Suwon Part II

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Having been here two months (seriously?!), I've started to get used to all the crazy things that make this country so different, and some of the novelty of being in Asia has started to wear off.

But every once in a while - like when I'm walking through an open market that is PACKED with people, where stands with squid-on-ice sit next to entire headless pigs roasting on spits, and people with the strangest make up I've ever seen do tricks to terrifying music - it is overwhelmingly clear that I am on the other side of the world. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'd be lying if I said Suwon was a particularly nice or pretty city - it's too crowded for me and litter control is seriously lacking in some parts - but I wanted to go back and walk the fortress wall. What I discovered is that, for a person not particularly interested in the art of war, battlements everywhere look pretty much the same. But that could just be me.


Paladmun: a rotary-like place where the two ends of the wall meet. This area was very touristy, but it didn't look like we could actually go up to the building.


The beginning of the fortress wall. It went all the way up the side of a mountain, albeit a small one. Again, these Koreans LOVE their stairs.


View at the top. Why are there white flags up here and red flags at the bottom? I do not know. Later on, there will also be black flags.


A lookout point/turret on top of the mountain. What I did like about this place was that the painting on many of the buildings was faded, not bright and perfect the way it's been at the temples. It seems more genuine that way. I'm not sure if it is the original (most of this stuff was said to be built in the 1700's) or if it just hasn't been restored in a while, but it was cool to see something that seemed old.


A partial view of the city from a turret at the top of the mountain.


Cannons and black flags.


More wall.


Yes, I only took this because of the random sign-carriers. No, I never figured out what it was about.


Another station on the wall.

The fortress wall ended in the middle of a marketplace, but it was too crowded for me to take out my camera. It's amazing to me how they can put loud teeny-bop pop music in a store next to a demonstrac(to which everyone from 8 to 30 listens, it seems) next to the terrifying screech that is traditional music. Between that and the smell of kimchi and garlic (which even I notice, it's so strong) and the gurgling mass of people, how Koreans in Suwon don't explode from sensory overload, I don't know.

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Comments

[Ayla]

Crikey, these pictures are pretty amazing. I think I need to look further into this. Expect lots of interviews when you get back to this country and we inevitably have another UEA reunion.