Apr 15, 2010
Cheorwon City
Just one week after I got back from Seoraksan, I had to go to Cheorwon City to check out the 2nd Tunnel in that area. North Koreans actually built 4 tunnels, trying to invade South Korea; the 1st tunnel, which is inaccessible now due to safety issue, the 2nd tunnel, which is in Cheorwon City, the 3rd tunnel, which is in Gyeonggi Province and lastly, the 4th tunnel is in Gangwon Province near Seoraksan. We departed from Seoul and after about 2 hours, we reached Cheorwon City. At first we went to the Hantangang River Tourist Office for registration and while we were waiting, we walked around the little museum which is the nation's largest security training center with various equipments exhibited inside the Old Battlefield Room. In front of the office building there were many fighter planes and army tanks.
"The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time." – Colette (1873~1954)
Besides the office building, we walked to Goseokjeong that is one of 8 wonderful sceneries in Cheorwon located on midstream of Hantan River. It was considered extraordinary as there was a huge rock in the middle of the river and it has been well-known since early Joseon period. The weather was a little grey yet comfortable and we were lucky that the weather was not so cold.
At around 11am, all the cars lined up at the parking space, waiting to depart with the guide. It took about 10 minutes to reach 2nd tunnel after passing through the check point. At 2nd and 4th tunnel, the security was not that tight as passports were not needed for registration.
After parking the car, we went to the entrance of the 2nd tunnel where the soldiers gave each of us a helmet for safety sake. The 2nd tunnel is the longest tunnel among all the four tunnels and it was narrower than the 3rd tunnel therefore there is no monorail in the tunnel. It was discovered on March 19th, 1975 by S. Korean Army and it is located between 50 and 160m below ground, but is larger than the first, approximately 2m by 2m. Photography was not allowed in the tunnel and for the respect of the people who died building this tunnel, I thought it was good to just enter and feel the tunnel without photography since there are places where photos couldn't express and only our hearts could feel it. The tunnel was dim and dripping with spring water since it was situated underneath the mountain. The guide brought us to the end where tourists could go and the end was blocked by locked gate with minimum security. It took us about 30 minutes to finish the tunnel and we set off for the Cheorwon Peace Observatory.
At the peace observatory, the guide explained to us in Korean about the 1.5km border between North and South Koreas and he also explained about Taebong Capital Site that was also the last dynasty in Korea. After the speech, we walked around the observatory and only taking photos at designated locations.
After the observatory, we drove to Cheorwon Crane Museum to look at the exhibited migratory birds available in the border. We also went to Woljeongri Station that is the last station of the Gyeongwon line near the demilitarized zone where the division took place. We could also see the remains of the train broken by bombing during Korean War. When everything was finished, we left the security checkpoint again and outside the checkpoint, we stopped by the North Korean Labor Party Headquarters which was where patriots and innocent citizens were tortured and killed during 5 years of communist dictatorship until it was bombed by China, leaving only the building structure. Walking around the building, my friend and I were discussing how this could have happened just 50 years ago and it seemed too quiet and eerie as many people had died during that period.
It seems so far yet it happened within a century and Korea is still going through the unification struggle between the two political parties. Actually we left with heavy hearts as we felt that we were really fortunate to be born in the period where there is no war in our countries and we hope that Korea can also find its peace soon.
"The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time." – Colette (1873~1954)
Apr 12, 2010
Taipei
It's been about 2-3 years since I last saw my Taiwanese friend so I was excited that I could visit Taiwan and stay in my friend's hostel. My friend and her parents converted their 5-storey house into a hostel and they opened the hostel at the end of last year. It is a pretty cozy house and you could check it out at www.mudanhouse.com. Apart from that, breakfast is included and it was made by her aunt who is a great cook.
The next morning I woke up early and had the delicious sandwiches made by my friend's aunt. After getting the bus directions from her aunt to Long Shan Temple, I set off with my map and transportation card. So it cost about US$0.50 to take the bus and US$1.00 to take the subway each time. From Chang Ji Street, I took the bus to the temple and it took about 30 minutes to get there. One thing I realized was that the streets were cleaner than in Korea and you wouldn't see people spitting on the streets all the time.
Long Shan Temple is one of the oldest temple in Taipei and on Sunday morning, I saw many locals and foreigners in the temple. I always manage to find a temple wherever I go. There was a lot of praying going on by the nuns and someone gave me 6-8 incense sticks to pray and offer 1 stick to each statue. I went along the trail and offered my prayers to all the gods. After that I went to Bo Pi Liao area which was used as a filming site in a Chinese movie and the shop houses were traditionally designed with shops selling things from the olden times. I thought of taking the subway to Xin Bei Tou station but I decided to walk a little more and I found this tiny food stall selling fried fish paste. The taste was simple and it was nice to be walking and eating at the same time. After a few streets, I found the President's office building heavily guarded and the High Court around the corner near Xi Men station. I just kept walking and I found a bubble tea shop so I bought myself a bubble milk tea. It was one of my favorite drinks and it comes in lots of different types of tea. Yummy.. Yummy... I also found the Taiwan National Museum with a lot of exhibits about the local tribes and it was interesting to see the difference between the tribes.
