Category: Travelogs

If you live in the Seoul area and our looking for some place to view the changing leaves this fall and experience a little Korean history I highly recommend taking a trip north to Uijongbu and the nearby Gwangneung area:

Gwangneung is where the tombs for King Sejo and his wife Jeonghui are buried. King Sejo ruled Korea from 1455-1468. Sejo is the second son of King Sejong who is widely regarded as the greatest King in Korean history. Though Sejo who’s birth name is Suyang was the son of a great King he was never meant to be King himself. When King Sejong died his oldest son Munjong took power but was sick and died soon after leaving the crown to his oldest son Danjong who was only 12 years old.

Since Danjong was only 12 years old the court premiers Hwang bo-in and General Kim Jong-seo effectively controlled the government. Suyang and his allies saw the consolidating of power by the premiers as a threat and moved to destroy them. In October 1453 Suyang and his faction launched a coup and killed both Hwang bo-in and General Kim Jong-seo. Suyang then forced the 12 year old Danjong to abdicate the throne. Once he took the throne, he became known as King Sejo. To further ensure his power Sejo forced his own younger brother Anpyong to drink poison ensuring no future threats to the throne.

Besides launching bloody coups and forcing his younger brother to drink poison Sejo really wasn’t to bad of a guy. He is credited with strengthening the government, improving the economy, launching successful military offensives against the Jurchen barbarians in the north, funding the creation of many inventions, and the publishing of many books and records.

However, seeing his tomb is not the main reason to come to Gwangneung. The best reason to come here are the fabulous trees:

Gwangneung tombs are part of the greater Korea National Arboretum. The arboretum is filled with massive trees that have some how survived being chopped down or destroyed by war over the years. You will be hard pressed to find larger trees in Korea than what is found in the arboretum:

To reach the tombs of King Sejo and his wife you need to take a short walk up a hill lined with beautiful trees:

At the top of the path you will see the royal shrine to King Sejo and his wife:

The shrine is flanked by two hill tops on each side of it that are capped with tombs of the king and his wife:

I highly recommend bring a lunch here and walking around and exploring the area because the trees and scenery are just spectacular:

To visit the National Arboretum you need to make a reservation and pay a 1000 won fee. You do not need a reservation to visit the royal tombs and admission is only 700 won. You can catch a bus or taxi to Gwangneung from the Uijongbu bus terminal but I actually rode my bike to Gwangneung from Uijongbu before. A spectacular bike ride but if you do take a bike I recommend leaving early because the rode does get busy with traffic later on in the day.

Overall there are few places in Korea that make a better day trip to see the autumn foliage then Gwangneung. Definitely worth checking out this fall for everyone living in the Seoul and northern Kyeongi areas.

You can view more pictures here.

The Cheonggyecheon Stream in downtown Seoul was a controversial project when it was first proposed, but I would think just about everyone would have to agree it is now a winner. The Cheonggyecheon wasn’t always a winner though.

Since Seoul is surrounded by mountains there are a number of streams that rush down the side of these mountains to drain rain water into the mighty Han River. One of these streams is the Cheonggyecheon. The Cheonggyecheon only tended to be full of water during the summer monsoon season and dry the rest of the year. However, occasionally during periods of heavy rain fall the stream would jump its banks and flood the downtown Seoul area.

To solve the problem with flooding, the Korean monarchy in 1406 under the reign of King Taejong, ordered the construction of a drainage system for the stream to prevent flooding. Workers labored for two years to dredge and expand the stream in order to flood proof the stream. In 1411 more work was done on the stream with up to 53,000 workers building stone embankments and stone bridges across the stream.

