Walking the Fortress Wall

It's not everyday that one has the opportunity to play tourist in their own city, but lately I've been inspired to see more than just the back gate through Yonsei University and Yonhi-ro where I walk with purpose the same route to the grocery store.  A few weeks ago I got lost (with a tour group) in the back alleys of Seochon and rather enjoyed myself.  Upon seeing my photos, Gigi decided she wanted to get out more too and so I convinced her to join me on last weekend's walk along the Eastern part of Seoul's fortress wall.  I should note that until I saw this tour on the Royal Asiatic Society website, I was unaware that a fortress wall existed in Seoul.  Greg was supposed to go with us but decided he had too much work to do, so Gigi recruited Holly and her new friend Collin to go along in his place.  Too bad for Greg that it was an absolutely glorious day--the sun was shining, the pollution was minimal, and the leaves were just starting to change colors.  All in all, it was the perfect day to shirk one's school responsibilities and go for a stroll along an ancient wall.

We took the subway to Hansung University Station (a new stop for me) and met Dr. Robert Fouser, our guide for the day and the same leader from my previous tour.  Holly and Collin showed up in the nick of time and with the group assembled we walked about 100 meters from the subway stop to meet the staircase to the wall!  Across the street sat a small Korean gate where the wall had once joined.  Up we climbed and thus began our 3 or 4 kilometer trek as we...followed the fortress wall!  The wall itself has been rebuilt in many places with varying success at recreating the original building style.  In some places the original stones have been used along with ancient building techniques so you get a good idea of what the ancient fortress wall looked like.  In other places, the wall looks like a modern building project.  "Restoration" in Korea is not really the same as we might think of it in America if you were to say, "restore" a historic building to its former glory using period materials and techniques.  Needless to say, the fortress wall in Seoul is not as imposing as the Great Wall of China (I'll post a picture below for comparison), but it was a great afternoon out with friends and we did get to explore some fun new neighborhoods along the way.  We ended up popping out right at Dongdaemun gate and in ancient times the fortress wall would have connected the North, South, East and West gates of Seoul thereby providing a barrier of protection around the city.  In many places the wall has been consumed by housing or is gone all together but you can eventually pick it up again if you look hard enough.  There was quite a lot more historical discussion going on from our guide, but I was too busy snapping photos, chatting with my friends, and getting left behind because of the two aforementioned activities.  Below you'll find a collection of photos (some edited, some not) from the four hour tour with a bit of commentary here and there.  

Small gate at the start of the tour

Ahh, so this is where my recycling goes?!

The ascent...

Can you read the writing on the wall?  I sure have no idea what it says!

Fall flowers!

Oh how I wish...

The fall colors just beginning to show!

I LOVE autumn in Korea!

These leaves make my heart happy and remind me of the beautiful leaves in Spokane.

Gigi and I clowning around:)

The caption on the photo says it all! 

Here I am on the Great Wall of China in 2011...just for comparison's sake

Wall graffiti down a little alley way-so cute!

Will I ever be one with Seoul?

The cutest little guy!  He kept waving "hello" to us!

Let's play a game--name that flower/weed!

The rooftops of the neighborhood we walked through while following the wall--one of the poorer ones in the city.

The wall, plus fall leaves, plus Namsan Tower!

Me attempting to be artsy with my camera.

City shot!

Gigi, sitting pretty!

Cool wall in another neat neighborhood!  What should I add to the wall?

Following the wall led us to one of the four major city gates--Dongdaemun.

As the sun started to go down, our walk came to an end.

Next weekend I'm off to the mountains for a real show of the fall colors and then I have an entire week of photography fun with 27 students for Discovery Week in Seoul so there should be many more autumn images to come!  Happy Fall everyone!  

The Old Alleyways of Seochon

The seasons have finally changed in Seoul and the heat and humidity that haunt the summer days has been replaced with the moderate temperatures of autumn.  The leaves are just beginning to change on some of the trees and I realized the other day that it has quite literally been months since I've really been off the hill and out in the city.  I'm not certain I've even ridden the subway since I've been back to Seoul this year.  So, in an attempt to get out of my apartment and into the city I signed myself up for a couple of walking tours in various parts of Seoul--some that I've never set foot in even after three years of living here.  In my defense, this is a massive city, but now that I'm considering a change of venue in the near future I've got to start taking advantage of all there is to see and do here in my current home.  

