Tag: Chinese

National Folk Museum of Korea

The second day in Korea (year 2019)

My friend is so lazy because he likes to go to work every day, so, I had to spend that day alone, find an activity. 

Museum!

Which one?

Seems I have seen so many of them. Maybe there’re some other great museums left? 

It is so good that I have made a screenshot, so now I know the name of the museum – National Folk Museum of Korea. 

I wasn’t sure, is it my first time to be there until I entered. 

I felt excited this moment, being in Korea again, such a special and exotic place to me.  

Even many people told me, that July is the worst time to come here due to the hot and humid weather, I want to be there now, because I am freezing here, in my cold room, and cold outside, only vodka can warm me up. 

I always imagine Korea hot, because I have been only during summer, however, winter is cold there too. 

Glassy futuristic skyscraper and roads full of colourful sings, contrasting relatively small, wooden-stone ancient buildings along with the buoyant green make up the face of Seoul.  

On the way to the museum! I bet it is as hot there as at the hell, I have forgotten that feeling, but I see people on the photo are trying to walk in the shadow; it makes me smile now. 

Then, I  have entered. 

Science: medicine, astronomy, geography, magic and so on.  

  •  About agriculture

The first character looks uncertain for me because I didn’t find the exact one or any variety of 農, but I think that means something like: agriculture is the base of the world. It is such a close to the Ukrainian culture phrase. About 70% of the Ukrainian land (603 000 sq km)  is the agricultural land (420 000 sq km),  which is 4 times more than the whole area of South Korea and even twice more than the whole area of North and South Korea together. Seems unbelievable? However, after visiting Korea I can confidently state that Ukrainians do not really understand the meaning of the phrase above. The huge land is used almost for nothing, not effectively, when you compare to the Korean one. A rain – the crops are destroyed, high temperature – crops are destroyed, wind – crops are destroyed. What I saw in Korea, that each piece of the land is used wisely, even the land seemed to be fruitless along the road is a good place to grow onion, if you know how to do it. Weather is even crazier than in Ukraine: extremely high temperatures, strong wind – nothing can harm, because the crops are protected from the sun and the ground is covered to decrease the evaporation; trees are supported to stand the strong wind. What is a naughty bird wants to eat your fruit? It is a difficult task for the bird – each fruit is covered to be protected. Moreover, a funny thing is that there’s no planning: one year plant too many onions (very cheap), next year nobody plants it (crazily expensive, import). 

A cute house for chicks.

There’s a similar tool used in Ukraine to tamp ground, is it used in the same way in Korea? Fishing. A very funny tool, who do you catch with it? Medicine grinder.

My favourite place – I can sleep here. And a nice pillow, what I have seen before in other cultures, it was something solid to support the head, but this one looks pretty comfortable.

  •  Paintings. Feel the culture.  

It would be much better if I carefully read the descriptions beneath the items, but I don’t know the special words, so I just enjoyed the appearance and turn on my imagination to guess the story behind each item.  

This part of the exhibition made me very upset because I was so hungry at that time, so hungry…

I need more and more foooooooood. 

Later in the evening.

Hahahahah.

After the dinner, to keep me fit I participated in Dongducheon sports competition! But still, I don’t know who won…

Yangyang

The next destination after Hwacheon is Yangyang country washed by the East Sea.

Yangyang is not a big country too, having a population of over 27,000 people.

The area was called Yangyang 襄陽 since 1416. The area has a long history since it was known to be a part of Ye-guk 濊國 (3rd-century BC to around early 5th-century). Later it has become a part of Goguryeo and the area of Yangyang was called Ikhyeonhyeon 翼峴縣 or Imunhyeon 伊文縣. It is surprising for me, but both variants are quite nice (if compare to what I have seen before, Hwacheon, Boseong), the literal meaning is Wing Hill or That Culture (it is too complicated to find a proper translation for this pair of characters as the second character have too many meanings). Later, the name of the area was changed several times. In 1222, after a successful defend from Mongolians, it was renamed to Yangju 襄州, where the first character yang means a defender. Later the name was changed again until it has got its present name, consisting of the same yang 襄 and yang 陽, one of the meanings is the sun.

The way to the sea lies through many spots with beautiful scenes. Views from Hangyeryeong.

Even it is just a small observatory with a few buildings, there are many special souvenirs and amazing views to have some meal.

Step by step I am coming closer to ….

