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| The wings that symbolise Korea's freedom and independence |
Luckily on Sunday it cleared up enough for us to venture out to the Independence Hall. To get there we took the 400 bus from Cheonan station, it took half an hour and cost a whole 60p each. I'm loving the cheap public transport here, beats paying £4.50 for a 20 minute bus into town at home!
The Independence Hall is the biggest museum in Korea and is set in acres of gardens with plenty of picnic benches, flowery shaded areas and quiet paths leading into trees and up hills. At the entrance you can hire buggies, tandems and electric scooters - we're definitely going to go back and do that one afternoon! The statue at the entrance is a pair of wings that represents Korea's freedom.
The museum is spread across 10 different buildings each telling a different part of Korea's fight for independence. It's pretty gruesome, especially the bits about the horrors committed by the Japanese - torture, war crimes, and general awfulness. The main hall boasts the biggest tile roof in Asia (if you're interested).
We didn't see every exhibit as it really is too big and we got tires, but the general impression was that Korea has fought long and hard to get to where it is today. It fought for independence from the Chinese, from the Japanese, and then went to war with North Korea. It seems the country has been fighting for independence since its very beginning. Lucky the English didn't find Korea because we probably would have colonised it too!!
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| The awkward photo |
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| Coy carp are cool |
The only really awkward part of it was when a security guard stopped us and started talking Korean at us and pointing to my camera. I thought he was trying to tell me cameras weren't allowed but when I went to put it in my bag he took it out again. After 5 minutes of puzzled non-conversation he ushered us over to some random rock and took our picture by it. I'm still not quite sure why.
Depressing history and overwhelming size aside, it's a really lovely place to walk around and many of the people there were simply enjoying the scenery and the outdoors. I particularly liked the coy carp that were en masse in a pond by the entrance, and the "flag garden" - 815 Korea flags flying neatly in lines.
The best thing about the Independence Hall is that it's free. Definitely something that can be enjoyed over and over again on our small budget.
