concluded that the US had "followed the rules of military engagement". It seems strange that the US military concluded that killing three members of a news team, one of which was shot in the head whilst in an ambulance, was 'following the rules of military engagement'.
It struck me that because Mr Lloyd was a 'unilateral' journalist and not 'embedded' with the military he was free from military reporting restrictions. Perhaps during the battle between American and Iraqi troupes, which he was caught up in by accident, he witnessed something the Americans would rather not have the rest of the world know about?
Jeremy Dear, the general secretary of the London National Union of Journalists (NUJ), implied that Mr Lloyd’s death might have been an attempt to silence him. Mr Dear was quoted by Fox News (link here) as saying: "The killing of journalists with impunity must never, ever go unpunished. Any attempt to silence journalists in this way must never succeed."
Another BBC article (link here) reported that the inquest had revealed that the British military had withheld details of Mr Lloyd's death.
Why would the British Military feel the need to hide details of the death of an innocent journalist unless they themselves had something to hide or were trying to cover up for the Americans?
The BBC reported that Ex-ITN chief executive Stewart Purvis told the corners court: "I came to the conclusion that the British military knew more about what happened at the top level than they were disclosing to us."
Subsequently ITN sent two of its journalists to Iraq to try and uncover details about the circumstances of Mr Lloyd's death.
Despite these attempts by ITN to uncover the truth, full details of how Mr Lloyd died did not come out until the inquest. CNN (link here) quoted Mr Lloyd’s daughter, Chelsey Lloyd, as saying: "Until now we were unaware that my father was able to stand and walk to a makeshift ambulance after being shot once by an Iraqi bullet. The man who stopped to help my father was an ordinary Iraqi whose intentions were to take him and other wounded to a nearby hospital.
"After helping my father into his minibus the evidence shows that the vehicle whilst driving the wounded away was fired on by US forces, and that one bullet entered my father's head after passing through the vehicle, and it was this American bullet which killed him."
Belgian cameraman Daniel Demoustier was the only survivor of the attack. Fox News reported that Mr Demoustier told the coroners court that a truck carrying Iraqi forces overtook ITN’s two four-wheel drive vehicles and gunfire erupted. He said he then jumped from the flaming car and lay in the sand, waiting for the shooting to stop.
Mr Demoustier said he tried to stand to signal to the US tanks in the area but they resumed firing at the clearly marked ITN vehicles.
Are these the actions of a military that as the US Defence Department said: "Has never deliberately targeted noncombatants, including journalists," and "have always gone to extreme measures to avoid civilian casualties and collateral damage,"?
To fuel further suspicion about the Americans reasons for shooting at the ITN team the US military refused to attend the inquest into Mr Lloyds death instead sending statements about the incident. CNN reported that the coroner, Andrew Walker, said: "It was and is essential they attend and it is not satisfactory to have their statements read in court."
According to the Guardian (link here) the corner concluded that: "The US soldiers did not fire in self-defence. And had the killing taken place under English law “it would have constituted an unlawful homicide"."
The British corner ruled that Mr Lloyd was unlawfully killed and said he would write to the attorney general and the director of public prosecutions "to see whether any steps can be taken to bring the perpetrators responsible for this to justice"! Despite this Fox News has already reported that the "prosecution of US military personnel is unlikely."
With the American media already passing judgement, the incident already being shrouded in secrecy and with the American military claiming that they followed "the rules of military engagement" is justice ever likely to be done?
If those responsible don’t least face trial for their actions it appears to be sending out a message that it is acceptable for the American military to fire at, and kill a British journalist who may (or may not) have just acquired information they don't want to get into the public domain. I guess this is what counts as "following the rules of military engagement". What makes the incident all the worse is that the British military appear to have aided the Americans in withholding information about what really happened.
Lets just hope Fox News is wrong and those responsible for this killing are brought to trial in a British court and made to face the consquences of their actions.
After all as ITN's editor in chief David Mannion was quoted by the BBC a saying: "Independent, unilateral reporting, free from official strictures, is crucial; not simply to us as journalists but to the role we play in a free and democratic society."
Hanbok - Traditional Korean dress
The day before the Ch'usok holiday most of the Kindergerten kids came into school dressed in traditional Korean dress or Hanbok (pickies below) - they looked adorable. They only had one of their three normal lessons on this day, the rest of their day was spent learning about Ch'usok (I think. The lesson was in Korean!) and playing traditional Korean games.