Naksan! Naksan is used to designate a few spots in the area, the first one I am going to visit is Naksan Beach.

I was swimming there a lot, that is why I did not take many photos. It is quite an awkward feeling to swim in a sea in Korea, because the swimming area is limited, and I could say it is much narrower than that one could be found in Odesa, Ukraine, moreover, there are so many active lifesavers, what makes the swimming quite tense, all the time I have to check if anybody of them is not running to catch me. I still remember the sea bottom there, it was shallow on the right and unexpectedly deep (for South Korea) on the left, about 2 m deep.

The other place called Naksan is a temple. Naksansa 洛山寺 was built in 671 by a scholar-monk Uisang 義湘 (625–702) who was a close friend of the man I met before in Soyosan and Namhae, it is Wonhyo. The temple is named after Potalaka mount as an abbreviation of the Chinese transcription of from Sanskrit, 補怛洛迦山. By the way, Bomunsa Temple I visited before in Ganghwa before stands on Nakgasan Mountain 洛迦山 which also is named after Potalaka mountain. The legend of the temple foundation explains the reason this name was chosen for the temple.

One of the legends says, when Uisang returned from the Tang empire, he heard that Guanyin Bodhisattva lived in the cave at the east coast of Naksan. He went there to pray and after 7 days praying he has received crystal beads from magic general Sinjang 神將, after 7 more days a dragon from the sea appeared and gave Uisang cintamani (wish-fulfilling jewel), after 7 more days Guanyin Bodhisattva appeared and said, “at the place you sit, a pair of bamboo will spring up, build a temple there”. As it is believed Guanyin or Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva lived in Potalaka mount, this place was called after the mount.

The temple has lived over many events during almost 1400 years. The last notable event happened in 2005 when the temple was burnt due to fire that started in the surrounding forest. The charred remains of the temple recall that day.

In 1925 Uisangdae Pavilion was built on the spot where Uisang once meditated.

Buddhist statue of Haesugwaneumsang. It was built in 1977. The height of the statue is 15 meters, the pedestal is 2.8 meters high.

And a beautiful sunset. Like a painting.

An interesting path to walk for leaving the temple.

My trip around Yangyang is coming to the end, but there is one more very important thing to do…

To eat unlimited sushi!

The huge crabs in the weak lights I saw on the way home reminded me of a horror movie.

That is all about my travelling around South Korea, tomorrow I have a flight back to Ukraine!

Hwacheon

My last trip around South Korea in 2019 starts with Hwacheon country.

Hwacheon is not a big country with a population of about 25,000 people.

During Goguryeo, this area was called Saengcheon-gun 牲川郡 or Yasimae 也尸買. As I found out before, Goguryeo used to give quite negative names to the areas under their rule to show dominance. Saengcheon and Yasimae, as for me, are not exceptions too, because saeng 牲 means a sacrificial animal and si 尸 means a corpse. In 685, during Silla, the region was renamed to more neutral or even positive – Nangcheon 狼川 – Wolf River. Later it was renamed a few times and only in 1869, the area got its present name, Hwacheon 華川 – Flowery River.

The first stop in Hwacheon country is Sanae-myeon where Tomato Festival is held! Would you expect to see there just a fair where plenty of tomato species or tomato products are shown? Then your imagination is the same as weak as mine.

What are they doing? Do they cook ketchup in this way? No, that is how they are looking for a golden ring hidden in one of the tomatoes. I would join them if I have another complect of clothes, but the only thing I could do is just to film and feel envy.

By the way, I tasted some tomatoes there too.

The next destination is Hwacheon Museum. Craft tools, pottery and other items related to Hwacheon history are presented here.

Tiger and magpies is a prominent motif in the minhwa folk art of the Joseon period. The paintings are a satire of the hierarchical structure of Joseon feudal society. The tiger, which is intentionally given a ridiculous and stupid appearance represents authority, while the magpie represents the common man. The painting is known to keep away evil influence.

Seunggyeongdo 陞卿圖 game board. A similar Chinese game takes its origin during Tang dynasty, the earliest historical record dates back to 836. The origin of the Korean game is not known, however, there is a record saying Ha Ryun (1377-1416) made and spread the game. The objective of the game is to attain the highest possible bureaucratic position. Probably the game was used with an educational purpose for candidates on a government post.

Outside the museum there are some items visitors can try, like a basket or traditional games.