From NTU station, I took the subway directly to Bei Tou station and transferred to Xin Bei Tou station. The train was designed with cute characters in hot tubs and it only took about 10 minutes to reach Xin Bei Tou station. The area was surrounded by mountains, hotels and restaurants and there were a lot of people since it was Sunday. At first I walked to the Thermal Valley to check out the water and it was really hot (about 90 degC) with warning signs of not touching the water. Then I went around to check out the prices of using the hot springs. It was expensive as most of the hotels offer private rooms (US$40 for 3 hours) for 2 people to use the hot springs. Since the water comes from the same resource and I didn't see the need to spend so much money, I decided to try out one which cost about US$6 for about 2 hours. The bathroom was small with a bathtub which you could fill it up with hot spring water and cool water. Soaking in the water was relaxing but it wasn't as great as those in Japan and more expensive. After I finished, I went back to the hostel to find my friend and I stopped by the bakery to get some bread and some pig blood soup from a store which was recommended by my friend.
My friend was still busy cleaning the rooms so I went to buy some fried sweet potatoes and chicken to boost her energy. After snacking, I helped her to clean up so that we could go out for dinner earlier. She brought me and a German guy who was also staying in the hostel to this restaurant to eat chicken cooked in Chinese wine. It started off with clam soup as the appetizer with black plum juice. We were lucky to get some free pork ribs from a lucky draw and it was soft and juicy. Next, was the chicken cooked in Chinese wine and soy sauce and stir-fried vegetables. Lastly, the fried shrimps were served and they were so soft and crispy that we could even eat the shells. After a heavy dinner, we dropped the guy off at another hostel and we went back home to rest.
The next morning I enjoyed another delicious breakfast and I took the bus to Bei An street near Da Zhi station to have a haircut from my friend's hairstylist in Happy Hair Salon. It was quite amusing since my friend and her mum all went to the same hair salon but with different hairstylist. They were very friendly to me and one of the staff was kind enough to write down the street names for shopping. After getting a nice hair cut, I went to the clothing store, A La Sha, which was recommended by my friend, to buy some clothes. It is an outlet store so all the clothes in there were about 50-60% off the original price. Ha Ha! After that I went to the university street to get some lunch and I took the subway to Taipei City Hall to look at Taipei 101, the second-highest building in the world. It was like a business district as there was a Volkswagen showroom, a hotel, a convention center and many office buildings. I didn't go to the 89th floor as there were too many tourists so I just headed off to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall and walked around the area. I saw a vending machine which sold drinks at about US$0.60 and I thought it was cheap compared to Korea and Japan.
After walking for about 1 hour, I met up with my friend at Zhong Xiao Fu Xing station for afternoon tea. She brought me to this nice little cafe named Hana and it was already filled with people. After getting a table and reading the menu, we decided to order a strawberry waffle, a sandwich, a cup of latte with marshmallows and honey-flower tea. The strawberries were so delicious since it's the strawberry season and the ice-cream was really tasty. Yummy... The tea was refreshing since it was pretty hot that day and I had been walking for awhile. After we finished our afternoon tea, we walked around the area and collected a lot of travel information for her guests in the hostel. Finally it was around 6 before we headed home.
On the next morning, it was time for me to say goodbye to my friend again and I hope we will get to meet up soon.
When I arrived at Taoyuan International Airport, my friend and her boyfriend were there to pick me up. After exchanging about US$200, we set off to one of the local seafood restaurants for dinner. I thought that there must be lots of Japanese tourists around that area since there were Japanese signages and the dishes cost about US$3 each. We ordered fried squid, sliced pork with ginger, chicken with bamboo shoots and oysters with green onions. It has been awhile since I had real Chinese food so I was really excited about eating everything. Chinese restaurants in Korea usually cook food with Korean spicy sauce for the local people but Chinese food usually comes in all varieties - sweet, sour, spicy and bitter.
The next morning I woke up early and had the delicious sandwiches made by my friend's aunt. After getting the bus directions from her aunt to Long Shan Temple, I set off with my map and transportation card. So it cost about US$0.50 to take the bus and US$1.00 to take the subway each time. From Chang Ji Street, I took the bus to the temple and it took about 30 minutes to get there. One thing I realized was that the streets were cleaner than in Korea and you wouldn't see people spitting on the streets all the time.
