Beartree Nature Park

Beartree Nature Park is about 45 minutes north of where we live, about half way to Seoul.  It is a privately owned 'park'.  The family used to live on the property, but at some point decided to open it to the public.  There are paved trails, a couple of restaurants, gift shop, gardens and greenhouses.  And animals.  The family started out captive-raising Halfmoon Bears, the common name we saw on the sign.  The bears are black with a white crescent on their chest fur.  I can only guess as to why the family raised bears and why they still do.  All I was told was 'conservation'.  The animal enclosures were grouped in the center of the park.  We walked in, and in the first enclosure we saw were baby bears, about 20, all the same age (i.e. too young to be away from their mothers).  The enclosure was too small, had a couple of fake trees and elevated platforms.  I saw that and the bird enclosure at the same time, so I went to the bird enclosure and tried to get pictures of the golden pheasant.  Let me just say the baby bear enclosure was more enriched than the bird enclosure, and those golden pheasants were having a time chasing the few other species they were housed with.  I am in a different culture, and it is not my place to tell these folks how wrong this is.  That mantra lasted about 5 seconds, ending when I saw the 'beagles' enclosure, immediately after the baby bears.  Two hounds, looked like smaller Foxhounds, longer legs than our beagles, were huddled together in the farthest corner on a ledge.  It wasn't cold that day, but these poor dogs looked miserable.  I watched them for a minute, yelled at Bill I had to leave, turned around and walked out.  I get nauseous just thinking about those dogs now.  Apparently it is very common to have 'beagles' in zoos, petting and otherwise.  Our interpretation of zoo is very different from the Korean's.  People tell me I 'need' to see the zoo in Seoul, how modern and nice it is.  I ask if they have 'beagles', and am told they do, all 'zoos' do, so I doubt seriously I will go.

Animals aside, Beartree Nature Park is beautiful.  The rose garden wasn't in bloom, but the bonsai garden and the manipulated trees were beautiful. 

 This is our tour guide, Vincent.  Vincent is not his Korean name and is an odd name for a Korean to choose since there is no 'v' sound in the Korean language.  Luckily he doesn't do a lot of guiding unless you ask him to which is great in my mind.  I like to do my own exploring once someone who knows the area gets me there. 

 The building has a restaurant and rooms for celebrations.

 Lots and lots of koi who think people mean food, but guests are not allowed to feed the fish.

 Now, stop right here and see this.  This man is on a ladder that leans against that tree.  There is nothing else holding that ladder.  He wears no harness or other safety gear.  He is pruning the TOPS of the trees and is about 20 feet up, maybe more.  I guess his union doesn't know...

 It is interesting to me that all of the statues of bears in the park depicts them as benign and friendly, happy and willing to be raised in cages and have all their natural needs denied.  And I supported it with my ticket.  Forgive me, Lord, I knew not what the park did.

 I believe these folks are the founders of Beartree Nature Park.  Bill found it interesting that while the woman wears traditional Korean wear (hanbok), the man wears a western suit.

 More happy bears playing with rather than eating the fish.  Why would they need to eat fish when all their needs are provided by Beartree NATURE Park?  If you don't like my sarcasm, find another blog.

 Beautiful sculpture inside a greenhouse

 Why just mess with the animal kingdom?  Let's mess with the botanical world, too!  At least THIS I can appreciate.  These trees are manipulated to grow around pieces of deadwood.  The white in the above tree's trunk is dead, dried tree that the growers manipulated the living tree around.  They start out like the one below.

 I think it is harder to appreciate in this picture, but see how the little trunk on the right is growing up the hollow deadwood?  Eventually it grows around and into that hollow or however the growers make it.

 Here you can see how they sometimes band branches to deadwood to facilitate the merge.

 And here they have incorporated their first living addition into a manipulated tree!  Oh, wait, that is just Bill being Bill.

 Bonsai!  Talk about manipulated trees...I love these things.  There are actually little flowers on this one.  The smaller pictures don't show them up as well.

 The most amazing thing to me about the manipulated trees and the bonsai is that whomever started one of these did it knowing they would likely never live long enough to see the results of their efforts.  They did it knowing it would be beautiful and admired by everyone but themselves.  For those of us in the 'instant gratification for our efforts' world, this is a truly foreign ideology.

Who doesn't like water lilies?

All animal comments aside, it was a beautiful park on a beautiful day.  We got lots of practice walking uphill. (It will be like a holiday when I live on flat land again.)  I enjoyed visiting and spending time outdoors with the husband.