The next destination is Oeum-ri, Vietnam Memorial Hall.

During the Vietnam war (1955-1975), from 1964 to March 1973, South Korea sent more than 300,000 troops to South Vietnam, 5099 Koreans were killed. A controversial consequence on the participation in the war is a boost in the South Korean economy due to payments of the US, which are estimated to account for 4% of GDP in 1967.

There are Vietnamese houses of the territory of the memorial.

And small hiding frogs avoiding the sun on an underground stair.

That is all about Hwacheon country, it is time to move on!

Ungjin-ri, somewhere on a bank of Soyangho Lake, the largest man-made lake in South Korea. Soyang Dam is Asia’s largest and the world’s fourth-largest rock-fill dam.

By the way, the name of the village reminds me of Gongju, the city of a legend about a man and a bear. Originally Gongju was called Ungjin 熊津 too, however, I do not know the meaning of the village’s name. It could be the same, Ford of Bear.

Gwangju

The previous day I have visited some places in the southern coast, and the city, I am going to start my trip today with, lays on the south too. It is Gwangju city.

Gwangju is a metropolitan city, with a population of almost 1,5 million people it is the 6th biggest city in South Korea.

The area of the modern city originally belonged to Mahan confederacy, later it was one of the administrative centres of Baekje during three Kingdoms period and was called Noji 奴只, later, during Unified Silla it was called Mujin 武珍. The current name Gwangju 光州 was given to the city during the Goryeo Dynasty.

Here I would emphasize some similarities with the former name of Boseong it had during Baekje, Bokhol 伏忽 which, as for me, is quite humiliating, and the name Gwangju had during Beakje, Noji 奴只, where no 奴 generally means slave. And, same as it happened in Boseong history during the rule of the Unified Silla, the name of the area was changed to positive one, Mujin 武珍, the possible interpretation of this word is a military jewel. However, some theories are suggesting this word should not be understood directly. The character jin 珍 was used to designate stone, which in Korean is pronounced as dol, but, is it supposed that the original pronunciation of dol was duel, and mu is supposed to be pronounced as a close one mul. And, it is supposed that mul means water 水 and duel means field 野. Then, Mujin original pronunciation could be Mulduel, meaning watery fields. This theory is supported by the fact that some of the geographic objects of the city area have pronunciation resembling the word Muduel, such as Mudeung mountain 無等; an area in Yeongsanpo, Naju city is called Idulo 水入伊, Korean pronunciation of each character is mudeul-i, which is supposed to be called so because it is assumed there was a swamp in the area in the past. This disambiguation in the suggested meaning of the word and literal meaning of the word is explained by fact before Chinese characters were introduced into Korean culture, the cities and areas already had its names***. One can notice that it is unlikely to find a Chinese character which would satisfy 2 requirements, to bear the original meaning and to have pronunciation close to the Korean one. In this case, the name might be written using any characters with the pronunciation similar to Korean one, people, who do not know how to write would not care about letters, but they would be very disturbed if one forces them to speak in another way. Other examples of this phenomena are Bisabeol 比斯伐 (Jeonju), Michuhol 彌鄒忽 (Incheon), Dalgubeol 達邱伐 (Daegu), etc.

Street views.

A notable thing about Gwangju city is demonstrations. The last one, Gwangju Uprising, happened in May 1980. A peaceful demonstration against Chun Doo-hwan, the general who served as president from 1980 to 1988, was suppressed by military forces and ended up with 165 (or 1,000-2,000) civils and 37 militaries dead, 76 people were missing and over 3,700 people were injured. Only in 1995, Chun was arrested, in 1996 he was sentenced to death, but in 1997 the sentence was changed to life imprisonment and a fine in the amount of ₩220 billion. Today he is still alive, 88 years old.

Another conflict, raised in 1929, had more crucial consequences for all the country. Gwangju Student Independence Movement is considered to be the second-most important independence movement in the period of the Japanese occupation.

In 1967, Gwangju Student Independence Movement Memorial Hall was opened to commemorate the noble spirits of Student Independence Movement. In 2005, the memorial was relocated.

Student Independence Movement Memorial Tower.

Everything has started from a small incident on October 30, 1929. Japanese students in the train station in Naju harassed a few Korean female students. This incident was the initial cause of anti-Japanese demonstrations in various high schools in Gwangju. Later, it has developed into a nationwide anti-Japanese movement and lasted about 5 months.

