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!

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!

Around Gangwon

Previously I have visited Gangneung, a city in Gangwon province. Today I am going to visit few more places in this province.

The first destination is a country famous around the world as a host country of the Winter Olympics in 2018, Pyeongchang.

I have spent a night here after visiting Gangneung, and by the afternoon I left this place, so nothing much was explored.

On the way, I discovered one quite attractive spot. It is Baekseok waterfall 白石瀑布. It is located it Najeon-ri, Bukpyeong-myeon, Jeongseon country.

A funny thing about the waterfall is that from this observation point water seems to fall from the highest point of the mountain like it is erupting from a volcano. To my best knowledge, the tallest waterfall of South Korea is Ojang waterfall 五臧瀑布 (127 m), also located in Jeongseon country. So, Baekseok is one of the tallest waterfalls in South Korea.

Jeongseon country 旌善郡 appears in history as Ingpaehyeon 仍貝縣 during Goguryeo Dynasty ( 37 BCE–668 CE ) and gets the present days name in 1012. The character jeong 旌 means a flag or to honour; the character seon 善 have many positive meanings and can be translated into English as good, beautiful, good, kind, excellent, best; kindhearted, hospitable, friendly; auspicious, happy. Then, Jeongseon may mean to honour goodness. By the way, the name of the tallest waterfall, Ojang 五臧瀑布, contains character jang 臧 which also can be a synonym for seon 善, however, oajng 五臧, as 五藏, usually is referred to five classic books of Buddhism or five organs of a man (heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney).

The next destination in Jeongseon is Jeongamsa Jeogmyeolbogung temple 淨岩寺寂滅寶宮.

The exact date when the temple was built is unknown, but, it is believed that it was built by Silla queen Seondeok (died in 647), who is the first reigning queen in the history of Korea. Jeogmyeolbogung 寂滅寶宮, nirvana precious palace, is a type of temples built during Silla to enshrine Shakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. A specific feature of this kind of temples is that there are no Buddha statues because there are remains of the Buddha’s body (사리, 舍利, śarīra). Here, the sarira is stored in the Sumano Pagoda 水瑪瑙塔.

The pagoda is made up of gray-green limestone bricks, due to this, it has got name Sumano 水瑪瑙 – watery agate.

Another specific feature of the temple is wind bells, punggyeong 風磬, with fishes hanging on bell-clappers.

And the river rapidly flowing down makes beautiful scenery.

It is time to move on!

From Jeongseon country we entered to Taebaek city. Here the plan was to visit Hambaeksan mountain, but, for some reason, the way was locked. So, I just had a chance to look around on the roadside.

Being not far from the border between Jeongseon and Taebaek, after a short time we entered Jeongseon again, and found an unplanned attraction here!

Manhangjae forest park. It is a perfect place to enjoy the variety of mountain plants and insects accompanying them. Many people are resting there, having picknics; there’re many nice paths to walk around, photo exhibition, and information stands about the local plants. There diversity of the plant species must be really great because I didn’t see many of the plants shown on the stands, maybe it is not the time for those species.

It is not yet all about Gangwon province, but it is time to move on!

An Amazing View from Deogyusan

After Jeonju and Jinan, my next destination is Muju country!

Muju (茂朱郡), like the neighbouring Jinan, is a small country with a population of about 25,000 people. Nevertheless, the history of the county lasts for centuries. The present-day Muju before belonged to two states. During the Samhan era (before the 4th century), separated by the Sobaek Mountains from the north to the south, the east side belonged to Byeonjin (a loose confederacy of chiefdoms) and the west side belonged to Mahan (I met this confederacy in the history of Jeonju). During the Tree Kingdom period, Mahan was a part of Baekje and the Byeonjin was a part of Silla. The part of the area belonging to Byeonjin, Mupung (茂豊) was renamed by Silla to Musanhyeon (茂山縣), and the area belonging to Mahan, Jugye (朱溪) was renamed to Cheoncheon-hyeon (赤川縣). Later, Musan (茂山) was renamed to Mupung (茂豊), and Jeogcheon (赤川) was renamed to Dancheon (丹川). Later, Dancheon (丹川) became Jugye (朱溪). And, finally, during the king Taejon reign (same as in the history of Maisan mountain), combining names of two areas, Mupung (茂豊) and Jugye (朱溪), the present name Muju (茂朱郡) appeared. It is the only name of the city or country in South Korea ending with ju which is 朱 but not 州.