I decided to find out more about the Hanbok, their Ch'usok lesson and the games they were playing.
The Hanbok is not directly related to Ch'usok and is worn during many Korean holidays and special occasions. I found this information on a website about Korea.
The Korean costume is called hanbok. It is characterized by simple lines and no pockets. The women’s hanbok comprise a wrap skirt and a bolero-like jacket, and the men’s, roomy pants bound at the ankles and a short jacket. Hanbok are worn by Koreans of all ages, particularly on traditional holidays and when attending social affairs having a Korean overtone.
Some of the basic elements of today’s hanbok, namely the jacket (chogori) and pants (paji), were probably worn at a very early date, but it was not until the Three Kingdoms period (57 B.C.-A.D.668) that the two-piece costume of today began to evolve. Short, tight trousers and tight, waist-length jackets were worn by both men and women during the early part of the period as evidenced by ancient tomb paintings.
Toward the end of the Three Kingdoms period, T’ang China introduced Koreans to silk mandarin robes and they were adopted for wear by royalty and officials. Noblewomen began to wear full-length skirt-trousers and wide-sleeved, hip-length jackets belted at the waist and noblemen began to wear roomy trousers bound in at the ankles and a narrow, tunic-style jacket cuffed at the wrists and belted at the waist.
Some more information can be found here and here.
During their lesson about Ch'usok the kids were given instructions on how to do this bowing/preying thing. After spending some time researching online I have come to the conclusion that there were being taught how to bow to their ancestral shrine. Something that is commonly done during Ch'usok. A website called Hidden Korea gave this explanation:
Everyone bows to the ancestral shrine, including the women of the family. Until fairly recently only men were permitted to carry out this ceremony, but times have changed and women now have equal access to religious rites. The whole ceremony is called Jesa, or "ceremony to the dead."
After the ceremony in the home, the family will walk to their ancestors' burial mound. There they bow again two and a half times and offer the spirit food and drink. Some of the food is set out around the tomb facing certain directions in conformity with the Confucian belief that cardinal points on the compass have mystical powers. Food and stones are once again piled up as signs of good fortune for the family and for the spirits of the ancestors.
The kids were separated into boys and girls as they shown how to do this.
The boys bow.
The girls bow.
After they kids finished learning about Ch'usok they had their pictures taken. This is another striking difference between Korean and English schools. In England taking photographs of children (even during school performances) is strictly banned. But here the teachers were busily taking pictures of the kids and were more than happy for me to do the same.
Here are some of my photos.
Alex and Danny.
Brian and Irene.
Grace and Rebecca.
Julia and Jack.
Phil, Kandy and Daniel.
Jim, Jane and Paul.
After the photo call the kids played some games. In the first game they had to throw sticks with brightly coloured ribbons on the end into a bucket. I'm not sure if three was any Korean tradition involved in this game because I don't know its name and haven't been to find any information about it.
The second game they played was a traditional Korean game, often played during holidays, called Yut.
This game uses a a retculangular or square board (mal-pan, 말판) which is normally made up of stitched cloth, or it can be drawn on the floor. The board has two straight courses and two diagonal courses, each of the straight courses has five stations and the diagonal courses have five stations, too, but one is shared. This means there are 29 stations in total.
An image of a Yut board taken from Wikipedia.
Instead of dice, yut sticks are used. There are two kinds of yut stick: jang-jak yut (장작 윷) and bam yut (밤 윷).
Jang-jak yut are made of Chestnut or Birch wood, the wood is chosen for its weight and fresh sound when playing. There are four sticks, which are split into halves and are about 15cm long and a 2cm to 3cm in dimater.
Bam yut are wooden sticks, again split into halves. They are about 3cm long and 1cm in diameter. The bam yut are played in a small bowl, shaken in the palm, and then released.
Each team, has its own small tokens to move around the board.
Yut sticks. Image from Wikipedia.