The protests resulted in the severe repression from the Japanese government, but those efforts students made not only encouraged national independence movement but also became the predecessor of student movements, the spirit of the student movements inspired the secret society movement, resistance movement, the second student independence movement in May 1943, etc.

That is all about Gwangju, but it is not the end of trip for today!

Jangheung

The last destination this day after Suncheon and Boseong is Jangheung country!

Jangheung county has a population of 38,628 people by November 2019. Since 2001 the population of the country have decreased by 27% (from 53,392).

During Mahan, probably, the area was called Geonmaguk 乾馬國. It is known, that during Baekje, there were several prefectures in the area, namely, Ocha-hyeon 烏次縣, Masanyang-hyeon 馬斯良縣, Komamiji-hyeon 古馬彌知縣, Gyecheon-hyeon 季川縣. Later, during Goryeo, the area raised to the status of a city and was renamed to Jangheungbu 長興府, as it was the hometown of Queen Gongye.

The word jang 長 generally means long, but it also can be understood as long-lasting, profound, permanent, the word heung 興 means rise, thrive, prosper, flourish, etc. Then, 長興 could be permanent prosperity.

I have visited 3 spots in Suncheon, 2 spots in Boseong, so, I have time only for one spot in Jangheung. I am going to visit the Water Festival held on the banks of Tamjin river. The festival is celebrated every year from the end of July to the beginning of August.

The festival really impressed me, because, I think, it was the first time I have seen so many Koreans being excited, free, dancing and just enjoying the time. One more special thing is that the people I saw there have quite a different look, the style of their clothes and quite uncommon (as I thought) behaviour for Koreans (I have seen one madam getting slightly naked when danced). Unfortunately I did not have time to really enjoy the festival, I believe, to do that, one needs to spend at least a day there, from morning until the evening and try all the activities presented there, watch a performance, taste street foods, check up a market, enjoy concert, sing, dance and play with water.

The setting sun, clouds and the fountains made a fantastic scape that day.

Here are some videos from the concert. The woman sings “아이 좋아라” – “Ah, I like it”, that is what I can say about the festival, I like it so much!

And here is the most delicious thing in travelling, the food. Supper is the best way to finish up a day of intense exploring.

Boseong

After the intensive trip around Suncheon, I am heading to a neighbouring Boseong country.

A population of Boseong country is just 42,803 people by 2018, in 2001 it was 61,329 (30% decreased).

Same as Suncheon, Boseong was a part of the Mahan confederacy. During Baekje, it was called Bokhol country 伏忽郡, and it 757 the country was renamed to Boseong 寶城郡. Boseong 寶城 literally means a precious town, from 寶 – jewel, precious stone, precious and 城 – city, town. The former name Bokhol 伏忽 caused difficulties in the interpretation, as the word bok 伏 might mean to lie hidden, to conceal, to subdue or a surname, and hol 忽 means sudden or to underestimate, to neglect or a surname. Why would the name of a country have a relatively negative meaning? I found quite interesting information about it:

The word hol 忽 was used as a synonym to word seong城 in Goguryeo place names to emphasize the area is under the Goguryeo reign. Baekje used the word hol 忽 in place names in the same manner. During the Unified Silla period, in the toponyms, the word hol 忽 was replaced by seong城. Probably, the word bo寶 simply is the homophone to the word bok 伏.

Seems Baekje wanted to show the dominance over the region, however when the time came for better, the governors would not want to cause disambiguation in the country name for the ordinary citizens and just replaced to the meaning with a really positive homophone. By the way, the creator of mankind in Chinese mythology is named Fuxi 伏羲, I got to know him at the National Museum of Korea.

The main attraction of the country is tea fields. The tea fields are shown even on the profile picture of the article about Boseong country on Wikipedia. The country is the greatest tea producer in South Korea.

These tea fields lie on hills of Hwalseongsan 活城山 mountain, 498 m.

Green tea has been produced in Boseong for the past 1600 years. The earliest mention of tea in Korea dates to the 7th century, the time of Queen Seondeok reign.

A restaurant with a view on the fields serves food with green tea, this is dongas.

The free of pay view on tea fields, on a roadside.

After the walks around the peaceful tea fields, I am heading to the south, to Yulpo beach washed by the waters of Deuknyangman (Deukryangman) Bay.

