Bukchon Hanok Village

Earlier today, I ventured into a part of Seoul so far untouched by developers (I know, this is a pet peeve of mine!) known as Bukchon, an area where traditional Korean houses or hanoks have been preserved. Bukchon is inbetween the Gyeongbukgung and Changdeok palaces overlooking Samcheong (which I visited a few weeks ago)

A hanok

The area dates back 600 years or so and was once home to high-ranking officials and aristocrats. Bukchon is still residential although some hanoks have been converted into museums and guesthouses. Its a peaceful area which gives you some idea of what Seoul was like in the past (for rich people anyway) and is ideal for walking around. There are some good views from the top of the hill which were presumably clearer in Joseon times!

Bukchon street

View over Seoul from the top of the street

View in the other direction over Samcheong

Steps leading up to Bukchon from Samcheong

Getting there: the nearest subway station is Anguk. Follow the walled road which is directly across the road from Insadong-gil. Turn right and walk up the hill until you come to the Bukchon visitor centre. Various hanoks are scattered around this area, but to see the main concentration, turn left and the area above is on your left.

Monsoon Season

When I first arrived in Korea, I was warned about how hot and humid it would get during the summer months. So far, we've had a few weeks of nice, sunny weather (hot, but not so hot that you have to spend every moment huddled under the aircon), mostly perfect summer days (the type we have in Britain about once a year). However, no-one warned me about monsoon season! For the last week or so, we have had torrential rain. Busan (which I am visiting next week) made international news earlier in the week when flooding caused one street to be blocked by various debris including several upside down cars (for a picture, check out the BBC website http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8153739.stm).

Apparently monsoon season lasts a couple of weeks, then there is a brief respite of sun and clear skies (when all of Korea takes their summer holidays) before typhoon season starts in mid August! Still, the rains gave me the impetus I needed to properly sort out my new-ish apartment which is now tidy and gleaming in readiness for Lisa's arrival on Thursday.

Some school students in Bucheon have been diagnosed as suffering Swine Flu, so several of the public schools here have closed for summer a week early. We were a little hopeful last week that we may get an extra week off for vacation, but sadly money rules at a hagwon, so it looks doubtful.

Samcheong-dong

Samcheong-dong is a nice little area to the north of Gyeongbukgung Palace which I stumbled across by accident. Its a pretty low rise neighbourhood with lots of traditional tile roofed buildings housing coffee shops, boutiques, galleries and restaurants. And the intriguing sounding Museum of Chicken Art!

Coffee shopRestaurant

The neighbourhood has a nice cosy feel at odds with much of what I have seen of Seoul so far.

The Museum of Chicken Art!The blatant disregard for this sign amused me!

Getting here: from Anguk station, take the opposite exit to Insadong-gil and follow the walled road.

Jongmyo Shrine and Changdeokgung Palace

Last weekend, I visited the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Jongmyo and Changdeokgung Palace. In the park outside Jongmyo were hundreds of adjoshis (they were all men) playing the same board game (not sure what it was, possibly Baduk or Changgi?)

Jongmyo is a shrine to deceased Kings and Queens of the Joseon era and is the oldest preserved Confucian shrine in the world (building started in 1394). The main hall, Jeongjeon, has 19 spirit rooms (there is also another hall called Yeongnyeongjeon built to house the memorial tablets of later Kings and Queens). Each year in May, an ancient ritual known as Jongmyo jerye is held to commemorate the late Kings and Queens which includes court music known as jerye-ak and dancing.

The park surrounding the shrine is very peaceful and its hard to believe you're in the middle of Seoul.

Jeongjeon - Main Hall

The south gate through which the spirits were believed to enter and depart (the King would enter from the east gate and the performers would enter through the west gate.

Korea was a monarchy until the Japanese annexed Korea at the start of the 20th Century and deposed the royal family. After the end of the Second World War and Korean liberation in 1945, South Korea became a republic and most of the assets belonging to the royal family were seized and they were stripped of any authority (they were seen as being partly responsible for allowing the Japanese annexation). The current heir, Yi Chung, currently lives in his ancestral home in Seoul.