The Yut sticks are thrown to determine how far a token can move. The score is determined by counting the sticks which are over (flat side up), and those which are up (round side up). Each combination has its own name. If one stick is over and three sticks are up it is called do (pig). Two sticks up and two sticks over is called gae (dog). One stick up and three sticks over is called geol (chicken). All sticks over is called yut (cow), whereas all sticks up is called mo (horse). A do is worth one point, a gae is worth two points, a geol is worth 3 points, yut is worth 4 points, and mo is worth 5 points.
Yut points scoring. Image from Wikipedia.
The game has two players, either teams or partners. Because Yut can be played in a team there is no limit to the number of participants, which means it can be played by a large group.
The starter of the game is determined by each team casting the yut sticks. The team with the higher points achieved take the first go. Each team then casts the sticks in turn. A player achieving a yut or mo is allowed to cast again. There is no limit to the number of times a player can cast again before the end of a turn, provided he or she keeps casting yuts or mos. Each team moves one space on the board according to the score achieved. If a you land on a station occupied by the opponent's team, the opponent's mal is removed from the course, and returned to the starting position. If you lands on a station occupied by your own team, these counters can travel together from that point on (counting as one). However, if an opponent lands their counter on a station occupied by several counter of the opponent, all these are removed from the course.
The counters travel around the board and can move forward only. However, when landing on one of the big stations (in the corner and the centre), the team can choose to take the shorter way should they wish to. There are four possible courses.
The game is won by the team who bring all their counter home first. A course is completed if a mal reaches the station where the game is started (cham-meoki).
Yut is often played for three or more wins.
Wow. Thats enough for one post.
Hopefully I'll get to the PC room early next week to fill you in on the Mask dance festival but I'm moving on Sunday so we'll see how it goes.
I'll blog soon. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
The Harvest Moon Festival or Ch'usok
Getting there. I’m only about a week behind on blogging now and this weekend should be pretty quiet so hopefully I’ll be up to date by the middle of next week.
Anyway had to put these pictures up because the children look soooooooooooooo cute!!! Did I just say that - kids cute – what’s wrong with me??
Plus it is the ideal opportunity for me to find out more about traditional Korean clothing and the Ch’usok celebrations. Ch’usok I’m told is like a Korean thanksgiving. Obviously not being American that doesn’t mean a huge amount to me!!! So I intend to find out more.
First of all, this picture - how cute!
Irene in her Ch’usok outfit not realising I was taking her picture!
Irene is fast becoming my favourite student, probably because she’s the cutest, one of the youngest and a complete tomboy. Plus for some reason she seems to really like me!
Right onto Ch’usok.
Ch’usok is a Korean holiday held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Whilst Koreans live by the western calendar they also use the lunar calendar and many of their national holidays are based on the lunar calendar. Ch’usock is also spelt Chu-sok, Chusok or Chuesok. I have used Ch’usok for no other reason than that is it the way the Korean teachers at my school spell it! Ch’usok is also known as Harvest Day, Harvest Moon festival or Hankawi. Han meaning great and Kawi meaning middle – or - A great day in the middle of autumn.
The legend behind the origins of Ch’usok says that it originated during the ancient Shilla Kingdom when a month long weaving festival was held. The king divided the city into teams for the contest and appointed the princess to lead the teams. The king announced the winner on the day of the eighth full moon. The loosing team had to provide food, drink and entertainment for a party involving the whole city.
Having read a little about Ch’usok this legend doesn’t make a huge amount of sense in relation to the significance of Ch’usok being about celebrating a great day in the autumn. Ch’usok is best translated as meaning ‘Bountiful Abundance’. And it is celebrated during harvest season and Korean families take this time to thank their ancestors for providing them with rice and fruits.
Because of the importance of ancestors during Ch’usok Korean families travel to their home town during this time. This is because their hometown is were there were born and raised and where the spirits of their ancestors are enshrined. Often during Ch’usok roads and motorways are jammed because of the number of people traveling. One student told me they even provide special portable toilets on the sides of the motorway to accommodate the number of travelers!
Ch’usok is a family orientated festival so it is impossible for foreigner to get involved unless they are invited into the home of a Korean, which is not very likely to happen even if you have a very close friendship. Everything closes during the festival (like Christmas day in the UK) so there isn’t a lot to do. Therefore Emily and me decided we would go away to the Andong maskdance festival during the Chu’sok period. Naively we left booking transport until the last minute. The number of Koreans who travel during this time was hit home to us when we realised we were unable to get seats on any train traveling back to Inchon during the three days after Ch’sok because the Koreans were traveling back to their hometowns after visiting relatives.
