Korea Trip 2019 – Day 1
What a wonderful flight on A380! The weather was a bit cloudy though, we felt very thankful that the flight was unbelievably smooth. I could not even distinguish the difference between taxiing and turning as well as the stationary state on parking stand. As a foreigner, I feel that the ICN partly looks like the TPE. Also, I am quite satisfy about the required time for baggage reclaim. It is not only the effort of ground staff, but also the efficiency of local customs officer. Upon you arrive the airport, you can see that there are lot of travel information and leaflets for your reference. Some might agree that most Korean people don’t speak English, but these materials make you feel comfortable at the very beginning.
After collecting our own baggage, we had around 1.5 hours free time. I visited the Starbucks when my relatives were having their breakfast at basement.
At around 0800LCL, we got onboard the coach heading for our first sightseeing spot – Gwangmyeong Cave.
“Wow, it’s cool. I feel that the air conditioning system must be turned on.” I shamefully said.
“No, it is the natural cool air” the tour guide corrected my judgement.
What a shame, I cannot imagine that the cave could be as cool as like that the air conditioning system is running. The temperature outside was at around 23C or so but the air came out from the cave seems to be at 18 C or so – in short, it cool, it makes us feeling comfortable.
From the official information, the leaflet, describes the cave original name as Siheung Mine. Between 1912-1945, the site has already been existing, and the resources is exploited by Imperial Japan. The placard indicates that the miners was suffering under the oppression by Japanese imperialism. Next, in the early 50’s during Korean War, the cave became refuge for people. The display shows that baby were born in the cave as a shelter. From 1955-1972, during the Korean Industrial Era, it had been the largest metal mine in the Capital Area. In 1972, flooding causes leakage of tailings. After that, it once had been used as a Salted-Shrimp Storage until 2010. Recently, the abandoned mining shaft has been repurposed as a cultural tourist site since 2011. The official also describe it as one of the100 best tourist spots of Korea.
After having lunch at cafeteria, I roamed down along the road and noticed that he design of certain buildings and alleys somehow with the Japanese style, most of the Korean don’t give a like to Japanese colonized period though.
In the afternoon, we visited the Deoksugung Palace, which is one of the five palace in Soul. It is not the biggest one, but it is the one feature with the Western architectonics. According to the tour information, the palace was first used by King Seonjo, the 14th king of the Joseon Dynasty. After many years later, involving lot of historical events, the Gojong, the dynasty’s 26th king, moved back to this palace. However, by that time, its name already has been changed as Gyeongungung Palace. Also, the King Gojong proclaimed Joseon’s new status as the Korean Empire. His action was intent to present the Korean Empire to the rest of the world as a self-reliant, independent nation. Therefore, he added many buildings and expanded the palace domain to suit the country’s new imperial status. One more important point should be noticed is that the palace at that time covered the area from Jeongdong to the palace in front of City Hall, and thus was about three times the size of what visitors can see today. Thanks for the contribution of King Gojong, we can see tradition and modernity meet at Gyeongungung Palace. In 1907, when King Gojong was forced to abdicate the throne, the palace was renamed as Deoksungung Palace.
Personally speaking, I feel excited about visiting this palace. The main reason is that I like the name of the Junghwajeon (中和殿). In 中庸, a Chinese literature goes: 中也者，天下之大本也；和也者，天下之達道也。
Outside the palace, we watched a handover parade of guard in front of the gate. Those member of door guarding team were in traditional Korean clothes and holding “counterfeit” knife. Similar to what I saw in Taipei and London, there are a list of “procedure” before they complete the “ceremony”. After the show finished, I went into a cafe to join a friend. When we had just started our conversation, we saw a man, who was wearing shabby clothes. He seemed to be having argue with an other man. Suddenly, the second man gave the first man few punch. Although I only can see the back of the first man through the ceiling to floor glass, I can see that blood of the first man was dropping toward the floor.
At that moment, I thought to give him some tissue) or even to provide first-aid to him. I requested advice from my friend and she reminded me that we were in Korea where is not our home country. What a poor gentleman. The most surprising point is that there was no local citizen giving him a hand. The people outside just a walked through as if they saw nothing. And I was deterred by my identity as a foreigner as well as other factors – I have no personnel protection equipment (gloves) and I am not familiar with Korean culture – what if it is involving gangs. Luckily, when we got onboard our coach leaving the scene, I saw from the window that he was receiving treatment from a team of paramedic in orange uniform. However, it was about 10-15 mins later.
Before we had dinner, we visited the Seoul Botanic Park. Well, I am not a big fan of plants and the temperature inside that greenhouse was quite high, I only took few photos randomly. Then, I reached the “sky walk”. There, I could grip a cup of ice latte. Cool!
Trip is always full of uncertainty. In the first evening, we are so lucky to have an upgraded room in a five-star hotel. We also saw the candidates of “Miss Korea 2019”.