Nearby Changdeokgung Palace (Palace of Prospering Virtue) is one of the 5 grand palaces of Seoul and was the site of the government until Gyeongbukgung was rebuilt in 1872. Changdeokgung became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 as it is an "outstanding example of Far Eastern palace architecture and garden design". To me, it didn't look a whole lot different than the other palaces in Seoul that I have visited as they are all very similar in style, but then again, the entry fee for Jongmyo and Changdeokgung was a paltry 1,000 won (about 50p), so I thought I may as well have a look around!

Changdeokgung

Outside Changdeokgung I stumbled across these sculptures made out of grass and flowers obviously harking back to a more pastoral past. Not that long ago, most Koreans lived in the countryside, but rapid economic growth in the 1970 caused mass migration to the cities. Seoul has a population of around 10 million, but is classed as one of the biggest megacities in the world as the surrounding metropolitan area (of which Bucheon is a part of) takes its population up to around 25 million. No wonder the subways are always so crowded!

Seoul is an interesting city, but the bulk of it is not very pretty and fairly monotonous (step off at any subway station and you will probably see the same vista of Dunkin' Donuts, Paris Baguette, Baskin Robbins along with identikit tower blocks. It seems a shame that the more interesting low-rise areas seem particularly susceptible to the wrecking ball. This is one side of the Cheonggycheon stream near Jonggak which is lined with coffee shops and pizza places, all nice and clean.

On the other side are lots of little Korean shopfronts ready for redevelopment. Korean history and culture isn't just royal palaces and museums, its about ordinary people too and it seems that city planners are all too keen to sweep away anything that isn't seen as modern Korea and that is a shame.

Just an update...

I've been a little slack in updating this regularly mainly because I'm not doing quite so much sightseeing as I did when I first arrived in Korea and have checked off a good number of touristy things around Seoul and Bucheon. I am very excited as I will be having my first visitor from back home soon as the lovely Lisa is coming to stay for a fortnight at the end of July. We're going to travel down to Busan to spend a few days by the beach, hopefully venture over to one of the islands near Incheon and spend some time in Seoul.

I was off work for 4 days with tonsillitis, but luckily the antibiotics cleared it up. Being ill in a country where the most people don't speak English was an experience I'd rather not go through again, but I was lucky that there is an information desk for foreigners and the nurse there helped me through the process. I had a belated birthday night out on Saturday. I met Robyn, Dara, Janice and Keith for pizza, then we went to WB Bar for cocktails before going to Double, a club near Bucheon station where we saw a Korean hip hop band called Supreme Team and watched bemused as the Koreans went mad for them!

I'm trying to get in a routine of keeping fit. I walk round the park near me a few times a week and have joined a softball team which meets up for the first time on Saturday. Let's hope it doesn't get too hot for a little while! We've had some glorious weather recently which has been a good excuse to stock up on some summer clothes. Most of the summer stuff I bought with me was holiday clothes, so I needed some skirts and sandals for work. I haven't had too much trouble finding shoes and clothes here, although a UK size 6 is the largest standard shoe size here! There aren't many decent clothes shops in Bucheon, although I've discovered a large Uniqlo concession in the GS Square Department Store! Apparently July and August are very hot and humid. I had a little taster at the weekend as it rained all day on Saturday and then got very warm and humid on Sunday. Thankfully it has been much fresher today. I have air con in my apartment and at school - I think its my favourite ever invention!

I'm still enjoying teaching and the majority of my students are great. The preschool students are continuing to pick up English at a quick rate. It amazes me how well some of them are able to communicate in English when 4 months ago, they could barely speak a word of English! Today, I had an open class when the parents sat in on a lesson. It was pretty stressful as some of the parents complain about anything. One girl's mother complained that her daughter wasn't getting as many stickers as her friend (the students are given sticker sheets which they can exchange for a gift when completed). This is the same mother who complained about art class a couple of months ago, so I'm sure she will have something to say about the open class! I think I had my revenge though as the students made flower trumpets in art class today which I allowed them to take home with them and they were very noisy!