However, as Seoul expanded the Cheonggyecheon took on another purpose besides being used for flood prevention, it also became the city sewer. Residents would dump their excrement and trash into the stream so it could all be washed down the stream to the Han River and eventually out to sea. However since water didn’t continuously flow through the stream often the excrement and garbage would just sit in the stream bed. It is easy to imagine how bad Seoul must have smell not to long ago when the local sewer was the Cheonggyecheon that ran right through the center of town. Here is a picture of the Cheonggyecheon right after World War II in September 1945:

With the end of the Japanese occupation Korean leaders would look to develop the Cheonggyecheon area. In the 1959 South Korean President Syngman Rhee had the Cheonggyecheon covered over with concrete. In 1968 an elevated highway was built over the concrete covered stream in order to relieve traffic congestion in the city:

Well now you can see the Cheonggyecheon again and you don’t have to worry about it stinking either because it is no longer a sewer but a city park. The decision to revert the Cheonggyecheon back into a stream was the brain child of former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak. Mayor Lee wanted to use the Cheonggyecheon project to jump start urban renewal in Seoul. The urban renewal did not come cheap though:

The construction of the Cheonggyecheon began in July 2003 and concluded to much fanfare in September 2005. The total budget was a whopping 386,739 million won and just like any construction project in Korea it had it’s own corruption scandal as well.

Despite the costs and scandals the Cheonggyecheon has become one of the signature landmarks of Seoul that is enjoyed by people of all ages. Visitors to the Cheonggyecheon can explore the stream by following a couple of recommended walking courses:

For this posting I decided to walk Course 1 from Dongdaemun to downtown Seoul. Here is where I began my walk in the Dongdaemun area of Seoul:

Compare the above picture of the Cheonggyecheon now to what it was just a few short years ago:

I definitely prefer the stream over the highway that is for sure. Anyway as I continued down the stream I noticed this huge statue on one of the bridges near Dongdaemun:

This statue is of a garment worker Chon Tae-il who set himself on fire on November 13, 1970 in protest of the poor worker’s conditions at the time.

Continuing down the stream it is quite obvious the kids love walking across the various stone paths across the stream:

Here is the view back towards the Dongdaemun shopping area:

Here is one of the various bridges that crosses the Cheonggyecheon:

Every bridge across the Cheonggyecheon is drastically different from each other with the above brick bridge being one of the more tamer bridges. From this bridge I started following the path adjacent to the stream and was able to get some pictures of the fish that live in the stream:

Here is another picture of a child with his parent walking across one of the stone paths across the stream:

Here is a waterfall that cascades off of one of the vehicle bridges and into the stream:

Here is a picture of a young kid playing with the fish in the stream:

This is one of the things I love about the Cheonggyecheon because a lot of kids in Seoul may have never seen fish in a some what natural setting as this. All throughout my walk I saw kids running towards the stream and pointing out fish to their parents. I think giving kids such an experience is a great return investment for the citizens of Seoul who funded the project.

Besides having different themed bridges the stream also has walls with different themes as well:

The picture above is a replication of old Koguryeo kingdom paintings while the picture below is a wall with a waterfall:

One thing you can’t help but see when walking down the Cheonggyecheon are all the drab and ugly buildings of Seoul:

There can’t be a building uglier than the Jongno Tower though, that seems to loom over Seoul no matter where you are like the all seeing eye of Sauron’s Tower in Mordor:

Seriously how many buildings out there are more gaudy than the Jongno Tower? Not many. However, something that isn’t to gaudy is this Joseon era bridge that was uncovered during the reclamation of the stream:

The Gwangtonggyo Bridge was first constructed in 1410 and was the largest bridge in the old Joseon capital of Seoul. The bridge was used by foreign envoys to pass across while visiting Seoul. While passing underneath the bridge you will see inscription on the pillars that describe the repair and maintenance history of the bridge:

What is most interesting about this bridge is that some of the stone blocks used to construct the bridge has elaborate engravings in them:

These engravings exist because some of the blocks used to construct the bridge are left over from the construction of the royal tomb of Sindeokwanghu who was the second wife of King Taejo. It is amazing that such cultural history was buried underneath asphalt back in 1959 only to be uncovered again with the opening of the stream in 2005. This is another benefit of the stream, that it is helping to reclaim Seoul’s cultural history.

