Around Korea By Bus In Two Weeks, Part 2

Here's the second part of my itinerary for my 2005 solo visit to Korea. For more information on buses, click here.

29 Oct – Saturday
Joined the free Suncheon City Tour by bus. Just ask at the Tourist Information booth just outside the train station. ( NOTE: Outside, not inside the train station!)

Beautiful sunny day in Nagan-eupseong Folk Village; a patch of eulalia and a stunning maple tree in the Dolmen Park were distractions from the main attractions i.e. prehistoric burial grounds.

The size of Songgwangsa was as impressive as the variety of autumnal colours on the temple grounds.With the bird flu scare, it was reassuring to see that precautions were even taken outdoors at Suncheon Bay.

30 Oct – Sunday
Got greedy and signed up for another tour on the Suncheon City Tour bus as I didn't want to pass up the chance to see Seonamsa.

31 Oct – Monday
Took bus near my yeogwan to Gurye and then changed for a local bus to Piagol Valley. A great walk would've been greater if I had the presence of mind to wear the right shoes. The result: I missed the chance to see the famous blood-red maples of Piagol.

The disappointment was off-set by the entertaining company of three kind gentlemen of Gurye. Their leader gave me a ride to Hwaomsa and showed me where I could find a place to stay outside this major temple in Jirisan National Park. Beautiful sunset.

1 Nov – Tuesday
Revisited Hwaom-sa in the early morning and saw the monks sweeping the lane leading up to the temple. An ancient pine tree, stone sculptures and stone lantern created the deepest impressions.

Around mid-day, I boarded a bus from the bus stop near my minbak to head for Gwangju. Changed to bus No 311 for Damyang. Enjoyed an unexpected tour of Damyang, courtesy of the local police!

Dolmens Leave Me Stone Cold - Suncheon, Part 5

Wish I had paid more attention to my history teacher as our Suncheon City Tour bus rolls into the Dolmen Park. So I have to rely on some notes from the Korean Cultural Insights booklet produced by the KNTO. Brace yourself for History 101:

“Dolmens are primitive megalithic remnants built as burial chambers and funerary monuments…..Korea preserves about 30,000 dolmens nationwide, in varying sizes and shapes. Dolmens….serve as clues to the social system and beliefs of early dwellers. With such historic value, the dolmen sites in Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa were registered on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list on December 2000.”

Paleolithic or Stone Age exhibits here including tombs and dolmens were moved from their original site so that they wouldn’t be submerged with the construction of the Juam Dam. The inventory includes: 140 dolmens in nine clusters, 6 prehistoric dwelling pits, an outdoor exhibition area with replicas of dolmens and a small museum with smaller relics such as the jar coffin in the photo above.

Next to fossilied dinosaur footprints which you can see elsewhere in Korea,  this place bears witness to the loooooong history of Korea but you’d have to be really passionate about arrowheads and menhirs etc.Sorry if I sound like a philistine and don’t have enough imagination to to appreciate the exhibits here but I’m more interested in gawking at a small patch of eulalia ( see below) and the bright red of the few maple trees on the grounds.

Sources:
http://asiaenglish.visitkorea.or.kr/ena/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=815462
http://www.dolmenpark.com/main/english/dolmen_park/dolmen_park.htm