Hwaseong Fortress 2015

The major I work with wanted to see Hwaseong Fortress, so she and I headed out one day to look around  It is about 45 minutes from Pyeongtaek, a fairly easy drive for us.  Bill and I had visited once before, but we only had about an hour and a half to look around, and you really need more time than that.  Below is the entrance to the main palace grounds.

This fortress was built from 1794 to 1796 by King Jeongjo of the Joseon Dynasty to house and honor the remains of his father Prince Sado, who had been murdered by being locked alive inside a rice chest by his own father King Yeongjo after failing to obey the command to commit suicide. 

 The front walkway was adorned with many of the metal figures and painted tiles.  The photos do not do the painted tiles justice.

As we approached the main entrance of the fortress, we saw a large gold Buddha statue off to the l left.  We knew we would check it out after the palace grounds.

The walkway is divided into three sections: the larger center section is for royalty, and the smaller outer sections are for less important people.

 A room for resting...

This is a mock up of what it may have looked like to have a guest presenting gifts to the king and queen.

This little house was on our way up the hill to the Buddhist temple.  The gate was beautiful tile.

Trump l'oeil painting on a building

Entrance to the shrine

The Buddha.  Below is a room where you can enter to light an offering.

 The temple bell is here in this small tower.  The stairs were closed off.

 This is the city of Suwon as viewed from the top of the fortress wall.  It was a decent climb.

The hole in the wall is slanted down so boiling water/oil or arrows can be aimed down to the attackers below.

This bell was along the fortress wall.  For a fee of 1000 won, you could ring it 3 times.

The bell made a really gentle sound when you applied the wooden ringer.  It had a very Asian, Buddhist sound.

Beautiful, right?  Korea continues to amaze me with its beauty and history.

King Jeongjo

The fortress wall still weaves through much of the city.

Above is one of the four main gates and is in the middle of a very busy intersection!  The Major and I had a great day walking and climbing and walking.

Baekje Cultural Park

Baekje was one of the Three Kingdoms in Korea's ancient history.  Founded in 10 BC by King Onjo, Baekje has recorded history beginning in 18 BC until 660 AD.  The Baekje Kingdom occupied much of the west coast of Korea (closest to China) and had relationships with China and Japan.  It is credited with bringing Buddhism to Japan from China, in addition to advanced pottery techniques and the Chinese writing system.  Chinese writing was used in Korea until the creation of their own written language in the 1400s.  

The entrance to the park was beautiful with lots of granite statues.  It was very cold this day.

We weren't the only ones braving the chilly temperatures.  This is the palace grounds where military formations would be held.

  

That is our friend Lance on the right and his mom on the left.  She was visiting from Alaska, so the weather was pretty normal for her.

These copper reliefs were all around the exterior walls in a courtyard.  They depicted military and civilian daily life.  I don't know how they were made, but they were beautiful.

  I know, if you've seen one palace, you've seen them all, but they are truly stunning, if not in my poor excuse for photography, certainly in their presence.

The King's wardrobe for important events.  Each piece and embroidered item has special significance.

The king's daily wear is not as ornate, of course.

The queen's daily wear is beautiful.  It mus have taken hours of hand work tying knot after knot of silk to get some of the embroidery accomplished.

Traditional Korean outfits are called hanbok.  Hanbok consist of a jeogori/shirt or blouse, the top part of the garment and either chima/skirt for women or baji/pants for men.  There are no pockets, so both sexes used small silk drawstring pouches to carry money in.  They wore these underneath the hanbok, either tied around their bodies or tied to the inner part of the garment.  Many Koreans still wear hanbok at formal and semi-formal events and during certain festival times.

Below is a burial ground apparently found during some excavation for the grounds' garden.  Of course, all the buildings here are recreations.  Nothing much survived the many occupations Korea experienced in her later history except for the Korean desire to honor that history, hence all the lovely palaces and museums.

 These reminded me of the earthen works at Fort McAllister state park, but these were for the dead, not to protect the living.

It says, "It was excavated from site of making garden in the Baekje Historical Museum. Inside of chamber has hexagonal structure and it was built using broken stones.  It has 240 cm length, 96 cm width and 78 cm height."

Naturally, when I saw the observation tower at the top of a hill, I had to go up and see what I could see.  Bill followed as only a good husband will do.  He hates climbing because he can never tell just how far you have to go before you get to the good stuff.  This climb wasn't too bad, and the views were nice.  

This is the common man's area or the village.  It was surrounded by the city wall, and the various skilled laborers each had their own building.

This was quite a beautiful area, and luckily for us, it was right next door to a shopping outlet!  We walked over and had some coffee and did a few minutes shopping.  The older folks (Bill and Lance's mom:)) were ready to hit the road, but Tracey (Lance's wife) and I had other ideas.  We hit a few stores and admired the Christmas decorations (this was in December 2014) before heading home.