Continuing down the stream not to far from Gwangtonggyo Bridge is the beginning of the Cheonggyecheon at this large waterfall and fountain:

This is located in the center of the city and not to far from City Hall. You will know you have reached the beginning of the Cheonggyecheon because you cannot miss the most God awful public sculpture I have ever seen:

Not only is this sculpture ugly, but it was expensive as well costing the South Korean taxpayer $4 million dollars. The artists who made this monstrosity found it to be so ugly they haven’t even come to Seoul to see it. Personally, I have always thought it looks like Mr. Hanky mixed with food coloring.

Beside checking out the Cheonggyecheon during the day make sure to see it at night as well:

Seoul can actually be quite beautiful at night along the stream. You can see below that even at night people still love walking across the stone paths across the stream:

Here is a shot of the stream being overlooked by the moon:

I can honestly say despite the costs and scandals the Cheonggyecheon that runs through Seoul today is a huge improvement in the quality of life for the citizens of Seoul. The Cheonggyecheon may not be the San Antonio River Walk, but it is still a step in the right direction to greening the city of Seoul.

Most importantly it is one of the few places in Seoul and the only place in the downtown area where all the citizens of the city can congregate together. You see kids playing with their parents, young couples walking hand and hand, old grandmas sitting on the park benches, and even the rich business elite eating lunch in the shade underneath one of the bridges. It is truly a place for all the citizens of Seoul to enjoy.

Entrance to Geonbong Temple

Geonbongsa is a little known, but historically significant Buddhist Temple in Korea. Geonbongsa is located in the foothills of North Korea’s famous Kumgangsan Mountain that stretches south across the Demilitarized Zone into South Korea. The temple could not even be visited until 1989 due to the temple’s proximity to the DMZ between North and South Korea. The temple is off the beaten path, but is a worth while side trip for those who may be visiting Soraksan Mountain to the south of the temple.

Geonbongsa was first built in 521AD and was named Wongaksa. Later during the Goreyo Dynasty it was remodeled and given it’s present name of Geonbongsa. During King Sejo’s reign (1455-1468) he made the temple his royal praying temple in 1465 and built a large royal tower on the temple’s grounds. This brought the temple much notoriety and it quickly became one of the Top 4 most important temples in Korea responsible for 31 subordinate temples in it’s jurisdiction.

The main temple area of Geonbongsa.

During the Japanese Toyotomi Hideyoshi, invasion of Korea in 1592, the Japanese destroyed the temple and took a relic of the holy Buddha, a tooth, that had been enshrined in the temple. The head priest of the temple, Samyeong-daesa, raised an army of 6,000 warrior monks to battle the Japanese in an effort to regain the holy Buddhist relic. Samyeong-daesa would later move his base of operations from Geonbongsa further south to Gounsa temple near Andong to continue his fight against the Japanese.

During the invasion of Korea the Japanese did not expect heavy Korean resistance because Korea had a very weak national army and government due to the ineffective leadership of the Yangban class and internal infighting which was ruled by King Seonjo at the time of the invasion. The Japanese initially had no problems defeating the Korean forces and the Battle of Sangju is just one example of this.

One of the outer temples of Geonbong Temple.

Later bogged down by Korea’s mountainous terrain, poor roads, and the entry of the Chinese Ming Army into the war the Japanese supply lines and outposts became easy targets for what became known as Korea’s “Righteous Army”, which were bands of nationalistic guerrilla fighters intent on defending Korea. Samyeong-daesa’s warrior monks were heavily respected part of the “Righteous Army” by the Japanese. In fact so respected was Samyeong-daesa that he was allowed to enter the Japanese Seosaengpo Fortress near Ulsan four times, where he asked for the holy relic back. He was unfortunately denied the holy relic each time.

A picture of the shaman mountain god San-shin, in a shrine dedicated to Samyeong-daesa.

By 1598 due to the Ming Army, the Korean resistance, and the heroic naval exploits of Korean Admiral Yi Sun-shin combined with the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Japanese forces finally withdrew from Korea. However, Samyeong-daesa still didn’t have his holy relic to enshrine back in his beloved Geonbongsa Temple.

