Visit to Suwon

Suwon and points East
Originally uploaded by Nilstren

To the south of the sprawling capital, Seoul, lies the city of Suwon(수원). You can see in this picture in the lower right the Hwaseong Haenggung (화성 행궁), a palace built in the late 18th Century as a home-away-from-Seoul for the Choseon rulers. Hwaseong is the name for the larger city walls and fortress, one of the few complete city walls still extant in Korea.

The city itself has over 1 million people, with row upon row of the ubiquitous apartment towers that define the landscape of South Korea. In a location much like that of Bukhansan in Seoul, but with the city spilling east-southeastward from Paldalsan instead of southward, Suwon has several streams, really somewhere in between creeks and rivers back home on the East Coast, that run uncovered through the city.

On this particular day, young couples and domestic tourists alike were out in force across Paldalsan, with some local color just enjoying the park. At the top of the mountain, behind one of the "secret city gates," there was a little area next to some war memorials that could be turned into badminton courts, as this family has done. There was also a man sitting beside the memorial, quietly reading a book, his trusty man-purse (Korean style makes American metrosexualism look jockish and macho) by his side on the bench. Two of the daughters in the family would run around and play counting games atop the pediments of the large memorial at right in the photo, and chase flower petals as they spiralled down with the passing breezes.

After a couple of hours exploring the hilltop fortress, I ventured down and took pictures inside of the palace. As palaces in South Korea go, it was a modest affair, but carefully restored. The epically popular "Dae Jang Geum" ("Jewel in the Palace" in Anglophone markets) Korean series was partly filmed here, and there are "try on authentic costumes" stations and signs with stills of the scenes filmed in each spot. There were also the most elaborate ondol (온돌) chimneys I have seen yet in Korea.

Ondol are like the "hypocaust floors" of Ancient Roman baths, except that they arose with no influence from that technology whatsoever, to combat the bitter cold of what is now Manchuria and Siberia and the winds that blow down the peninsula from that region. Traditionally, ondol work by burning wood and other combustibles and directing the hot air across the floor over to the chimney which is usually on the other side of the building. Thus people could go to sleep on the floor and stay toasty, even if the rest of the room got to freezing or colder, and so even in Korea, which can have bitterly cold winters, traditional buildings were not usually built with thick walls if they weren't going to be used for defensive purposes.

But even so, the scale of these chimneys, and their ornamentation, suggests somewhat the luxury of the life of the Choseon dynasty rulers of the time, muted though it might be considered in comparison to the legendary wealth and ostentatious architecture of the Chinese Emperors.

Another thing about the buildings... the traditional wood used in their construction, which I presume is some kind of resinous cedar, smells as it ages like nothing so much as black pepper and incense. That, combined with the bright colors and the open layout designed to promote air movement really makes for a pleasant space.

But back to the city of Suwon. Upon leaving the palace and wandering through the markets and side streets on my way back to Suwon Station (수원역) I found everything from fried insects to live sea slugs, from countrified hardy clothes to the near-latest in Seoulite fashion, and every kind of durable good you could imagine, all in small shops or open-air stalls along the streets. While the megamall concept is taking off, and to some extent the big-box store, these are both on Korean "terms" and run by domestic companies, and thus never feel all that similar to their American counterparts (one exception is E-mart, which feels like a Walmart with slightly lower ceilings and friendlier staff.)

Particular to Suwon was the entertainment district, in which you could the transition that happens from the daytime, when lunch restaurants and retail stores are mainly open and inviting to customers, and the bars, arcades, theaters, computer cafes (PC방) all anchored by the nearly 24-hour convenience stores, such as FamilyMart, 7-11, GS25, and a host of more regional competitors.

For more pictures with commentary, go to my flickr account at www.flickr.com/nealwashere.