We were headed to Suwon on Day 10, and the sky did not look good. And it did rain later in the day, slight drizzle while we were on the walls of the Hwaseong Fortress. The rain grew heavy while we walked around the castle, and then, it was an outright pour as we were just starting out at Korean Folk Village. We were washing our legs in puddles in the village 🥲
Suwon
Suwon is a bit aways from the heart of Seoul. 31km southwards of Seoul, it is a city in the “Gyeonggi Province”, a populous area that pretty much surrounds all of Seoul. Suwon is connected to the heart of Seoul via subway and takes slightly over one hour to travel via public transport (according to the map anyway). I was on a private tour, so it was pretty fast for me.
It was a quiet June morning in Suwon, as international tourism was just picking up.
There were two main places in Suwon that we visited:
- The Korean Folk Village
- Hwaesong Fortress
Hwaseong Fortress
The Hwaesong Fortress is a Unesco-listed site. It was built by King Jeongjo. The walls snakes around the grounds, marked by pavilion towers regularly. There are angled slits on the walls for defensive purposes…People on the walls could see the people outside the fortress, but the people outside the fortress couldn’t see the the people on the wall.
As I walked around, it felt surreal see modern buildings surround such a medieval architecture.
Within the fortress grounds was the “permanent temporary” palace, as our guide calls it. We thought there was some mistranslation, but no, it’s really that. Within the palace are the throne room, kitchen, etc.
At the back of one of the buildings is a long strip of illustrations. I think they are reproductions of how court artists would draw the royal retinue, for example. Interestingly, illustrations of the king are forbidden, and this ban includes even the transport the king is in. In such a case, there is an empty space in the illustration where the king would have been.
Korean Folk Village
There was one reason, and one reason only why we were at Suwon. The fortress was a by the way. The reason was Run BTS episode 145, 146, and 147, filmed at the Korean Folk Village. We were delighted as we identified various buildings that the shots were taken at.
The village is a theme park replicating a (prosperous?) village from the Joseon era. From the gates to the various types of buildings representing the different classes of society – the village has them! There were also patches of land with plantation – representing farmland.
There is an entrance fee, but there isn’t any limit to the number of hours you can stay. There are some performances around the village, at various timings.
The village is huge. I think a comfortable duration is probably around 3-4 hours. There is a café in the village if you need to grab a drink or have a break.
While we were there, there was an entourage of school students. I guess they were on a school trip. Ahh days of youth…
Lunch at Seafood Restaurant
We had lunch at a seafood restaurant between the two places. Unfortunately I didn’t get to ID the name because it was literally called…”Seafood Restaurant”. As with the other meals in Korea, it was a huge portion!
We ate a seafood broth with squid, prawns, soyabean curd and a few others. When we were done with the ingredients inside, the cook added rice, seaweed or laver and other stuff, and made it into fried rice. Yummy.
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