In Muju, I am going to visit Deogyusan National Park, or rather, the cornerstone of the park, Deogyusan mountain, covering portions of not only Muju country but Jangsu county too.

The mountain is quite high, so it is much easier to take a cable car to get on the top of the mountain.

The way up wasn’t that quick as I expected, so I even had time to imagine how the cabins fall down and crash, or don’t crash, depending on the surface beneath.

The first thing I felt when I went out of the cabin was the freezing air! It is so hot at the foot of the mountain, and cool on the top. That time I remembered a geography book I read at school, every 1000 m up the temperature decreases by 6 degrees, such a nice lesson. But, even if the temperature would be below zero, and I am wearing summer clothes, I wouldn’t go back, the views there are amazing!

The higher you climb, the more and more amazing the views become.

1614 m. To my best knowledge, Deogyusan is the 4th highest mountain in South Korea (omitting the fact that the second-highest mountain, Jirisan, have 9 higher peaks).

I was very inspired by the environment, so, only when the of cable car working hours was running out and I started walking back quickly, I realized that the way I walked to the peak was significantly long.

And the way was even longer because I couldn’t pass by the mountain plants or the suspicious sounds – I saw a rodent, probably a chipmunk. I came to a dead tree with many holes looking for the animal but it didn’t show up.

I could recognize only elderberries and magnolias. We have the yellow flower in Ukraine, but the one I capturer here is more glossy.

Back to the hot ground. And move on!

We had a quick stop in Geumsan country to buy ginseng. Should I count the 30 minutes I spent there as visiting?

All the roots look the same to me, but the price is different, and all the sellers on the market are selling the same ginseng but they are so many.

Soyosan: Freedom Mountain

Soyosan is a mountain located between two cities, Pocheon and Dongducheon.

Previously I mentioned the Soyosan metro station of the blue line; so, now we know why the metro station has this name. In Chinese, the mountain name is 逍遥山. The character 山 simply means “mountain”. Two characters 逍遥 might be translated into English as “wandering around at leisure”, “wander for pleasure”, “to be blissful”, “unrestrained”, “free”, “freedom”, “serenity” and so on. So, I would translate the whole name as the Mountain of Freedom or the Mountain for Pleasurable Wandering. Actually, that is what people do there, wander, enjoy the time, feel free and easy there.

For many centuries, the mountain was a spiritual place attracting thinkers and monks. Thus, in 654, during the Silla Kingdom, Wonhyo, a priest and commentator of the Korean Buddhist tradition, found Jajaeam (自在庵 ) temple, which exists till now. I planned to visit it too, and I would if the walk doesn’t kill me. By the way, the temple name might be translated as Monastery of Freedom: 自在 “to feel free” or, “free” as Ishrava in terms of Buddhism, and 庵 “Buddhist monastery”.

On the way to Soyosan mountain.

Hardly, but, since I am almost a professional small seal script translator, I have resolved the inscription on the gate. Of course, that happened not without the help of the almighty Internet. I applied the same algorithm I used to resolve the sentence from the museum: just search the characters I found and hope the rest of undefined characters will appear in the sentence. This time it wasn’t that easy, there was no such combination of the words. I have noticed that the characters in the gate name 逍遥山自在庵 are spelt from the right to the left, which is unusual for me; then, I reversed the sequence of characters I recognized, added 逍遥山 and searched again. It was a success.

京畿小金刚

The problem was in 京 and 金, which I thought might be 金, but, after checking all the possible spelling styles, I gave up. I guess the task would be much easier if I know that the province Gyeonggi in Chinese is spelt as 京畿. The Chinese Baidu gives such an explanation, “In the spring, azalea and hawthorn flowers form a magnificent scenery, and the autumn leaves are also very charming, so the mountain is known as the Diamond of Gyeonggi“.

My friend recommended me to climb up the hill by the route #4 to the Gongjubong peak, then go to the highest point, Uisangdae and then go down by route #2. That seemed easy to me, so I started running up!

