A weekend in Gwangju


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Asia » South Korea » Gwangju
December 7th 2009
Published: December 10th 2009
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First sight in GwangjuFirst sight in GwangjuFirst sight in Gwangju

A tow-truck car..or something
After spending a few weekends in Yangsan, we were feeling a strong need to get out and see something new, so we decided to check out Gwangju, the 4th largest city in Korea, with 1.4 million people in Jeollanam province on the West side of Korea.
We randomly ran into two friends, Eric and Moiz on the bus, who just happened to be heading in the same direction! We decided to stick together since none of us had the faintest idea where to go once we got to Gwangju at 10pm. After wandering around for a bit, we came across this small, old motel that had ondol rooms. Now, Moiz and Eric had done the ondol thing before, but this was a first for Mike and I, and overall it was kinda cool! Essentially, its a room without beds. You sleep on blankets on the floor. In Korea, the heating in winter is done by running hot water through pipes just under the floor. This is AMAZING and is great for sleeping on! Keeps you toasty warm, you almost forget that you are sleeping on the floor! The best part is that the room was only 40,000W, split 4 ways -
The view from our motel room...The view from our motel room...The view from our motel room...

Can you tell we didn stay in the best hotel ever? Notice on the right side there is a roof covered with bumpers...ya...classy.
10bucks each for a decent sleep! Another thing we experienced (and on a side note, Laura had told me about this when she traveled Asia, so I knew this was only a matter of time before we came across this) was pillows filled, not with cotton or down or feathers, but little pieces of cut up straws. Yes, straws. Drinking straws, cut into about 1inch pieces and stuffed in the pillow case!! It actually wasn as bad as I thought it would be, but it certainly wasn the comfiest pillow Ive ever slept on!!
After settling in to our hotel we went in search of some grub. However, our hotel was in such a dead area of town, all we could find was a 7-11! In Korea it is completely acceptable to eat a meal at 7-11 or other convenience stores. They have a selection of ramyeon and soups and frozen dinners, as well as hot water and a microwave to cook your food! So there we sat, by the window of 7-11, eating our ramen noodles, drinking soju and watching passerbys stare at us!

Saturday morning we decided to check out Art Street which is suppose to have
Small temple we stopped at on our way to Art StreetSmall temple we stopped at on our way to Art StreetSmall temple we stopped at on our way to Art Street

The man working there was so stoked to have us there! He kept slapping us on the back to welcome us!
tons of little art shops selling traditional Korean pieces, and on weekends, the street is closed to cars and becomes an Art market. We spent almost 2 hours walking to this market (among some minor flurry action as well - first snow we saw in Korea!) only to arrive finally and find out that not only was the NO market, but most of the stores were closed! Still, along the way, we saw a neat little temple, found a cute old woman who helped us find our way to the Art Street and some cool art pieces along that street that we all made with recycled materials! After this Eric and Moiz left us as they had planned to spend the rest of the weekend hiking at a National Park a couple hours north of Gwangju.
After lunch at a cute little cafe, Lemon Tree, we hopped on a bus for the May 18th National Cemetery. Some of you may remember the event, but on May 18th, 1980 the Korean Army massacred a few hundred people in Gwangju and the surrounding era. A few months earlier there was a military coup and a new dictatorship took over the country and
Statue at templeStatue at templeStatue at temple

Can remember the name of the temple....
imposed martial law. As the many students and Koreans were pro democracy, an out-cry of protests broke out around the country. The unfortunate part is, that the protest were all harmless and the military broke the silence by opening fire on the crowd in response to their growing mass. Over the course of a week the civilian army and the Korean army were fighting. In the end, the Korean Army won and many innocent people died. The incident was covered up and all that were found guilty of protesting and causing civil unrest were jailed, executed or tortured. The cover up was not discovered until the late 80s - early 90s when Korea officially became a democracy and an investigation was done to justify the case. For more information you can search "5.18 Massacre". The National Cemetery was built in order to honour the dead and place the bodies of all the victims together to remember why they must remain democratic and as a symbol for the future of the Korean nation.

Sunday we went to the south of the city to the Mudeungsan Provincial Park for a hike up Mt Mudeungsan. We didn't get all the way to
Wall climbers on Art StreetWall climbers on Art StreetWall climbers on Art Street

Made from Recycled materials!
the peak at 1180m, but we hiked for a few hours. This mountain was nothing super special, but it had a pretty temple, Jeungsimsa that we stopped at for a break. We arrived right as one monk was doing his chanting which was nice to have the drumming and singing in the background as we toured the temple! We also wandered around the Tea Planation that this area is very well-known for, but seeing as tea season is in the spring, the buildings were completely empty and deserted! The hiking trails were packed with hikers this day, as hiking is the favourite pastime of Koreans! At the bottom of the mountain was a little village with every hiking supply store you can imagine, so of course we did some shopping! It looked idenitcal to mountain villas you may see in Colorado.

After getting back into town, we wandered around, killing time until our bus home. We walked around the Shinsegae department store and felt VERY out of place with all the Koreans dressed to the nines and us in our hiking gear! haha! The bus ride back to Yangsan was a slow one because of traffic jams on the highways. Our driver decided he didn't want to sit in stop and go traffic so he got off the highway and opted for the curviest road I have ever been on! Boy was I glad to get off that road and back onto the straight highways!

Although a rather uneventful weekend, it was nice to get away from Yangsan and see a different area of the country.




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The hamburger!The hamburger!
The hamburger!

Its hard to tell in the pic, but it is topped with an egg! Delicious burg!
GravesGraves
Graves

Each grave has the name of the person, their picture and flowers. Quite a sight.


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