I've not taken many photos recently, but I was walking around the Jongno area in Seoul the other week and thinking to myself that often Korea doesn't feel very Asian when I came across some little alleyways which felt much more Asian than all the towerblocks and shopping malls.

Sadly it seems that these little alleys nestled in amongst Seoul's high rises are becoming increasingly rare. Not far from here, the area of Pimatgol, a tangle of small streets, has recently been demolished as part of the 'urban renewal' process. It seems a shame that these little characterful areas are disappearing to be presumably replaced by more homogenous office blocks.

Sick

With all the media attention on English teachers and swine flu, it was perhaps inevitable that yours truly would end up getting sick. Not with swine flu, I hasten to add, but with my perennial tonsillitis. Last year, I ended up staying in hospital over my birthday due to quinsy (a complication arising from severe tonsillitis), so this year, I wanted to have a nice time to make up for last year. Sadly, it was not to be.

I woke up on Saturday with a bit of a sore throat which got worse as the day wore on. I met the girls at New Phillies to see Keith's play "Silly Cow" (very funny BTW) and then we headed over to Sinchon for some Mexican food and to hit some Hongdae bars. By the time we got to the restaurant, I was feeling distinctly worse and hopped on the bus back to Bucheon. The next day (my birthday), I had a fever, severe sore throat and was unable to swallow or talk.

One of my co-teachers took me to the hospital which is only a couple of blocks away from my apartment building. The Information for Foreigners desk was closed and the few staff we could find could not speak English. Eventually we stumbled into the Emergency Care section where we found an English speaking nurse who quickly arranged for me to be seen by a doctor. Within half an hour, I had received an injection of antibiotics, an injection of painkillers and a 3 day prescription of antibiotics and was told to call back in the week to see a doctor in the ENT clinic.

Today I went back to the hospital and found someone on the Information for Foreigners desk who took me to the ENT clinic. I saw a doctor who spoke excellent English who examined my tonsils and used some sort of sucking device to remove the "bacterial pools", yum! Another prescription of antibiotics and painkillers. Off to the pharmacy within 20 minutes. I don't know whether they just whisk foreigners through the system, but so far I've only had to wait about 5 minutes to see a doctor.

I'm not entirely sure how the health insurance system works. I have a health insurance card and a certain amount is deducted from my salary each month for health insurance, but I still have to pay a fee when I visit the doctor (it was a hefty 63,000 won (around £32) for visiting the Emergency Care unit on Sunday, but only 16,000 won (around £8) at the ENT clinic today). The doctor told me I could schedule a tonsillectomy while I am here which is tempting as the NHS seem reluctant to whip out my tonsils despite me getting ill so often, but it depends how much it would cost me and how long I would need to take off work (although I could always schedule it at the end of my contract).

Baseball and swine flu

On Saturday, I went to Incheon to see my first ever baseball match. The SK Wyverns (the local team) who had won the national championship for the past two years took on the Doosan Bears. South Korea won the gold medal for baseball in last year's Olympics, so this is obviously a country which takes baseball pretty seriously. Lots of the fans brandished two clacky balloon things in their team's colours which they clacked in unison. The home fans were the loudest, but unfortunately they lost 2-1.

SK Wyverns pitcher

A Doosan Bears batter

A short demonstration of the clacky balloons!

The Munhak Stadium was easy to get to from Bucheon (take the subway two stops to Bupyeong and then transfer to the Incheon subway until you reach the Munhak Sports Complex station). Once inside, you don't even have to leave your seat as a man walks round dispensing beer (I suspect that if they introduced this to the Millennium stadium, they would need one beer seller per row) and another couple selling hotdogs. In the interests of any blog readers, I decided to sample a couple of different hotdogs (ok, so I was peckish). The cheese dog was strangely sweet tasting (who adds sugar to a savoury snack?!), but the plain hotdog tasted pretty good.