On Chu’sok day families perform ancestral worship rituals in the morning and visit the graves of their immediate ancestors during to trim plants, clean around the area and offer them food made especially for the festival, drink and crops. Harvest crops are attributed to the blessing of ancestors, and Chuseok offers Koreans a unique opportunity to refresh their memory of and show gratitude to their ancestors.
The sources I used for the above are here, here and here.
Some more in dept information about Ch’usok can be found here.
Click here for an account of Ch’sok by someone who has experienced the festival as a foreigner looking in, and as a member of a Korean family.
Ganghwa Island
The day of the trip to Ganghwa Island arrived. After trying to communicate to Mr Kim that Emily would also be coming he still looked slightly surprised when there were three rather than just two of us.
We piled into the back of Mr Kim's car and began the 30 minute drive to Ganghwa island. The scenery was beautiful. It was amazing to see how the rapidly the landscape changed once you left the city. Crossing the bridge to the island Mr Kim pointed to a mountain in the far distance and explained that the mountain was actually in North Korea!
Looking across at the mountain it struck me that geographically we are living so close to North Korea, yet life across the border is a whole other world. South Korea is a normal, increasingly americanised (not necessarily a good thing) country. I found this article on the BBC website about people trying to leave North Korea. It was a reminder of just how different things are a relatively short distance away from where I am living. The recent happening with the nuclear weapon testing in North Korea have only served to hit this fact home.
We arrived at the Ganghwa island and after a discussion in Korean between Mr Kim and his wife (which none of us could understand) we turned into a side road and pulled up in a car park. Mr Kim told us to stay here and have a look around and he would pick us up in 45 minutes. It seemed we weren't going vegetable picking after all but what lay ahead proved to be just as interesting. We were at Samnagnseong Castle. An old temple that had so much history and so much to write about that it is on a separate post here.
After spending a very pleasant hour looking around the temple at Samnagnseong Castle we joined Mr Kim and his wife for a coffee near the car-park before heading off across the island. On the way back home (to Kumdan, Incheon) Mr Kim took on something of a sightseeing tour of Ganghwa Island.
The tour began at this rather unusual looking beach (picky below). It was certainly different to the over commercialised tourist worshiping sea fronts so often found in England. All that appears to be along here is a few shops and a couple of restaurants, just like there are everywhere else in Korea.
Korean beach side tourist attractions, not an amusement arcade in sight.
The other thing that struck me about this beach was the sand closely followed by the mud flats. It was very odd to see a couple sat at what should be the shoreline gazing out over a massive expanse of mud!! I'm sure the sea was around somewhere but the tide was out a very long way. However the boats in the background of the picture suggest that when the tide is in the water does actually meet the sand.
Sand then mud. An interesting shoreline!
After visiting the beach Mr Kim took to look at some rather odd buildings (pickys below).
Emily and Rob pose under the entrance to this building. Mr Kim told us it was a hotel.
Inside the entrance to this hotel were some of the oddest attempts at art I have ever seen. My favourite is below. See the photo gallery for more examples of random art.
Art?????
Beside the hotel was this building which we were told is a restaurant.
One of the more unusual restaurants I have seen recently!
When Mr Kim told us he was going to take us to see an upside down house on the way home we literally thought he meant a house where the bedrooms were downstairs and the living rooms upstairs. We have all see houses like that, nothing really to get excited about. What I certainly didn't expect to see was this:
Possibly one of the most unusual buildings I have ever seen. The upside down house.
And on that bombshell I must leave the PC room because dad is going to call me in 15 minutes and I really should be at home already. Over and out.
Samnangseong Castle
We visited Samnagnseong Castle on the day we went to Ganghwa island with Mr Kim and his wife. Expecting to go vegetable picking at his wifes parents farm we were surprised when he pulled up a side road and told us he would be back in 45 minutes to pick us up.
Having no idea what lay ahead we walked up the massive hill from the car park and found ourselves at the entrance to Samnagnseong Castle. The plaque at the entrance to the castle read:
It is not obvious when this castle was built, but according to the records it is said that the founding father of Korea Dangun had his three sons make this castle and named it Samnangseong Castle. It is also called Jeongjok mountain fortress wall. At the start it was built with a sort of mud with broken stones laid on top. This style is followed in the fortification period of the tree kingdoms.