The water here is not so clean, I have even photographed some rubbish, but I do not dare to post it. And me, with the new skin tone after a walk in the Suncheon garden. However, as I remember, the water here was warm. There were foreigners on the beach too.

That is not all for today yet, one more destination is ahead!

Suncheon

A long journey, the next day after visiting Sacheon and Namhae, starts with Suncheon city!

Suncheon is an average city in South Korea, with a population of 266,809 it takes 43rd place on the list of the biggest cities.

The known history of the city starts from in Samhan era, when it belonged to Mahan confederacy (1st BC – 5th AD). Previously I came across with the confederacy when I studied the history of distant from Suncheon places, Jeonju city and Muju country. It is explained by the fact, the confederacy was covering quite a big area (green). During its history, the city has changed many names, it was Sata 娑陀 (Gaya confederacy), Seopyeong-gun 歃平郡 (Baekje kingdom), Seungpyeong-gun 昇平郡 (Silla kingdom), and it is not the full list. In 1413, Taejong establishes the Suncheon Dohobu 顺天 都护府, which gave the origin to the modern name of the city. Suncheon 顺天 means by the will of heaven, obey heaven, be submissive to the will of heaven, Dohobu 都护府 is a military governorship. After many administrative changes lasting for hundreds of years, in 1995 it has become Suncheon City.

As for me, the name of the city Sata 娑陀 is quite interesting. The character ta 陀 means hillside, slope, shore or to fall down. The character sa 娑 means dancing or fluttering. Then, Sata 娑陀 might mean a fluttering hill (or, maybe, to dance until you fall down? – joke). However, maybe it was just a kind of transliteration of a Korean word. The other mentioned above names are related to peace 平, Seopyeong 歃平 bind the peace with an aouth and Seungpyeong 昇平 peaceful.

The first place I am going to visit is the Songgwangsa temple 松廣寺 (Spreading Pine Temple). It is one of the three principal Buddhist temples in South Korea representing, each representing one of the Three Jewels of Buddhism:

  • The Buddha, the fully enlightened one
  • The Dhamma, the teachings expounded by the Buddha
  • The Sangha, the monastic order of Buddhism that practice Dharmas.

This conception is resembling of the trinity conception in Christianity. Songgwangsa represents sangha. The temple was built in 867, later, it fell into disuse, but it was re-established in 1190 by Seon master Jinul (1158-1210).

Seon Buddhism origins from Chan Buddhism 禪 which was dominant in Tang and Song dynasties. Chan Buddhism also spread to Vietnam as Thiền and Japan as Zen. The word Chan 禪 origins from Sanskrit dhyāna, which means meditation leading to the “calm of mind”. Chan Buddhism started spreading around Korea during the Unified Silla. During Goryeo, master Jinul strongly influenced Korean Buddhism. That time Buddhism was seen as infected by secular tendencies and involvements, such as fortune-telling. He established a reform movement in Korea to make the correction, revival, and improvement of the quality of Buddhism. His Seon tradition is preserved well to this day.

The paintings depicting 10 bulls of Seon tradition to describe the stages of a practitioner’s progress toward enlightenment, and his return to society to enact wisdom and compassion.

  1. In Search of the Bull
  2. Discovery of the Footprints
  3. Perceiving the Bull
  4. Catching the Bull
  5. Taming the Bull
  6. Riding the Bull Home
  7. The Bull Transcended
  8. Both Bull and Self Transcended (Back circle)
  9. Reaching the Source
  10. Return to Society

Everything was fine until the bull #7 and #8. What happened to the bull? What happened to me?

The destination after the temple is Naganeupseong Folk Village 樂安邑城 .

In 1397 a fortress was constructed to protect the area from Japanese Wokou pirates. The village contains about 100 houses and government offices of Joseon dynasty.

Museum of the village.

And, cool photos of mine.

The next destination in Suncheon country is Suncheon Bay National Garden.

The area of the garden is about 1.1 km² plus 28 km² of Suncheon Bay. The area of the garden is really huge and one needs to spend hours to view all the exhibitions in the garden. I have spent over 2.5 hours, even though I skipped some parts and was almost running after my friend, giving to each exhibition just a few minutes of my attention.

There are many paths, sculptures, and nice spots for taking photos all around the garden.

One of the garden sections is World Garden Zone, representing typical features of a number of counties.