Munhak Baseball Stadium

Compared to sporting events in the UK, it was cheap to get in, an unreserved ticket was only 6,000 won (around £3.00). Although they should really have let us in for free as a whole row of foreigners provided plenty of visual entertainment between innings. Foreign teachers have hit the headlines over the past few days. A group of recently arrived teachers who attended orientation training together have been quarantined as one of their group was confirmed as having swine flu. This blog is an entertaining account of a rather unique situation written by one of the detainees. One of his posts made me laugh out loud where he records his attempt to contact the American embassy -

Me: “Hiya! I just thought the Embassy should be aware that 30+ U.S citizens have been quarantined right outside Seoul for suspicion of swine flu exposure.”
Operator: “Okay, well it’s a weekend, and we’re closed. Monday’s memorial day, so could you call back on tuesday?”
Me: “You…you’re serious?”
Operator: “Is it an emergency? Cause if it is we have someone we can call.”
Me: “Um…let’s see, there’s 30 americans in quarantine for swine flu exposure. Basically, we’re arrested. It’s totally cool, don’t worry—we’ll call on tuesday—”
Operator: “Okay, thanks for calling.”
Me: “No wait—”
*click*

Other Korean headlines include the news that North Korea "successfully" carried out a nuclear test and fired a number of short range missiles from its east coast this week and the suicide of former President Roh Moo-hyun following a bribery scandal.

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Update

Its been a busy few days...

On Thursday, all the preschool teachers went out for a meal. We had samgyeopsal (barbecued pork) in a traditional Korean restaurant which meant sitting on cushions on the floor. My bum went numb after about half an hour, give me a proper chair anyday! The Korean teachers, who seem so quiet in school, really know how to knock back the booze. I ended up having to drink a shot of soju in a glass of beer - it did not taste good. Afterwards we went to a noraebang (private karaoke rooms) and I sang Delilah which reminded me of rugby days out in Cardiff and made me feel a little bit homesick....

Friday was Teacher's Day when students give cards and presents to their teachers. Sadly, our school had sent letters to the parents asking them not to give presents, but I still received a few including chocolates, doughnuts, candles, an umbrella and 100,000 won (about £50) in Hyundai gift vouchers!

On Friday night, we went out for samgyeopsal again (this time seated on proper chairs, my bum was thankful) for a leaving party for one of the American teachers. After stuffing our faces, we went onto the Park for a couple of drinks. The others headed to a club near Bucheon Station, but I needed an early night as I was moving apartments the next day.

I moved into the apartment just vacated by the teacher who just left while the new teacher moved into my little cell! My new apartment has a separate bedroom, is a fair bit bigger and actually overlooks the street rather than the airshaft. The only downside is that it has a slightly funky smell and needs a good scrub to make it habitable...!

Last night, a few of us went out for a meal at an Indian restaurant called Annapura near Bucheon station. I've been craving non-Korean food for a couple of weeks and the restaurant was a nice discovery as the curries and naan bread were delicious! The restaurant has nice, comfy booths and Bollywood musicals playing in the background. I just hope I can find it again as the streets and alleys around Bucheon station are a bit of a maze!

DMZ Tour

I got up extremely early yesterday (5.00am!) to get into Seoul by 7.00am for the DMZ Tour. The Korean Demilitiarised Zone is the buffer between North and South Korea which was set up after the end of the Korean War. It is about 2.5 miles wide and is the most heavily militiarised border in the world. However, as the DMZ is effectively a no mans land (apart from two villages in the DMZ and the Joint Security Area, no humans have been in the DMZ for more than 50 years), it has become a wildlife haven, many rare and endangered species have been spotted here.