Facilities of this castle were the Mannum-ru (the south gate tower), the Dongmun (the east gate tower), the Seomum (the west gate tower) and the Bukmun (the north gate tower) and 13 wells in the castle. There is Jeondeungsa Temple in the castle. The government also built archives here for the preservation of royal chronicles, and established a tempory palace in this castle.
In the middle of the Joseon dynasty the Seonwonbogak was built. In 1866 general Yang Heon-su defeated the French naval invaders. The south gate Jonghae-ru was restored to its original condition in 1976.
Walking around it was clear that there isn't much left to see of the castle. But the fortress wall and the temple have been restored. Some more information about the origins of the castle and the restoration work can be found here.
We arrived at the stunning temple which is in full working order. The temple is called Jeondeungsa Temple. According to a website called Korea Temple Jeondeungsa Temple was established by a monk called Monk Adohwasang of Goguryeo. After the temple was established Queen Jeonhwa, during the reign of King Chunryeol (reign 1274~1308), donated a jade lantern to the temple and it was renamed Jeondeungsa Temple.
As we entered the temple the first thing we saw was this tower style building.
This building is called Daejoru.
The plaque beside this building read:
This is a tower style building at the entrance to the temple. Nobody exactly knows when this building was constructed. But it is estimated it has existed since the time of the Goryeo Dynasty because Daejoro is described in 'Jeondeungsasi' a poem written by Yi Saek, a great scholar of Goryeo Dynasty.
It was rebuilt in 1932 during the rebuilding of the other building of the temple.
Across from Daejoru was the main temple building called Daeungjeon. There is a bit of a legend behind this building. The plaque outside read:
Rebuilt in the 13th year (1621) The King of Gwanghaegun's rule over the Joseon Dynasty, this wooden building is three kan (a traditional architectural measurement meaning the distance between two columns) at the front and back and three kan at the sides. The building has finely carved multi-tier wooden ornaments on the top of each column as well as between columns. All columns show entasis with slight convex curve in the middle, creating a stable look, at the four corner columns have carvings of naked women at the apex. Legend has it that the architect designed them to warn against the unfaithfulness of women, and purge her from the sin, after his lover ran away from him during the construction work. Three Buddhas are enshrined in the hall, which features a lavishly decorated ceiling with bright colours and sculptures of animals, flowers and dragons, phoenix and lotus blossoms. The altar and the canopy over it are exuberantly decorated.
The carvery and paintwork on the building is spectacular.
And the inside of the building is beautiful.
This photo shows the three Buddhas inside the hall. The photo doesn't anywhere near do the intricate carving and paintwork justice.
The intricate carvings and paintwork must have taken a lot of hours and patience to do. It's no wonder the architect got annoyed when his lover left him during the building work!
I sneakily took this picture of a woman preying inside the building. Naughty I know but I couldn't resist.
Next to the main temple building we came across piles of what appeared to be roof slates with writing on (picky below). Whilst discussing between ourselves what they could mean a very helpful Korean explained in broken English that they were in fact roof tiles. The writing on them was wishes and the tiles would eventually be placed on the roof of the temple.
What an amazing way to make a wish.
The next building we came to was the Yaksajeon which housed the medicine Buddha. From the outside this building was not as spectacular and difficult to get a picture of. But the inside was elaborately decorated. It is unclear when the Yaksajeon was built. The Korea temple website gave this information:
It is not clear when this hall, which is dedicated to Yaksayeorae, the Buddha of Medicine, was constructed. The only available record notes only that the roof tiles of the hall were replaced in the 13th year of King Gojong (1876). The multi-bracketed eaves, the hipped-and-gabled roof, the rectangular, dressed stones of the platform-like foundation, and the tapering pillars are all typical of structures built during the middle of the Joseon period (1392-1910). However, the flat beams that usually accompany the tie beams in this kind of structure are missing.
The inside of Yaksajeon is spectaculary decorated.
