Hwaseong Fortress

Last weekend we went to Suwon to see Korea's most celebrated fortress, Hwaseong. It was a three hour train ride from Daegu on the slow train—there was no KTX route available. When we got there, we were surprised to see a pretty large city. There was a model of the fortress in the train station. It's really a long wall that encircles the center of the city. It was King Jeonjo's construction; he planned to move the capital from Seoul to Suwon following the Japanese invasion of Korea (I suppose I should say a Japanese invasion of Korea; there were several throughout history). As you can see, Jeonjo's plans were never brought to fruition. Nonetheless, there is an impressive structure at Suwon that attracts plenty of tourists, though it is mainly reconstructed after being demolished during the Korean War.

We started out at Hwaseong Haengung, which was the palace. It looked very similar to all of the other palaces we have seen, and we breezed through until we came to the tableaux. Several rooms were set up to look like they had during the Jeoson Dynasty, complete with mannequins going through the motions of daily life. This was a nice touch, bringing the history to life. We also saw an interactive display of rice chests. King Jeonjo's grandfather knew his son Sado was crazy and unfit to rule, so he locked the guy in a rice chest for days, where he died. Along with this story, there were rice chests lining the walls, and visitors were encouraged to get into the rice chests to experience Sado's fear. We passed.

The wall was up a mountain, to Bobby's chagrin. We walked along the wall and saw various guard posts, a pavilion, and a giant bell that you could ring for 1,000 won. Korean men lined up to ring the bell.

When we bought our tickets back home, there was a KTX route.  Go figure!

The wooden rice chest experience

can't remember...possibly an official studying?

a eunuch

a maid

Bobby's favorite weapon: the Hwa-cha.  Put a bunch of rockets in the holes, aim, fire!

neat looking lampposts

a supply gate in the wall

the giant bell

me at the overlook

the pavilion on the overlook

a lower part of the wall.  It was Sunday, so there were tons of Koreans strolling around.

the South Gate