In 1604 Samyeong-daesa left Korea as an envoy of the Korean government to go to Japan. In Japan Samyeong-daesa was allowed to meet with the ruling Japanese Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu who had consolidated power in Japan after Hideyoshi’s death. Tokugawa no doubt held respect for Samyeong-daesa since he was a proven leader and warrior for the Korean resistance during the occupation of Korea. In a display of this respect Tokugawa gave Samyeong-daesa 3,500 Korean prisoners and his holy relic back to return to Geonbongsa, which he did in 1605.

One of the few remaining artifacts from the original temple.

To this day the holy relic is still enshrined in Geonbongsa Temple even after the temple was destroyed again during the Korean War. The temple has been rebuilt since the war, but it still has not reached it’s past grandeuar as one of the Top 4 temples in Korea. The echos of it’s past glory is still evident by the number of stone foundations that surround the present day compound.

The temple is surrounded by old foundations and is ringed by the foot hills of Kumgang mountain.

The temple has an elaborate museum near the entrance that shows many artifacts from the temple’s history and also has a number of video displays highlighting Samyeong-daesa’s warrior monks courageous actions against the Japanese.

Elaborate museum honoring the warrior monk Samyeong-daesa

The temple is still under construction as it continues to expand in hopes of recreating it’s past glory. However, visitors looking for something off the beaten path with small crowds will be well served by visiting this little known but historically significant temple in Korea.

Note: This is part two of a two part series. Part one can be read here.

The tour of Changdeokgung Palace had so far covered the entrance gate, the royal throne room, the King’s office, the royal living quarters, and the King’s garage.

View looking towards the royal throne from near the King’s garage.

From the King’s garage the tour group then moved towards the Nakseonjae area of the palace:

The Nakseonjae area of the palace is easily identifiable because of its brown and white coloring:

This coloring is used because these buildings are not considered royal buildings. Only the buildings designated for royalty are painted with bright and vibrant colors. Nakseonjae was built by King Heonjong in 1847 for his concubine Kim Gyeongbin. It stands to reason that King Heonjong must not have been to infatuated with his wife considering he had this entire complex built for a concubine. Even the name Nakseonjae tends to indicate that the King preferred his concubine more than his wife because Nakseonjae literally means the “Mansion of Joy and Goodness”. This probably did not go over to well with his wife which might explain why the King died at age 22 only two years later in 1849.

Nakseonjae had been closed off to the public for decades because it had been used as the residence for the last remaining Korean princesses until 1989 when Princess Deokhye, the youngest daughter of King Gojang, the 26th king of the Joseon Dynasty passed away in 1989. Even after her death Nakseonjae didn’t open to the public until 2006:

I found the colors and design of Nakseonjae to be even better than the royal buildings which in my opinion are too lavish compared to the more naturally eye pleasing colors of Nakseonjae. The inside of the building is all in traditional Korean design:

After visiting Nakseonjae I can understand why the last remaining Korean princess chose to live there until he final days. It is a beautiful home fit for a princess.

From Nakseonjae the tour then moved on to the Biwon or Secret Garden area of the palace. The Secret Garden is where Chosun Dynasty Royalty came to relax, study, and write poems. The most notable feature of the garden is the beautiful lotus pond surrounded with little pavilions and a rock island in the middle of it:

The rock island is supposed to be symbolic of a Taoist hermit. It was easy to imagine a Chosun King sitting on this pavilion overlooking the pond writing poetry:

On the far side of the pond is the Juhamnu royal library:

Juhamnu literally means to “Gather the Universe” and that is what the library tried to do on the first floor by gathering tens of thousands of books and manuscripts. The second floor of the library served as a reading room.

On another side of the lotus pond is a building known as Yeonghwadang:

The Korean government operated a examination system known as Gwageojedo in Korean that determined if people were qualified or not to hold various government offices. The exam was open to the Yangban class too take and required years diligent study to pass. Yeonghwadang is where the government officials sat to administer the test, known as a Jeonsi, to those seeking to pass it. This historic precedent for the importance of education helps explains the drive by Korean parents to this day to ensure their children are properly educated.

