Ssangyesa in Hadong - In Search of Peace and Bulil Pokpo

Don’t believe the travel brochures that claim you can enjoy a quiet walk along the Cherry Blossom Road in Hadong-gun. See previous posting.  Perhaps it’s only true if you were to take a walk late at night or very early in the morning when the springtime busloads of tourists are busy in the noraebang ( karaoke) or still asleep.

At other times of the day, you have to tune out the incessant honking of impatient drivers and the loud music blaring from street peddlers’ sound systems or the neighbouring norae-bang. You also have to jostle with hundreds of other pedestrians or side-step every now and then to avoid enthusiastic mothers with children posing for the cameras.

One way to escape from the noise is to drop by the nearby tea cultural centre, Cha- Mun-hwa Centre, an oasis of calm and tranquility. It's near the original site for the cultivation of green tea in the country. The exhibits lack explanations in English and the processing of tea leaves isn’t very exciting visually. Still, there's a variety of teapots and teacups on sale to admire.

Who knows? You may be even be offered a complimentary cup of green tea by the friendly sales staff. Consider it a bonus if the tea master is around to demonstrate for you the fine art of making tea, Korean-style.

 Who could resist adding a camellia to the others placed on the signpost?

Another way to avoid the crowds is to follow the trail behind Ssanggyesa ( 쌍계사 )  to the Bulil Waterfalls. ( 불일폭포)  It does mean also getting away from the cherry trees but then one can have a surfeit of blossoms. Then again, the walk is reward in itself because it's in one corner of the immense and impressive Jirisan National Park, the first to be established in South Korea

The 2.3 km walk isn’t too demanding, by my humble standards. Alas, autumn isn’t the best time to go hunting down waterfalls as it’s the dry season and the impressive torrents of summer shrivel up to a dull trickle. True enough, when I finally caught sight of the  the 63-m high and 3-m wide pokpo, it did  not seem to be at its best though one person at least has claimed that "the amount of water is constant throughout the year".

When it freezes up in winter, ice ridge climbers like to practise on these falls, located between Cheonghak Peak and Baekhak Peak, about 2 km east of Ssanggye-sa.

Here's the legend of Bulil Falls from the KBS World website:

"When the dragon that used to live in the pond under this falls swished its tail when it was flying up to heaven, Cheonghakbong and Baekhakbong were created and the mountain stream began to fall between the two peaks, forming a dynamic waterfall."
However, there’s a spectacular view from a tiny hermitage  near Bulil Falls to be enjoyed if you venture beyond the temple grounds. Check out the photos of "Bullil-am" ( 불일암 ) which means "Budhha Sun Hermitage", especially the pic of  the "antique wooden well" on this website. There's also a campsite nearby for those who want a little time-out in this corner of Jirisan; for more information, click here.

 Who knows how long it took this ancient pine to reach this height?

sources:

http://www.san-shin.net/Jiri-Ssanggye-Bulilam.html
http://english.knps.or.kr/Experience/Campsites/Default.aspx
http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=827231&nearBy=site
http://www.lifeinkorea.com/Travel2/231
http://www.lifeinkorea.com/images/skyongsang/Buil001.jpg
http://san-shin.net/Jiri-Ssanggye-04.html
http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/culturenlife/culturenlife_tour_detail.htm?No=1252
http://londonkoreanlinks.net/2010/06/23/2010-travel-diary-19-hadong-the-home-of-korean-green-tea/
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=733147