Today's walking tour had us meandering through the old alleyways of Seochon, an area not far from Gyeongbokgung Palace.  In fact, I took the subway to the Gyeongbokgung stop which was just one station passed where I usually get off for one of my favorite shopping and cultural areas called Insadong.  When I first emerged from underground all I saw were buildings--nothing cultural in sight and so I wondered, "what the heck is actually worth seeing here?"  Enter Dr. Fouser who lives in this area and has obviously spent a great deal of time getting lost and found in these old alleyways.  This area was heavily affected during the Japanese occupation so we first learned about and identified many of the Japanese style houses, which have a different architectural style than traditional Korean houses called hanok.  We then went on the search for hanok--some in their original state from the early 1900's, some completely rebuilt, some mildly renovated.  Essentially, the majority of our tour was spent seeing the different hanoks and how they have been restored or, in many cases, repurposed as galleries, shops, or restaurants.  We also learned about how these hanok are different from those in the Bukchon hanok area where the preservation rules are much more stringent.  I'm looking forward to seeing those hanok soon and perhaps even staying overnight at a hanok in the future.  During the three hour walking tour so many facts drifted through my head that I can't even begin to recall all of them as I was also interested in capturing photos as I walked.  Here is a collection of images from today's walk...

Mt. Inwangsan beckons from behind the buildings

The first signs of autumn leaves changing!

For Daniel--a random guitar hanging out on a wall.

The site of what was once a minor palace.

Narrow alleyways that reminded me of the hutongs in Beijing.

Cool brick patterns.

This way!

The renovated roofs of hanoks now have gutters to help with water problems!

Intricate door fixtures were a lovely sight.

A hanok homestay...hmmm!

Lovely tile!

Roller skaters filming a commercial (I think!)

A snazzy, renovated hanok redone in the Bukchon style.

More door fixtures.

Rusty wall art!

Kimchi pots!!

And now from a crazy angle!

Practicing using my camera's focus points and playing with depth of field.

My next walking tour is on October 20th and will be about the fortress wall in Seoul.  I imagine it will be pretty cool and I hope to be able to take more photos then!  As I waited for the photos to upload and thought back on what I heard and saw today, I thought about what it must have been like to live here during the Japanese occupation--to have your culture stripped away as the Japanese attempted to make Korea a part of the country of Japan.  Having traveled to Japan twice, there are marked differences in the two cultures and I assume it could not have been easy to simply assimilate as the national treasures of Korea were systematically destroyed in a ploy to psychologically damage the people.  Somehow, the Korean people were able to bring back the building of Korean style houses in these neighborhoods during that time and these hanok have managed to survive thanks to people about my parents' age who have the time, money, and desire to see these homes preserved and lived in.  Living in Yonhi-dong and backing vibrant Sinchon is great, but there is no true Korean character here.  If you travel to Tokyo you feel sort of the same thing.  All you see are gray and tan buildings, mirrored high rises, and apartment buildings so today's walk was a refreshing break from the neon lights, fast food joints, movie theaters, coffee shops, and chaos that I am used to.  I enjoyed the quiet alleyways free of cars and full of culture and history--I'm ready for a bit more of that!

An eye-popping day in science class...

Much of what I write about on my blog pertains to my travels or venturing out and about in the city of Seoul, but every now and then I take my camera into the classroom and as I was going through my memory card I came across a few photos from one of my lessons last week.  In my IGCSE Coordinated Sciences Year 2 class we are studying coordination and response, which involves sensory organs like the eye and how it responds to stimuli.  I decided since the students need to learn the parts of the eye and their function that it would be meaningful to do a dissection (I really don't love dissection because it's smelly and icky, so you know it was meaningful).  So, enter our dissection specimens--the lovely bovine eyeball.  Yes, that's right friends, last Thursday my students sliced and diced a cow eye.  I did the same dissection when I was a student and it was pretty darn cool and, for the most part, my students thought dissecting the eye was the bees knees.  I did have a couple of kids who decided to be observers only and since I'm not really that keen on cutting myself, I completely understand.  Plus, I think you can still learn by observation so all is well.  Here are a few photos from dissection day!

Getting their dissection instructions...ready to cut, cut, cut!

It's harder than we thought to cut through the eyeball!

Engrossed in dissection!

Ewww!!!  Eyeball juice!  Actually, that's the aqueous humor.

Looking a tad bit grossed out in the background...

Look!  The lens just came out!

Getting inside that eyeball!

Peering through the lens!

More lens fun!  Too bad we can't look straight through it!

The inside of a cow's eye is pretty cool!

Thankfully everyone made it through the dissection without losing their breakfast, although I'm sure we had a few close calls when two of the eyeballs actually burst as the students tried to cut through the cornea.  Simultaneously I heard screams come from two of the groups and saw the kids trying to dodge the stream of aqueous humor that came spurting out of the eyeball and into the air like a fountain.  Good thing we were all wearing our goggles and aprons;).  I think this may be one of the science rights of passage for the year and what fun it was!