Korea's Traditional Markets - A Peak into the Past

One of the things I enjoy the most about being in Korea is visiting one of the many traditional markets sprinkled throughout the country.  You can find a traditional market in almost everyone of Korea's cities and I think it's a great way to experience the culture and see how the country's markets use to operate throughout it's history.  

     I love the scents, sounds and sights that welcome you from the moment you step foot in the market.  To be honest, some of the smells are a bit pungent but it makes for a memorable experience nonetheless.

     Three of the major markets in Seoul are Namdaemun, Dongdaemun and Moran Market.  All have their own character, speciality and atmosphere that distinguish them from one another.  

     Namdaemun is probably my favorite of the three and is located by the "Great South Gate" of Seoul.  It's feels the most authentic with it's winding streets, numerous alleys and wide variety of things for sale.

    I've only been do Dongdaemun (also known as the Mecca of Fashion) a couple of times, but it's much bigger than Namdaemun.  While Namdaemun is mainly an outside market, Dongdaemun is predominately indoors and consists of a number of different buildings.  There is an outside market at Dongdaemun as well, but most of the action is within the many buildings scattered around the East Gate of Seoul.  In those buildings, you'll find floor after floor of clothing, jewelry, appliances, bedding, etc.  Starting at 10pm, you'll find rows of yellow tents outside, opening their flaps for business.  You can take advantage of the shopping deals through the night, until they close up at 5am.  The crowds during the late hours are impressive to say the least.

Outdoor Market

Indoor Market

     The last, and most recent market I've visited is probably the most unique.  Moran Market is south of the Han River in Seoul and only operates on the 4th, 9th, 14th, 19th, 24th, 29th day of every month from 7am-7pm.  What makes this market more unique and culturally interesting is the buying and selling of live animals.  Everything from goats, chickens, ducks and even dogs.  Not more than 25 feet from the main road you'll see cage after cage of live animals for sale.
     They also have pets that you can buy, along with produce, clothes, tools, appliances, etc. similar to the other markets I've mentioned.  Some parts of this market were a bit disturbing, but it is definitely the most interesting one I've ever seen before.  I won't post all of the pictures from Moran Market, but if you were interested in more, you could probably just do a Google Image search on your own.
     All in all, Korea has a lot of character and culture to offer and one of the best places to experience both are in the markets.  Go often, visit as many as you can and enjoy the sensory overload that comes with it!

Puppies you can buy as pets.  Just put them in a box and take one home!

Templestay in Golgulsa & Home of Sunmudo Templelife

I was finally able to take advantage of one of the many Buddhist templestay programs in Korea a couple of weekends ago.  Not that I'm trying to convert or anything, but it seemed like such an interesting experience and has been something I've wanted to do for a little while.  An ideal opportunity unexpectedly presented itself so I took advantage of it...

Gyeongju, GyeongBuk Province, is located in the southeastern corner of Korea and was capital of the Silla Kingdom (57 BC – AD 935), which was ruled by 56 kings over 992 years, the longest period of any dynasty in the history of Korea.  This bustling city, with over 2,000 years of history, was my destination to partake in my first templestay at Golgusa, home of the Buddhist martial training methodology call Sunmundo.

     It was only about a 3 hour train ride thanks to Korea's phenomenal transportation network and then another 45min bus ride from Gyeongju to the temple.  Korea has nearly 1,000 buddhist temples so it was hard to decide on which program to try out, but the martial arts background of Golgulsa was enough to put it atop of my list.  

     I checked around 4pm on Saturday and was given my clothes for the weekend and a key to my room.  Given limited space and the popularity of the program, I shared a room with another English teacher who had been there several times already.  It helped to have someone familiar with what I was getting myself into, and was also comforting to know that Golgulsa was doing something right if they have repeat customers!

      Another draw of coming to this temple was the Martial Arts Festival that was taking place on the Sunday I'd be at the temple.  It seemed like the perfect storm and there I was, ready to take it all in!

      About an hour after arriving to the temple, I enjoyed vegetarian dinner, rice, vegetables and soup, and then headed up to the orientation at the main temple, a quarter mile up the mountain from the main gate.  The highlight of the night was the Sunmundo Training we were able to participate on Saturday, led by one of the monks.  Sunmundo,  literally meaning “the way of doing meditative martial arts” is a combination of yoga and some basic martial arts moves (kicks, punches and defensive poses).  It's amazing how much slow and methodical movements can wear you out.
     Training lasted almost 2 hours and I was in bed by 10pm for lights out.  I would need the sleep given the 4am wake up time on the schedule.

     The last thing I wanted to do was be late for the 4:30am chanting service...if you can read the fine print, penalty for such a thing is 3,000 bows.  I wish I would've gotten some audio of the chanting because it was kind of cool and parts of it had a good beat.  After about 30 minutes of uncomfortable meditation, we did our slow meditative walk down the mountain where we were cut short because of the monks' festival preparations.

