Where Digging for Drains Can Lead To A King's Tomb, Gongju Part 4

First stop on the city bus day tour of Gongju’s past - the Songsan-ri Tombs. While digging for some drains some years back, construction workers found by chance King Muryeong’s tomb. This amazing find led to the unearthing of other tumuli: smooth-shaped baby hillocks where the royalty of the ancient kingdom of Baekje are buried. When I first saw tumuli in Gyeongju, my irreverant thought was how it would feel to toboggan down the short snowy slopes in winter.

Thanks to my tour guide and the explanatory book, I learn more about tumulis in one hour than I ever did before. Slowly I begin to appreciate the contrasting styles of different tombs. Some entrances are narrow while others are more straight-forward.

Some bricks and tiles are arranged following some cosmological beliefs ( 10- 8- 6- 4-2-1 layers in one tomb, for example). The types of building materials reflect how rich and culturally advanced the period was.

Next, the admission charge to the Gongju National Museum is generously priced at an unbelievable 400 won ( even half a cup of coffee from a vending machine would set you back 500 won)! Here , the museum houses the real deals – the copies of the gold crown ornaments seen earlier at the Songsan-ri Tombs are based on the originals which are displayed proudly here under glass and maximum security.

Photo: Gold ornament for royal head

Click here for the 2010 Great Baekje World Festival 

sources:
https://www.gongju.go.kr/html/en/culture/culture_01_02.html
http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=268122
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=264322

Gongju City Tour, Gongju Part 3

Console myself that if I’m too late to enjoy its festivals, at least I can still join the City Tour which is a bit of a misnomer because:
1) Gongju is not a city; instead it’s a provincial town, and
2) the tour goes out to neighbouring attractions also.

This free 7-hour tour, operating between April and October on Sundays, is the best way to explore the town and its environs while interacting with Koreans

Photo: Anyone lose a bike at the Ceramic Art Village?

Indeed, I should count my lucky stars as I’m allowed to board this already crowded bus without any prior reservation. The kind ladies at the Tourism Information Booth take pity on me and I guess it helps that I’m at the pickup point way before the departure time of 10 am. Soon the coach is packed with Korean families and one sole foreigner, looking forward to an interesting day.
The tour guide announces to everyone through the bus PA that I speak English and during the day, I’m surrounded by children who want to practise their conversational skills. It’s great to see the young ones so enthusiastic and not as shy as their parents who beam with pride whenever they overhear their offspring string sentences in English to try them out on me.

Almost all the children have English names and when I ask them what they want to be in the future, the replies from Olivia, Clara, Angela and Ken are: a violinist, a fashion designer, an actor, an IT programmer ( but not necessarily in that order!)

One toddler, the brother of one of the children, has no Western name as he’s not enrolled in a hagwon for English as yet. Photo: Children following ceramic master's instructions closelyAm a little disappointed to learn that my tour route for the day doesn’t include the Folk Play Museum, the Park Dong-jin Pansori Instruction Centre, the Imrip Art Museum nor the Chungnam Forests Museum. However, we do visit the Gyeryeongsan Ceramic Art Village which produces Buncheong porcelain, the Natural History Museum, the Gongju National Museum and the Tomb of Muryeong-wang, the 25th ruler of the Baekje kingdom. More on each later.

Photo: At the Gyeryeongsan Natural History Museum














sources:
http://sjnmuseum.go.kr/english/tourguide/tourguide_01.html
http://gongju.museum.go.kr/html/en/media/media_04.jsp#