From the lotus pond the tour continued to follow a path deeper into the Secret Garden. Along the path was a number of these beautifully colored trees:

Even though it was summer time the trees still had this fantastic colors. These trees leaves remain this color all year long until it sheds its leaves in the winter. Along the trail I also noticed some other random buildings. These buildings housed people that worked in the palace and thus were only allowed to have their houses painted in peasant colors:

The trail continued and we eventually passed underneath a gate that legend claims gives those who pass it everlasting life:

However, the tour guide said it does not work very well because the average age of a Korean King at the time of his death was 38 years old. Pass the gate was more of the brightly colored trees:

The brightly colored trees surrounded another little lotus pond known as Aeryeonji:

Once again it was easy to imagine a Chosun King sitting on this pavilion drinking tea and writing poetry. The path continued pass the lotus pond and into the thickly forested area of the Secret Garden:

Some of the trees in the Secret Garden are hundreds of years old. For example this Chinese juniper is 750 years old:

The tree was planted because Chinese juniper wood was used as incense for royal ancestral rituals. The tour ends shortly after passing the Chinese juniper tree. Overall, I highly recommend a visit the palace, but make sure you budget enough time because the tour takes about 2.5 hours and some of the people in the tour group were quite surprised by its length. Also there is a lot of walking which also took its toll on some people in the group that were older or out of shape. Despite this the palace is still a worthy day trip in Seoul in order to learn little bit about Korean history and architecture plus having a chance to get some fresh air in the heavily forested Secret Garden, which is not something that easy to do in downtown Seoul.

Seoul has a handful of palace complexes that are all a bit different, have played an important part in Korean history, and are definitely worth checking out. However, out of all the palaces in Seoul only one of them, Changdeok Palace has been designated a World Heritage Area by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The palace is located in northern Seoul across the street from a fellow UNESCO site the Jongmyo Shrine and to the east of Kyeongbok Palace.  Changdeok Palace literally means “Palace of Prospering Virtue” and is easily recognizable when viewed from overhead because it is an island of green in the dense urban jungle of Seoul because of the thick foliage of trees that surrounds the palace.

In fact the green foliage and natural setting of Changdeok Palace played a major role in the justification UNESCO cited for including the palace as a World Heritage Area:

The Committee decided to inscribe this property on the basis of criteria (ii), (iii) and (iv), considering that the Ch’angdokkung Palace Compound is an outstanding example of Far Eastern palace architecture and garden design, exceptional for the way in which the buildings are integrated into and harmonized with the natural setting, adapting to the topography and retaining indigenous tree cover.

Besides the natural setting of the palace, UNESCO also cited the outstanding palace architecture as part of the reasoning for naming the palace a World Heritage Area. From the moment you arrive at the front gate of the palace it is easy to see why this is true:

The front gate of the palace is known as Tonhwamun and was first constructed in 1412, seven years after the main complex was constructed in 1405. The gate stood until it was destroyed during the Hideyoshi invasion of Korea in 1592. After the war it was rebuilt in 1607 and some how it has survived all the other subsequent wars on the Korean peninsula to become the oldest two story wooden gate in the entire country.

It is here at Tonhwamun that I bought my ticket for 3000 won to enter the palace. However, unlike other palaces in Seoul, this palace can only be entered as part of a guided tour in order to protect the historical and cultural treasures within the complex. There are tours every hour, but the only English language tours begin at 11:30, 13:30, & 15:30. I toured Changdeok Palace six years ago and found the then English language tour to be quite poor. I was pleasantly surprised this time around because the tour guide was actually quite good, though a bit robotic. A problem with the English language tours is that the limited number of them means the tour groups are quite large. This makes taking pictures and listening to the guide a bit difficult because of the sheer number of people you are surrounded by.

Once the tour began, the first historical structure that was presented was the Geumcheongyo Bridge, which was built in 1411 and is the oldest bridge still used in Seoul:

On the other side of the bridge is the gate that leads to the throne hall of the Korean King:

Changdeok Palace was built in 1405 as a secondary palace for the Korean Chosun Dynasty King with Kyeongbok Palace serving as the primary palace for the Korean royalty. During the Hideyoshi invasion of Korea, Kyeongbok Palace was destroyed and after the war it was not rebuilt and Changdeok Palace became the primary residence of the royal family.

