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• Seoul…
An opportunity to immerse ourselves in contemporary life in Korea,
and take a look back into its past, at the bustling markets, and
among the art and antiques shops of Insadong Alley. Elsewhere five
resplendent royal palaces, including Changdeokgung, the Palace of
Illustrious Virtue* and Jongmyo
Royal Shrine,* coexist alongside futuristic architecture.
•
Suwon…
Site of the 5.7km long, 18thC
Hwaseong Fortress* with its mighty stone watchtowers and
wooden pavilions, hiding secret gates. Nearby the private Ho-Am Art
Museum – housing the incomparable collection of Lee Byung-Chung,
Samsung’s late Chairman – set among classical gardens; lawns,
groves, terraces, lotus ponds and ancient statuary.
•
Andong & Hahoe… Our
visit coincides with the wonderfully colourful
international mask dance
festival. In nearby Hahoe, a traditional village of
commoners and aristocrats (visited by Queen Elizabeth II on her 73rd
birthday in April 1999), we watch
the Byeolsingut talnori, a satirical mask dance drama that combines
shaman rituals and popular entertainment. After dark, it’s
the annual Seonyo Julbulnori
fire ritual where Seonbi
scholars recite poems, as huge fireballs are dropped over of
a floodlight escarpment into the Nakdong river below, and
mulberry-root fire-crackers, strung on garlands from one bank to the
other, crackle as the air fills with the sound of a live orchestra.
•
Punggi…
It was here that successive royal dynasties purchased their ginseng,
and the ubiquitous root can be found, in all its forms, at best
prices, at the annual ginseng
festival.
•
Danyang… Inside
a mountain, are the 400 million year old Gosu caves – a 1,700m,
stalactite-filled ‘underground palace’.
•
Chungju… After
cruising along the beautiful, escarpment-lined Namhan river, we
arrive at the world martial
arts festival,
where teams from Brazil to Belarus, perform incredible feats of strength, agility and concentration. There are also acupuncturists
and masseurs on hand to release the chi of spectators.
•
Gayasan N.P…
On a 1,430m mountain rests the treasure temple of Haeinsa (founded
AD802), the repository of the Tripitaka
Koreana* – 81,340
wooden blocks recording the complete Buddhist scriptures in more
than 53 million characters, hand-carved, by thirty artisans,
from 1236-51.
•
Jinju…
A 14th century castle
that played a decisive role in the Japanese invasion of 1591,
when General Kim Simin’s 3,800
troops defended the city despite being outnumbered 10:1. A
fact recounted by many of the artefacts in the local National Museum.
At night we join in the fun at the river
lantern festival, when huge dragon, lotus-flower and
other beautifully crafted floating lanterns
throw their light onto the waters of the Nam.
•
Jirisan N.P…
Hidden in the hills, the mystical stone stupas of the Samseonggung
complex, shrine to the divine progenitors of the Korean nation, and
Cheonghakdong village where 23 families live by Confucian
principles, alongside ‘liquidated red guerrilla routes’. Before
leaving the mountains there may also be time to relax at the cave
sauna at Jirisan’s hot spring spa.
•
Gajin-ri / Goseong… At
the first site, 2,500 bird, 80 dinosaur
and twenty pterodactyl footprints from the Cretaceous and Mesozoic
eras (approx. 100 million years ago), At the second – only visible
at low tide – 1,400 150 million year old footprints from about 125
different animals.
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•
Hallyeo Marine N.P… We
set sail having visited the Geoje POW camp – a historical park,
opened in 2002, that offers an insight into the life of Japanese
POWs.
•
Busan… Korea’s second city – a vibrant,
cosmopolitan port –
that during our stay hosts a wonderfully eclectic art
biennale, and
in its lively, harbour-front fish market (Korea’s largest) the jagalchi
fish festival, where bystanders
are dared to catch eels with their bare hands or find the oyster
amongst a writhing tangle of live octopuses.
•
Gajisan N.P…
The site of Tongdosa temple, where Sakyamuni Buddha’s robe and sarira
(ashes) – now enshrined
in a magnificent altar – are said to have been bought when
the temple was established in 646AD.
• Gyeongju*…
The city described as ‘a museum without walls’ with
innumerable historical sites recording the 1,000 year history
of the Silla period (57BC to 925AD), including 700 earthen mound
royal tombs. We enter the flying horse tomb and visit Cheomseongdae,
the oldest astronomical observatory in the Orient. Gyeongju’s
National Museum has 3,000 of it’s 210,000 items
on display – magnificent funerary objects, gold, silver, iron
and earthenwares. Bulguksa* with its stone lanterns and pagodas
is an architectural masterpiece, begun in 751AD. On the
coast, through the Churyeong Pass, there is the underwater tomb of
King Munmu, and on Mt Namsan many, rock-carved, stone relief and
seated stone buddhas.
• Yangdong… Set
amongst four ravines, along yellow dirt roads, 130
traditional tiled and thatched roofed dwellings, including several
beautiful, grand old houses of regional nobleman. Brought to
prominence by one of the Five Great Sages of the East, as a centre
of Confucian culture, the ‘son-in-law’ village was visited by
architectural enthusiast Prince Charles, in 1993.
• Ulleungdo… Over
100km from the mainland, this five-sided volcanic island, just 10km
wide and 9.5km long, is the place to watch the sun rise and set over
the East Sea. Primeval forests, intriguingly shaped rock formations,
steep mountain slopes and
remote waterfalls. The usan
festival celebrates the culture of
Usanguk settlers, including the building of neowa
bark houses.
• Naksan N.P… A
sea temple, set in the cliff face, where half of the roof is a pond.
From nearby Sokcho there is an optional submarine tour of the coral
reef 30m below Jodo Island.
• Seoraksan N.P… An
exhilarating cable-car ride, and then the option of climbing, by
ropeway, the final 20m to a rocky outcrop at the summit.
•
Yangu…
The
Punch bowl battlefield, where public access has only been
permitted since 1998, is the site of the 2km long, 145m deep, 4th
Tunnel of Infiltration (discovered in 1990). From the Eulji
Observatory you can see the cultivated fields and army positions of
the North.
• Cheorwon &
DMZ… A pristine natural environment where from
October onwards migrating cranes, egrets and vultures stand alongside
battle-ready soldiers in the rice fields. The beauty of Goseokjeong
gorge, where Korea’s Robin Hood Im Kkeokjeong once ambushed
government officials, is in stark contrast to the former frontline
Iron Triangle battlefield, that includes Baegma ‘White Horse’
Hill, which during fierce fighting with the Chinese in 1952 changed
hands 24 times in 10 days.
*UNESCO listed as a World Cultural Heritage site
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