     Later in the morning, we had tea with one of the senior monks and had a chance to ask him some questions about temple life, Sunmundo, etc.  Even though a couple of the activities were cut short or didn't happen, what I was able to experience was enough for me!  The temple grounds were pretty amazing too with it's highlight being a buddha carved on a large piece of granite high above the temple entrance.

     Overall, it was a great experience and I'll probably try to do another, more authentic one before leaving.    Golgusa is well worth the visit, along with everything else that Gyeongju has to offer.  Enjoy a few more pictures from the trip and thanks for reading as usual!

 

I was awake up 4am so there was no way I was going to miss the sunrise

The cornerstone of the temple and was carved almost 1,500 years ago

                     

"In Front of Them All" at the DMZ, Dorasan Station, the Third Tunnel and Dora Observatory

The other weekend, with Sarah's parents in town, we made the trip up to the most dangerous place on Earth...the Demilitarized Zone.  Running the length of the 250 kilometer border between North and South Korea, and about 4 kilometers wide (2km to the north and 2km to the south of the Demarcation line), you'll find over a millions of land mines, barbed-wire fence and armed soldiers on both sides filled with animosity towards one another.
The tension was palpable as we arrived at the first checkpoint along the Imjin River on our way to the DMZ.  Barbed wire fences lined the river, since it directly connected North and South Korea with military outposts at about every 100yards (I slept most of the way up because we had to wake up around 5:30am so I didn't get any pictures of this part of the trip).  The Imjin River is also knows as the "River of the Dead" because of the many dead North Koreans found floating down it during the famine up North in the 90s.

We eventually made it to Camp Bonifas who's motto is "In Front of Them All," where we watched a brief introduction of Panmenjeom and the Joint Security Area (JSA) and had to sign waivers saying that we understand that there's a possibility of being shot during this trip (generally speaking).  From that point, we were led by a US solider back onto the buses and up to the Demarcation Line, which is the actual boundary line drawn when the armistice agreement was signed.  There was a strict no photo policy and the tension grew expotentially as we drove down the "most dangerous road on earth" through anti-tank walls, mine fields and barbed-wire lined streets.  We arrived at Conference Row where the soldier in charge of our tour was much more firm and direct (if he could get anymore firm or direct) in what to do, how to do it and, most importantly, what not to do to avoid provoking the North.
A couple points about the trip:  There's a strick dress code required for the tour because the entire time you are at Conference Row where you can see North Korea and it's troops, you are being watched.  They are looking for any suspicious actions or things they can use as propaganda against the outside world.  While we were there, a North Korean soldier took out his binoculars and checked us out a few times.  It was a tense situation to say the least but definitely a memorable one.

Mrs. Brennan is "safe" in South Korea...Sarah isn't so lucky in North Korea

Taking my chances in North Korea

Mr. Brennan cautiously leaving the Korea

After making it out of the tension filled Conference Row safely, our next stop was to the Dorasan Train Station which use to carry materials to the Kaesong Industrial Complex to the north and finished goods back down to Seoul.  North Korea closed railroad access into their country in 2008 but the newly restored station still stands.  It put things into perspective a little though, that  South Korea is basically an island and if the countries were to be unified again, the possibility of taking the train from South Korea to Western Europe is very much possible.  For now though, you can only leave the country by plane or boat.

Anyone want to go to Pyeongyang?

The Trans Eurasian Railway Network 

After lunch we went to the Third Tunnel, which is actually what the names states.  South Korea discovered four tunnels that the North had dug under and across the DMZ into South Korea.  Though they found four of them, there are believed to be at least 10 total tunnels from the North to the South.   North Korea claimed that these tunnels were used for mining coal but there's no coal in that part of Korea.  So, to reinforce their claim, as the N. Korean soldiers retreated from the tunnels, they painted the tunnels black so it looks like there was coal down there.
The tunnel was about 240 feet underground and about a mile long.  Again, no cameras were allowed down there but it was quite impressive and unnerving at the same time.

Third Tunnel Entrance

Our last stop on this USO sponsored trip was to the Dora Observatory where you can get a clear look at North Korea and it's propaganda village, Kijong-dong.  The funny thing about this N. Korean village is that it's not a "real" village, meaning that no one lives there and a lot of the windows on the houses and buildings are painted on.  There is a military base right at the observatory so pictures were limited but it was cool seeing N. Korea from afar with the provided binoculars.

You can kind of see the N. Korea Propaganda Village
and it's huge flagpole.  Either way, there's North Korea.

Our transportation for the day, thank you Koridoor and USO!!!

This USO led trip was one of the highlights of being in Korea so far.  If you make it out to Korea for any reason, make sure you take one of these trips.  It's an eye opening, tense, anxiety filled and exciting experience  all wrapped up into about 10hours of your day.  If you made it this far into the post...

Did you know...that 2010-2013 marks the 60 year anniversary of the Korean War.  Also knows as the forgotten war, almost 2 million civilians and 1 million troops lost their lives in this three year war.  What surprised me is that when the armistice was signed in 1953, no one from South Korea was present.  While the communist forces offered a cease-fire, the South Koreans were pushing for unification, not a stalemate, thus there was no South Korean representation at the sining of the armistice.