The Chosun Dynasty King’s throne was located in Injeongjeon Hall:

The structure was originally constructed like most of the buildings in the palace in 1405, but was destroyed during the Hideyoshi invasion and rebuilt in 1607. The structure had to once again be reconstructed when it was destroyed by fire in 1803. The throne was rebuilt a year later and the current structure is now over 200 years old.

From this building the King was able to review his troops and governmental officials. The small stone tabulets on the ground are not gravestones, but markers that designated where the different governmental and military officials stood during reviews by the king.

Inside Injeongjeon Hall sits the Korean throne that had served as the seat of power for the Korean King for nearly 300 years:

The throne room is decorated with lavish artwork. The painting behind the throne represents the sun, the moon, and the five sacred mountains of Korea. The room is really incredible to look at with its highly detailed artwork and extragavant chandaliers. As impressive as this room is, the King actually did not use it all that often. Towards the back of this building the King had a smaller throne room the Seonjeongjeon that the King used to hold meetings with his ministers.

Outside of the building the roof is decorated with small and decorative statues of animals that represent an old Asian tale about a monkey king:

The buildings in the palace is filled with bright and colorful artwork. Here is how many of the corners of the roofs are decorated:

The sides of the roofs were painted in these patterns:

Even on lesser structures you could find beautiful, detailed artwork:

Even the doors are beautifully painted:

If you like bright and colorful artwork, Korean royal palaces are definitely the place to see it.

Adjacent to the buildings housing the King’s throne and meeting room is the buildings that housed the royal living quarters and office:

Huijeongdang is the building that served as the royal office. Huijeongdang has some impressive artwork on the sides of the roof:

What is interesting about the King’s office is the combination of eastern and western furnishings:

You can see the combination of western and eastern design in the construction of the building as well:

Huijeongdang was not only the King’s office but was also his living quarters. The queens living quarters, Daejojeon is located behind Huijeongdang:

The furnishings of the Queen’s residence were more traditionally Korean:

However, the royal bed is a mix of western and eastern origins:

The royal kitchen also had plenty of western influence as well:

The heating system though for the palace is purely the Korean ondol system. The ondol system is when hot coals are burned underneath the buildings in order to heat the floors. The smoke from this system is piped out of the building and channeled to these large decorative chimneys behind the buildings:

The ondol system is largely responsible for the Korean habbit of sitting and sleeping on floors.

Across from these royal buildings is the royal garage:

The royal family has had a number of cars that were housed in this garage and are beautifully preserved for people to see to this day.

These first two areas of the palace took about an hour to cover before the tour moved on to the last two portions of the palace Nakseonjae and the Secret Garden.

Next Posting: Nakseonjae and the Secret Garden

Seoul is a city that is literally surrounded by mountains that provide many great outdoor opportunities for those who want to escape the hustle and bustle of modern, urbanized Korea. The most popular destination for Seoulites looking to get away from the city and reconnect with nature for a little while is a day trip to Bukhansan (Pukhansan) National Park that towers over the northwestern landscape of Seoul. So many people visit this park that it is actually the most popular national park in all of Korea. On some days its popularity with the locals leaves you wondering if you have actually left the city or not when you are surrounded with visor wearing ajummas and ajushis dressed as if they are about to undertake a Himalayan expedition.

(more…)

Here is something I saw on the streets of Seoul the other day:

This name brand might be successful in San Francisco.

 

My wife and I were walking through Jogno earlier this week and decided to have lunch at Mr. Pizza.  I have seen the Mr. Pizzas around Seoul before, but I have never ate there before because I figured it was probably just the usual Korean style pizza with corn and other wierdness on it, with cheese that tastes like cardboard, and loaded with tobasco sauce.  I ended up being quite surprised.  Mr. Pizza is actually a pretty darn good pizza: 

The pizza had cheese that actually tasted like cheese and the toppings were of the more typical variety, though the corn still remained.  The pizza was not spicy at all and to satisfy Korean tastes every table had a bottle of tobasco sauce if needed.  What I also liked was that the pizza came with the garlic butter dipping sauce which was quite good.  Plus for a pizza that feeds two people with two refillable cokes we paid only 12,000 won which is quite good. 