Long Shan Temple is one of the oldest temple in Taipei and on Sunday morning, I saw many locals and foreigners in the temple. I always manage to find a temple wherever I go. There was a lot of praying going on by the nuns and someone gave me 6-8 incense sticks to pray and offer 1 stick to each statue. I went along the trail and offered my prayers to all the gods. After that I went to Bo Pi Liao area which was used as a filming site in a Chinese movie and the shop houses were traditionally designed with shops selling things from the olden times. I thought of taking the subway to Xin Bei Tou station but I decided to walk a little more and I found this tiny food stall selling fried fish paste. The taste was simple and it was nice to be walking and eating at the same time. After a few streets, I found the President's office building heavily guarded and the High Court around the corner near Xi Men station. I just kept walking and I found a bubble tea shop so I bought myself a bubble milk tea. It was one of my favorite drinks and it comes in lots of different types of tea. Yummy.. Yummy... I also found the Taiwan National Museum with a lot of exhibits about the local tribes and it was interesting to see the difference between the tribes.
From NTU station, I took the subway directly to Bei Tou station and transferred to Xin Bei Tou station. The train was designed with cute characters in hot tubs and it only took about 10 minutes to reach Xin Bei Tou station. The area was surrounded by mountains, hotels and restaurants and there were a lot of people since it was Sunday. At first I walked to the Thermal Valley to check out the water and it was really hot (about 90 degC) with warning signs of not touching the water. Then I went around to check out the prices of using the hot springs. It was expensive as most of the hotels offer private rooms (US$40 for 3 hours) for 2 people to use the hot springs. Since the water comes from the same resource and I didn't see the need to spend so much money, I decided to try out one which cost about US$6 for about 2 hours. The bathroom was small with a bathtub which you could fill it up with hot spring water and cool water. Soaking in the water was relaxing but it wasn't as great as those in Japan and more expensive. After I finished, I went back to the hostel to find my friend and I stopped by the bakery to get some bread and some pig blood soup from a store which was recommended by my friend.
My friend was still busy cleaning the rooms so I went to buy some fried sweet potatoes and chicken to boost her energy. After snacking, I helped her to clean up so that we could go out for dinner earlier. She brought me and a German guy who was also staying in the hostel to this restaurant to eat chicken cooked in Chinese wine. It started off with clam soup as the appetizer with black plum juice. We were lucky to get some free pork ribs from a lucky draw and it was soft and juicy. Next, was the chicken cooked in Chinese wine and soy sauce and stir-fried vegetables. Lastly, the fried shrimps were served and they were so soft and crispy that we could even eat the shells. After a heavy dinner, we dropped the guy off at another hostel and we went back home to rest.
The next morning I enjoyed another delicious breakfast and I took the bus to Bei An street near Da Zhi station to have a haircut from my friend's hairstylist in Happy Hair Salon. It was quite amusing since my friend and her mum all went to the same hair salon but with different hairstylist. They were very friendly to me and one of the staff was kind enough to write down the street names for shopping. After getting a nice hair cut, I went to the clothing store, A La Sha, which was recommended by my friend, to buy some clothes. It is an outlet store so all the clothes in there were about 50-60% off the original price. Ha Ha! After that I went to the university street to get some lunch and I took the subway to Taipei City Hall to look at Taipei 101, the second-highest building in the world. It was like a business district as there was a Volkswagen showroom, a hotel, a convention center and many office buildings. I didn't go to the 89th floor as there were too many tourists so I just headed off to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall and walked around the area. I saw a vending machine which sold drinks at about US$0.60 and I thought it was cheap compared to Korea and Japan.
After walking for about 1 hour, I met up with my friend at Zhong Xiao Fu Xing station for afternoon tea. She brought me to this nice little cafe named Hana and it was already filled with people. After getting a table and reading the menu, we decided to order a strawberry waffle, a sandwich, a cup of latte with marshmallows and honey-flower tea. The strawberries were so delicious since it's the strawberry season and the ice-cream was really tasty. Yummy... The tea was refreshing since it was pretty hot that day and I had been walking for awhile. After we finished our afternoon tea, we walked around the area and collected a lot of travel information for her guests in the hostel. Finally it was around 6 before we headed home.
Since it was my last night in Taipei, we decided to go to the night market near the Mudan House for dinner. At first we went to the beef noodles stall to try the beef noodles that have been passed down for about 3 generations. The soup was made with beef bones and the noodles were soft and tender. Next, we went to try this fried bean curd skin wrapped with chicken which was crispy yet tender. Finally we stopped at a tofu pudding store for some desserts. We thought that one was enough but in the end we ordered another one since it was so delicious and the tofu was really soft. After the heavy dinner, we walked to the nearby Carrefour to get some local snacks for me to bring them back to Korea.
On the next morning, it was time for me to say goodbye to my friend again and I hope we will get to meet up soon.
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