Totally forgot to post this about our trip to Hwaseong Fortress about a month ago!!
On Saturday, we FINALLY got around to doing some more exploring!! We decided to go to Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, which is about a 30 minute train ride away. I'd read about Hwaseong online and recently saw someone post about going on the Osan Facebook page, so I decided we really needed to go!Hwaseong, a giant wall built around Suwon, was built in the late 1700s. It was built to house and honor the remains of Prince Sado, who was the father of the King at the time. Prince Sado had been murdered by his father by being locked inside a rice chest called a Duiju. Apparently, Prince Sado's father had commanded him to commit suicide, and he chose to disobey, so his father murdered him! Crazy stuff. There were actually a bunch of these Duijus inside the fortress. I'll show pictures, but it's crazy that someone could get locked inside! They're pretty small.
We got to tour the palace inside the wall, and see where the King stayed when he came to visit Suwon. We actually didn't see much of the wall, except for one of the gates, because I was dumb and wore sandals and we didn't realize how much hiking was involved in seeing the wall. We got to see a lot of awesome things inside the palace though! AND we will definitely be returning to Hwaseong Fortress when it gets a little cooler (and we will wear gym shoes!) so we can hike up the mountain and walk along the wall. It is 5.7 km, so we will definitely be trying to avoid the lovely high 80s, 90% humidity weather that Korea likes to provide.
So, I will post pictures of our day and explain each one as I go! ENJOY!! :)
On Saturday, we FINALLY got around to doing some more exploring!! We decided to go to Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, which is about a 30 minute train ride away. I'd read about Hwaseong online and recently saw someone post about going on the Osan Facebook page, so I decided we really needed to go!Hwaseong, a giant wall built around Suwon, was built in the late 1700s. It was built to house and honor the remains of Prince Sado, who was the father of the King at the time. Prince Sado had been murdered by his father by being locked inside a rice chest called a Duiju. Apparently, Prince Sado's father had commanded him to commit suicide, and he chose to disobey, so his father murdered him! Crazy stuff. There were actually a bunch of these Duijus inside the fortress. I'll show pictures, but it's crazy that someone could get locked inside! They're pretty small.
We got to tour the palace inside the wall, and see where the King stayed when he came to visit Suwon. We actually didn't see much of the wall, except for one of the gates, because I was dumb and wore sandals and we didn't realize how much hiking was involved in seeing the wall. We got to see a lot of awesome things inside the palace though! AND we will definitely be returning to Hwaseong Fortress when it gets a little cooler (and we will wear gym shoes!) so we can hike up the mountain and walk along the wall. It is 5.7 km, so we will definitely be trying to avoid the lovely high 80s, 90% humidity weather that Korea likes to provide.
So, I will post pictures of our day and explain each one as I go! ENJOY!! :)
After touring the palace, we decided to explore this part of town. It was SO CUTE! Very quiet, and not a lot going on. If we ignored the Korean signs, it was almost like we were in a super hip town in America. It was such a blast to walk around here. This bike bench was part of a renovation the town had recently done to make the area look nicer.
After we walked around the cute little town and got some Korean snacks, we walked back to the palace to watch a live performance. There was music, traditional dancing, and traditional martial arts!!
I will try to post videos of those later!
I will try to post videos of those later!