Thailand Garden. Sala Thai – an open pavilion, used as a meeting place and to give people shade. That day I really needed a shade, I was so excited so even did not pay any attention to the burning sun.

Among other, I remember Turkey, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, China.

A colourful bridge crosses a river and leads to a train going to the Suncheon Bay. On the other side of the river, there is also a greenhouse. The huge money tree (Crassula ovata) I found there really impressed me, how rich would I be if I have the same big plant!

The way to walk to the main spot of the bay is long, but it worth the time, power, and me.

The paths are distanced from the bay bottom, I saw crabs running there.

As long as in Ukraine nature is very strong and people are very weak, there is no need to preserve such great biomes.

This is the end of the trip around Suncheon, but not the end of trips for this day. After 2.5 hours walking around the garden, I was full of positive emotions and very surprised with my new skin tone.

Namhae

The next destination after Sacheon is a neighbouring Namhae country.

Namhae country lays on two big islands, Namhae and Changseon, three smaller islands, as I think, having quite funny names, Jodo, Hodo, Nodo, and 65 (76) other uninhabited islets. Namhae Island is the 5th biggest island in South Korea with an area of 301 sq. km., right next after the Ganghwa island (302.5 sq. km), which I visited before. The total population of the country is about 44,642 people.

The Bronze Age dolmens found on the island evidence the people lived here as early, as at inland. The first records about the country appear in 690, during Silla, when the area was named as Jeonyasan-gun 轉也山郡. In 757, it was renamed to Namhae-gun. The name Namhae consists of two quite popular and meaningful characters, nam 南 – south and hae 海 – sea. As a consequence, there are a few geographic objects in the Far East region called 南海. Among them, 南海 – a sea near North Korea, 南海 – the Chinese name of the South China Sea, 南海道 – a region in Japan and so on.

A quick review:

  • Changseon 昌善島, chang 昌 – prosperous, beautiful, bright; seon 善, same as in Jeongseon country 旌善郡, good, beautiful, good, kind, excellent, best; kindhearted, hospitable, friendly; auspicious, happy, 島 – island;
  • Jodo 鳥島, jo 鳥 – bird; 鳥 in Chinese usually is pronounced as niao; diao and dao are other possible pronunciations; in the cases when the character designates a geographic place, it is pronounced as que, resembling that of Korean, jo;
  • Hodo 虎島, ho 虎 – tiger;
  • Nodo 櫓島, no 櫓 – castle, scull, big shield.

One of the notable spots in the Namhae country is the German village Dogil Maeul.

In 1997, Du-Kwan Kim, the mayor of Namhae-gun, visited Nordfriesland, a city in Germany, where he met Korean migrants, who went to work to Germany in the 60s. The migrants shared with the major a wish to return back to their home country at retirement age. This wish, along with the fact the population of Namhae country was decreasing since 1965 due to the migration of people to the industrial areas, gave the beginning to the village foundation in 2000.

The district acquired almost 100,000 sq. m. of land to build houses which should look as “German”. This also would be an attraction for tourists. In July 2012, the village had 39 German-looking houses.

A view from a roadside.

Because Namhae is an island, one thing I must to do here is to swim! The island is washed by waters of the Korea Strait, which connects three seas, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the East Sea (the Sea of Japan). Consequently, I would expect the water here to be better than in the Yellow Sea, but not as good as in the East Sea.

I think it is that girl with her mother that I gave the shellfishes I collected. The girl did not dare to take my shells, even though she was looking for them, I just threw it in her bucket after the parents made me understand it is ok, they requested her to say “thank you”, but seems she was really shy seeing a hairy stranger. The whole bottom is full of these shells, one just needs to know how to find it, so, I do. The shells won’t float in the water waiting for you to catch them, you need to get into the sand to grab it. I will not die if I live in a wild in South Korea.

Since visiting the Museum of Natural History, I am always looking for fossils, such as dinosaur eggs or dinosaur excrements, just like those.

One of the attractions on the island is Guemsan mountain. With a height of 681 m, it is the second biggest mountain on the island, the first one is Mangunsan, 786m. There is a country with exactly same name Geumsan, 錦山, bordering on the south with Muju and Jinan countries I visited before. The character geum 錦 means beautiful, luxurious, refined or brocade; bearing such a positive sense, no surprise it is used in geographic names.

That day the mountain was shrouded with fog, so, it was hard to see the environment.