The majority of the visitors are ancient haraboji (grandfathers) and halmoni (grandmothers), relaxing, sitting, eating, playing games; some of them even climb high up to the peak. Why are there only old people? The first reason is that youngsters are at schools and workplaces at that time. The other reason is that the area is highly populated by old people. They don’t want to live in the noisy crazy metropolitans, they want to feel the calm and relaxation, come closer to nature to feel free.

I was walking and walking, plenties of paths changed, plenties of people passed by on the way down, but the first peak was not showing up through the impenetrable forest. Each time I climbed a plateau I was just shocked that is not the peak.

At some moment I climbed high enough to see one of the peaks, this inspired me.

Then a plateau with a nice view appeared, however, that wasn’t the peak yet. A haraboji was there too.

While climbing, I was hunting wildlife and ancient items too. Maybe a 삵 sag or a 담비 dambi is living in the hole.

Finally! A view from the Gongjubong peak, Dongducheon beneath. The next step is to reach the highest point of Soyosan, Uisangdae peak.

I was really surprised when saw the stair going down, I expected I have to go only up, it is more tiring.

Less than a kilometre left.

This view reminds me of the classic oriental paintings, far blur sky one background and the fir growing like a haze to match the environment.

And here it is! 587 m! This is the highest mountain I climbed. It is very hard, as you can see, to climb to the very top of the peak, I am surprised how elder people doing that. The guy on the photo smiled and said passing his phone to me, “Camera, please”.

After this moment, everything went wrong. I supposed to easily go down by the route #2, so I passed further. I came to a plateau, there was a sign, showing to the left. So, I went that way.

Periodically the path was hard to find, going down, it was becoming less and less recognizable. Sometimes I heard the voices talking somewhere around. I was just going down and surprised, why this route is not as well organized as the path #4. Finally, I came to a very steep cliff. I thought, “That’s why my friend recommended me to go up by the path #4, path #2 is really hard”. Then, I had to slide down from a cliff about 2 m height. Space there was very narrow and the next cliff was narrower and much lower. “Should I jump?”. Then I thought, “Hm, there’s something wrong”. And I realized that the game is over. That what I am doing is very dangerous. If I fall down, nobody is going to find me and I will die. I decided to climb up and find the right way. Actually, climbing up the cliff was much harder because I needed to pull up, it was hard to find something to hold to.

I have contacted my friend, he told me I am on the right way. I was just wandering around and looking for anything like a path. Finally, my friend recommended me just to go back in the same way. I said, “No, I am so far away from there, I will just find the right way”. He said, “OK, you can die”. After some period of time, I decided to back to the way I came here. I thought I will just quickly go back to the plateau with the sign, and then back to Uisangdae, then a little bit more to Gongjubong and then finally go down. But, when I started climbing up, I felt that I am absolutely exhausted, dehydrated, my heart was crazily beating, huge dozes of blood were almost tearing up my neck. By the time I reached the cliff, I was walking down for about 20 minutes already. When climbing up, I had to make stops every 10 meters to calm down, because my heart was near to burst. From the 0.5 l of water I had on the beginning, almost nothing left. I sipped I bit and dream about gallons of water I am going to drink when I come back to the city. Another horrible thing is that I forgot my power bank at home (actually, I thought I lost it), what almost never happens. I wasn’t trying to save the charge of my phone, because I relied on the power bank. And here, I am almost dead, and the discharged phone kills me more!

Later I showed the sign to my friend, it was correct, but I didn’t find the path #2. I was passing by all the narrow or wide, steep or flat paths I have seen on the way to Uisangdae and I couldn’t wait until this adventure to be finished.

I remember I was resting for a few times on the steep stairs I saw when going from Gongjubong to Uisangdae. There was almost no one, but I didn’t want anyone to find me and call an ambulance.

After reaching the Gongjubong peak I felt relief. Even thou my legs were shaking, and the way down seemed became much longer, I walked with big steps given up to the gravity.

When I reached the root of the mountain, I remembered that still there is a long way to the shop. I bought one bottle of water while waiting for my friend to pick me. Then one more. And I started the third one.

This day I walked almost 12 km, 18000 steps and 229 floors! This is my record on “floors”.

The day ended up with a dinner cooked by my Korean mother. Chick stuffed with rice, ginseng roots and other seasonings.