Needless to say both the wife and I were quite impressed and will definitely stop by again for some more pizza before leave.  Definitely the best pizza in Korea that I have tried. 

I arrived in Korea earlier this week and as usual things ran smoothly at Incheon International Airport.  My wife and I made it through customs in no time and then we proceeded to try out the new subway train.  As we walked over to the area of the airport where the train runs from, the airport became suspiciously empty:

The new train terminal at the airport is quite nice and even had staff there that helped us load our bags on the train.  As we got on the train we noticed we were the only people on the entire train:

The airport must have lost some serious money running an entire train with just 2 people on it.  The train ride was quite smooth though and the chairs were comfortable.  It was nice to sit back and watch the country scenery as the train headed towards Seoul:

Then the train crossed over from Yeongjongdo Island where the airport is located and over Incheon’s famous tidal flats:

Can you just imagine what would have happened if the timing of General MacArthur’s fleet that invaded Incheon during the Korean War was off?  It would have been a slaughter with MacArthur’s boats all stuck in the mud.  Once on the otherside of the bridge the scenery quickly changed from rural Korea to industrial Korea just like that:

The train from the airport only goes as far as Gimpo Airport and takes just less than 30 minutes.  From Gimpo we had to transfer to the subway to get to Gwanghamun Station to meet our ride that was picking us up there.  Bringing our luggage on to the subway was definitely not a pleasant experience.  Carrying our luggage up the subway steps was additionally not pleasant either.  On the way back to the airport we are definitely taking the limousine bus. 

For soldiers stationed on Camp Stanley in Uijongbu, Suraksan is the mountain they see towering over their camp every day and that is about it.  However, this mountain is actually more than just something to look at while walking around on post.  The mountain also offers a wealth of hiking opportunities as well as a destination to escape the summer time heat by lounging in the mountain streams and waterfalls flowing down the mountain literally right outside the Camp Stanley gates that few people stationed on the camp even know about.

Reaching the stream is an easy walk up a beautifully forested hillside on a well maintained trail:

The trail leads directly to the stream and it is up to you how far up the mountain you want to go to find the right spot to chill out at.  There are a few rock pools to wade in as well as some slow moving streams:

Along with some fast moving streams:

Some of these streams if the conditions are right can actually serve as a natural waterslide that I have tried out on a few occassions:

If lounging in the water all day and drinking a few beverages of your choice is not your thing, you could always hike further up the mountain to get views overlooking Camp Stanley by using the extensive trail network on the mountain:

You can even go for the summit of the mountain if you are so inclined:

If you do hike further up the mountain make sure you bring plenty of water and some good hiking shoes with you because it is a pretty steep climb.  Additionally bring a jacket because weather can often be unpredictable at higher altitudes. 

No matter what you choose to do on the mountain please don’t do what some other soldiers have done and write grafitti on the mountain:

This grafitti remains long after you are gone and other people are stuck having to look at it.  Additionally pick up any trash you leave when on the mountain.  I have had to pick up beer cans and other items before that I know soldiers probably left due to them being American beer brands that are bought from on post.  I know many Korean picnickers pollute the mountain as well, but soldiers shouldn’t take that same attitude as well.  Have a good time on the mountain, but leave it better than you found it. 

To reach the trail to the stream, exit Camp Stanley at the Stanleyville gate and immediately take a right and follow the camp’s fenceline.  The trail you will come across will take you to the creek and further up the mountain.  I have highlighted on the above map about how far up the mountain the creek goes.  It is up to you how high up the mountain you want to go.  Additionally you can see the various trails on the mountain.  If you want to go further up the mountain or even reach the summit from Camp Stanley, stick to these trails.  Trying to reach the summit of this mountain by breaking bush is extremely dangerous due to the steepness of the mountain.  I recommend hiking up one of the trails and then taking the trail to the north and towards Uijongbu.  It is beautiful walk and you can easily grab the bus back to the camp.

For more information you can read my prior posting on Surak Mountain here, as well as viewing additional pictures of the mountain in my Flickr photo album here.