On the hills of the mountain, there is Boriam hermitage 菩提庵. Bori 菩提 is a Buddhist term, meaning perfect comprehension, insight, consciousness, and am 庵 means hermitage; Boriam – the hermitage of perfect comprehension. The temple was founded in 686 by Wonhyo, a priest and commentator of the Korean Buddhist tradition. I met this man before when studied the history of Soyosan mountain, Jajaeam temple also was founded by Wonhyo. It seems that the circumstances do not let me see the creations of Wonhyo, as the first time I was too tired to do that, and now, the fog hid the hermitage.

Many stones with words carved on it are lying on the hermitage territory.

The patterns on some stones draw unusual pictures in my imagination, the reddish blot looks like a dinosaur head, and the roundish stone looks like a big tooth.

This is the comparison of that what could I see and that what do I see.

Dinner is the best way to finish the active trip around Namhae country!

Sacheon

This time I am going to the southern part of South Korea, South Gyeongsang Province. the first destination here is Ocean Cable Car in Sacheon city.

Sacheon 泗川 city with a population of 117,207 people, takes 67th place on the list of the biggest cities in South Korea, right after Gongju, the city I have visited before.

The city name Sacheon 泗川 resembles the name of a quite famous Chinese province Sichaun 四川, however, it is not the same. The former name of the city, established by Silla, is Samul 史勿, which means no history. In 757 the city was renamed into the homonymous Samul 泗水, which gave the origin to the modern name Sacheon 泗川.

In modern Chinese, the character 泗 is used to designate nasal mucus, however, this character also is used as a hydronym or a toponym, for example, a river in Shangdong province, China, Sishui 泗水, which got this name because the river begins with 4 springs, so 水 + 四 = 泗. Then, the city name Sachen simply means river Sa.

The place I am going to visit in Sacheon is Ocean Cable Car. First, the cabin goes above a bay to a small island, makes a circle and then goes up to a mountain. The strong wind accelerates on the wide free space above the bay, enters the cabin through the gaps and howls, making the environment more dramatic. After a few minutes, the cars and people became toys on the game table.

Gaksan mountain 角山, probably means Cape Mountain (compare, Cape Town), 408 m. One can almost touch the sky here.

There is a beacon signal station on the top of the mountain. In Korea, first beacon signalling systems became to be used in the Three Kingdom period (1st BCE – 7th AD). This station was built in the Goryeo period (918-1392) and was in use until 1895.

It is time to come back to the ground and move on!

Gossigul Cave

During this trip I have visited Gangneung, Pyeongchang, Jeongseon and Taebaek in Gangwon province. The next destination also is in Gangwon – it is Gossigul cave in Yeongwol country.

Gossigul 高氏窟 is a limestone cave formed 400 million years ago, it is 6.3 km long. The cave is one of the longest in South Korea.

The ranking of the most notable in South Korea natural objects, e.i., mountains, islands, waterfalls, caves, is top-secret information, so, sometimes it is a great challenge, often, fruitless, to find the information about the objects. Thus, previously I thought that Ojang waterfall is the longest in South Korea, however, later I found that there is a longer waterfall, Towangseong waterfall, consisting of 3 steps with the total length of about 320 m. When talking about caves, I can mention only some of the notable caves, among them, Manjanggul lava tube (8.9 or 13.3 km) on Jeju island, and Hwanseon cave (6.2 or 8 km) near Samcheok, Gangwon province, which should be the longest limestone cave in South Korea. By the way, the longest cave in Ukraine is Optymistychna (optimistic) cave, with the total length of the mapped passageways of about 240 km, making it the 5th longest cave in the world and the longest gypsum cave in the world.

Near the entrance to the cave. A part of the Han river connecting 4 rivers, Seogyocheon, Sogang, Pyeongchang, and Jucheongang. During the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598), the cave has become a shelter for the Go 高 family 氏, since then the cave was called as the cave of Go family, Gossigul, 高氏窟.

The art of nature, diverse in shapes and colours, made during the millions of years.

Some of the formations are weird and reminds creepy creatures, one of the famous here is octopus leg.

Nevertheless, the absence of the descriptions didn’t stop my imagination to see the whole zoo on the cave walls.

By the way, one could really meet living creatures in the cave, and not only people or bats but shrimps too, who supposed to live in ponds like these.

A toilet of the cave people.

Photo zones on the bridge leading to the cave.

That’s all about Gangwon for now. It is time to have some food.