I met up with Lori (the organiser) and the others at Samgakji station and then we went to Camp Kim, where the USO is based. Our first stop was Dora Observatory where you can look at North Korea through binoculars. Unfortunately, it was so foggy, we couldn't see very much at all!

North Korea lies that way!

Next we headed to the southern end of the Third Tunnel of Aggression. The North Koreans dug tunnels under the DMZ in order to stage an invasion of South Korea. So far, four tunnels have been discovered, but they think there could be around 10 more. Tourists are allowed to go into the tunnel, but not allowed to take any photos inside, so you will have to make do with this diagram from outside the tunnel entrance. To get to the tunnel, we had to walk down a very steep ramp. The tunnel has been blocked off at the Demarcation Line to prevent the North Koreans from using it. The climb back up to the surface was pretty tough!

Diagram of the Third Tunnel, note the incline!

As we had a bit of time before lunch, we had an unscheduled stop at Dorasan train station. The station was opened by George W Bush in 2002 and it is hoped that it will become the link station between North and South Korea sometime in the near future. When that happens, it will be possible to travel from Seoul into China and across Asia and Europe by train. At the moment though, North Korea is of course the "axis of evil" (so says George W.) and one of the most closed societies in the world, so who knows when passenger trains will start rolling across the border? Of course, the fall of communism in Europe happened pretty quickly and peacefully, so hopefully the same will happen in Korea.

Dorasan Station

The direction sign anticipates the day when you will be able to travel from South to North Korea

We then had lunch at a Korean restaurant before going to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjeon. This is probably one of the most surreal and uncomfortable places I have visited. The armistice treaty between North and South Korea (not a peace treaty, the war is still officially ongoing) was signed here and since then the UN and North Korea have maintained a presence here and occasionally hold meetings in the conference room. Firstly, we had a briefing from one of the US soldiers (all the American soldiers seemed to be straight out of central casting!) and signed a declaration to say we were aware we were entering hostile enemy territory where all sorts of horrors could await us, including death. As you are reading this, you may safely assume I made it out in one piece!

We were taken to Freedom Hall, where a number of families from North and South Korea were reunited after more than 50 years and then to Conference Row. There are a number of buildings, all designed to be temporary, painted blue which belong to the UN. There are also a number of more permanent looking grey buildings which belong to North Korea. The whole area is heavily guarded by South Korean (ROK) and US soldiers.

The soldiers stand on guard partly hidden by the buildings to present less of a target to to North Korean troops.

The conference room where occasional peace talks take place between the UN and North Korea.

The military demarcation line runs through the middle of the conference room, so I am techically standing in North Korea. The soldier behind me is guarding the door used by North Korea, it is kept locked when there are tourists in the room. The soldiers here are on constant alert, notice his clenched fists!

While we were on Conference Row, we were being spied on by a North Korean soldier with binoculars. We were warned in our briefing that we were not to point or make any gestures towards the North Koreans as it could be interpreted as an act of aggression or used in propaganda.

In some ways, I was glad to leave Conference Row behind. I can't imagine having to live with that level of mistrust and paranoia day in day out!

We then went to an observation post which is surrounded on 3 sides by North Korean territory. A line of white posts and rusted signposts mark the Demarcation Line. Whenever people try to repaint the signs, they have been fired upon by North Korean soldiers.

From here, you can also see a North Korean village called Kijong Dong. However, all is not what it seems. The village was built in the 1950s and appeared to be a real village with modern amenities such as electric power. Telescopes were trained on the village from the South Korean side of the border and they discovered the buildings were just empty shells designed to tempt South Koreans into defecting to a Communist paradise. Real North Korean villages of the time were not nearly so luxurious. The village is referred to as Propaganda Village.

There is also a village on the South Korean side of the border called Taesundong, known as Freedom Village. The only people allowed to live here are descendants of the inhabitants before the Korean War. The inhabitants have to live under a number of restrictions, such as a curfew at night and having to be guarded at all times by South Korean soldiers (as North Koreans used to kidnap villagers who were out working in the fields). However, they also have a number of benefits - their farms are much larger than the average Korean farm, they don't pay taxes and children are allowed to attend any school in the country at the Government's (or the taxpayers') expense.

