04 Feb 2010, Posted by Matt in Gyeonggi, Historic Korea, 5 Comments

Touring the DMZ, Part 1: The Sights

Just one hour from Seoul is a peculiar land of misnomers – kilometers of barbed wire line Freedom Road and block access to the sea, and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is the world’s most heavily armed border.

An estimated one million troops stand at the ready along both sides of the 4-kilometer buffer that has divided the Korean Peninsula since a 1953 armistice paused a bloody, fratricidal war. In the 50-some years since, the DMZ has seen occasional flare-ups, an axe murder incident and the discovery of invasion tunnels capable of funneling 10,000 North Korean troops an hour toward Seoul. Yet, in spite of the ever-present danger, or perhaps because of it, the DMZ endures as one of South Korea’s most popular tourist destinations.

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21 Oct 2009, Posted by Matt in Buddhist Temples, Gyeonggi, Historic Korea, Nature, Seoul, 6 Comments

Fall Color at Mt. Gwanaksan

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Although I’m completely unqualified to do so, here’s a quick Korean language lesson.

The word “san” (산) in Korean more or less means mountain. That’s why every mountain in Korea has the “-san” suffix, e.g. Seoraksan, Bukhansan, Jirisan, etc. Trouble is, living here I’ve become familiar calling Korea’s peaks by their Korean names (fancy that!), so calling Jirisan “Mount Jiri” just doesn’t feel right. When translating to English, however, it’s unclear that it’s a mountain without the obligatory “Mt.” title. So what’s my awkward compromise? Mount (Mountain Name)-mountain… something tells me my opinion on this will change shortly.

Anyhow, given that autumn color has started here in Seoul, I wanted to put up some photos from a quick trip last year to, ahem, Mt. Gwanaksan (관악산), located in Southern Seoul.

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