The plaque outside the building estimated that it was probably built at a similar time to the Daeungjeon. The plaque read:
Yaksajeon is a temple hall where the medicine Buddha is enshrined. According to the historical record this building had new roof tiles in the 13th year (1876) of King Gojong's rule of Joseon. While there is no record that mentions its exact date of construction, a similar architectural style to the temple's main service hall suggests that it was built during the mid-Joseon era. It is of three kan at the front and back and two kan at the sides with a hipped-and-gabled roof. The cross-hatched ceiling is decorated with patterns of lotus blossoms and vines.
During our brief visit we also managed to get a look at Jeondeungsa Temple's iron bell. This bell (picky below) is Chinese, according to the Korea Temple website it originally belonged to the belonged to Sungmyeongsa Temple, Mt. Baekam, Hanam Province of China. The bell is thought to date from the fourth year of the king Cheoljong (A.D 1097) of the North Sung Dynasty. It it thought to have come to Jeondeungsa after it was found in Japanese arms storage after the declaration of Korean independence and was carried into Jeondeungsa Temple. The bell is the only Chinese iron bell to be appointed as a treasure in Korea.
The plaque beside the bell read:
A Chinese bell originally made in 1097 for Sungmming Temple of Henan during the Chinese Sung Dynasty. This unique iron piece was moved to its current site from Bupeyong Armory just after the second world war. It is know that the bell was collected by the Japanese colonial authority during the war, as it desperately needed more materials to make arms.
The top loop of the bell is decorated with two dragons, and there are eight trigrams, or signs of divination , carved in relief at the upper part of the body; its lower part is decorated with squares, also carved in relief. The inscriptions on the squared tell us it was made in the fourth year (1097) of King Cheoljong's rule over Northern Sung for Sungming temple at Henan Province, China.
The iron bell with Emily and Rob stood in the background.
There is not a huge amount more to say about Samnagnseong Castle and the formatting on this post keeps messing up. So I'll leave it there for now. Look out for a futher post about our trip to Gangwha Island.
Wooooowwwww shopping! 30,000 shops, Dongdaemunon is something else!
After spending Saturday daytime doing very little I headed into Seoul in the evening to meet Emily and do a bit of shopping.
Caroline (the other girl living in my area) is a shopaholic and had told me about this amazing shop that was open until 5am and had a whole floor or accessories, a floor of bags, a floor of shoes etc... I decided this was the perfect place to go and look for a bag to use for work.
The shop is in an area called Dongdaemun. Dongdaemun is a famous shopping district in Seoul with lots of massive shopping malls and a massive outdoor market. We spent hours walking around trying not to spend too much money and got so carried away we almost missed the last bus home.
However despite walking around for hours after researching Dongdaemunon the internet it has become clear we hardly saw any of it. Defiantly worth a return visit me thinks.
I found this information on a website, click here for more from the site:
Korea's largest wholesale and retail shopping district has 26 shopping malls, 30,000 specialty shops, and 50,000 manufacturers. Within the ten blocks of the market area, you can find silks, clothes, shoes, sporting goods, plumbing and electrical supplies, electronics, office supplies, toys and just about everything else imaginable.
Traditionally, wholesalers operated from 1:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and retailers were open from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Buyers came from all over Korea to take advantage of the cheap wholesale prices during the wee hours of the morning, creating an unusual nightlife in the area. Now, the area stays open from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., allowing shoopers to do their thing almost any time the mood strikes them. (Most stores close on Mondays and holidays.)
Near the market were these stunning water fountains in the Cheonggye stream (pictures below). There is a lot of history behind the stream.
I found this information on Wikipedia:
During the presidency of Syngman Rhee, Cheonggye was covered over with concrete for roads and, in 1968, an elevated highway was built over it. In July 2003, Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak initiated a project to uncover and restore the stream. It was a major undertaking as not only did the highway have to be removed, but years of neglect and development had left the stream nearly totally dry and 120,000 tons of water had to be pumped in daily. The stream was opened to the public in September of 2005 and lauded as a major success in urban renewal and beautification.
More information can be found here and here.
Me and Emily pose infront of the fountians.
It took ages to get someone to take this photo. Originally we asked an older Korean woman to take it but after 20 minutes of smiling inanely at the camera she still couldn't figure out how to push the button! Eventually we found a young girl to take it.
And after all that is it me, or do we look like we are superimposed on the background of the photograph.
The fountains.
Thats it for me on Dongdaemunon. Gots loads of other stuff to blog about!