Both villages have a flagpole displaying their national flag. The flagpole at Taesungdong was briefly taller than the one at Kisongdong, but the North Koreans retaliated by building a huge 160ft flagpole (the flag alone weighs 600 pounds). According to our guide, Soldier of Fortune magazine has offered a $1 million reward for anyone managing to bring them a square meter of the flag from the flagpole at Kisongdong!

We then went down towards the Bridge of No Return. The bridge was used to exchange prisoners after the Korean War and was so named as prisoners could choose whether or not to cross the bridge back to their home territory, but if they decided to cross they would never be allowed to return.

This area was the site of an incident which very nearly reignited the Korean War in 1976. Two American soldiers were attempting to trim a tree which was blocking the view from the observation post at the Bridge of No Return when they were attacked by North Korean soldiers who killed them with axes. Three days later, a team accompanied by a large security team cut down the tree as a show of force. The site is now marked by a plaque and Camp Bonifas is named after Captain Arthur Bonifas who died in the Axe Murder Incident.

I spent most of the day with Tori, who is teaching at a hagwon in Seoul. They have treated her pretty shoddily and haven't paid her for the past month. She is so fed up that she is probably going to leave Korea next month. It makes me grateful that I am working for a decent hogwan who always pays us on time and treats us with respect. It makes me so angry that schools think they can treat foreign teachers so badly and get away with it.

National Museum of Korea

We have had some glorious weather over the long weekend (apart from Saturday of course). Today is Children's Day which is when parents spend time with their children and buy them presents. We also had yesterday off work to make it a 4 day weekend.

Bridget and I went to the National Museum of Korea in the morning which is in an impressive modernist building set in a park near Yongsan.

The National Museum of Korea

There is a section dedicated to Hangul, the Korean language. Koreans are rightfully proud of their alphabet which was created by King Sejong (the one who lived at Gyeongbokgung Palace) in the 15th Century. Before the invention of Hangul, Chinese characters were used to represent the Korean language. As anyone who has ever tried to learn Chinese will tell you, there are thousands of characters used in Chinese script. It can take many years to learn to read Chinese and thus most of the population of Korea was illiterate as only aristocrats could take the time to learn to read. King Sejong saw there was a need for a more simplified written language and a phonemic alphabet was devised with 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Each syllabic block includes at least two letters with at least one vowel and one consonant. Hangeul is the only invented alphabet in use in the world today.

It was far too nice a day to be indoors, so after a quick scoot around a couple of the galleries and the museum shop, we ate a picnic lunch in the park and were told off by a guard for sitting on the grass, ooops! I was interviewed by a bunch of university students who wanted to ask foreigners about the ways in which they greet friends and family and what they think about Korea.

The Museum from the "Lake of Reflections"

Later on in the afternoon, we went our separate ways, Bridget went to Itaewon and I decided to head for Myeongdong to do a little shopping (the museum shop wasn't big enough to quell my shopaholic tendencies).

Unfortunately, Myeongdong (which is one of Seoul's main shoppng districts) was absolutely heaving, so I decided to walk towards Jonggak to catch the subway back to Bucheon instead.

I walked past Cheonggyecheon stream which runs the length of Seoul city centre and which used to be covered by a busy road. A few years ago, the government decided to uncover the stream and make a park running along either side. You can cross the stream via conventional bridges or via stepping stones, be careful not to get your feet wet! The stones help to regulate the speed of the flow of water.

Cheonggyecheon

The main landmark in this area is Jongno Tower which is 33 storeys high. There is a bar and restaurant on the top floor which is famous for its views of the city and is a traditional place for Koreans to propose to one another. So if you ever get invited for a meal there, you may go home with more than just indigestion!

Jongno Tower