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Published: July 20th 2015
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Hahoe Village
Unesco site, dating back two thousand years. Very well preserved and still home to a few hundred people, maintaining a relatively agrarian lifestyle that is probably not to different from days of yore. After one week, it was time to leave the capital to check out the other parts of the country, and I took the 2.5h bus ride south to the smallish city of Andong in the Gyeongsangbuk province. Andong boasts in its vicinity the Unesco site of Hahoe Village, with its two thousand year history of traditional Korean culture and village life, and I would spend a couple of days here en route to my other intended destinations further south.
Arriving at Andong was a bit of a surprise, and I was immediately struck by how quiet the place seemed, despite it being a well-known stop on the tourist trail, and a population size of several hundred thousand. It was also a stark contrast to the hyper modern and busy capital, with sleepy shops with nary a customer in sight, and darkened and empty streets by about nine p.m. at night. The public buses also seemed slightly older, and the downtown area was spotted with uneven footpaths, and some quite visible signs overdue maintenance. In some ways it reminded me of Yichang, another smallish-mid sized town that I'd seen in Central China just a few weeks ago, except that Andong was
Traditional Masks of Hahoe
Originally made to satirise the upper class and pretentious, they played an important part in entertaining plays, dances and musicals. much less crowded. The big attraction near town of course was the Hahoe Village, a community of a few hundred living in thatched roof houses, with many still seemingly continuing with traditional ways of life, and it was a pleasant half-day walking around, contemplating visions of days past in the Joseon Kingdom...
Stayed at Motel Galleria.
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