Walking Seoul's Fortrss Wall

On Saturday we decided to have an afternoon out in Seoul, walking the old fortress walls and enjoying the cityscape. Little did we know it would be such an intense military experience!

Changuimun Gate

From Seoul Station we took a taxi to Changuimun, one of four gates to the city walls. The taxi cost 8,000w, although it is cheaper to go by subway and bus, we didn't want to waste any time, and the taxi only took 15 minutes.

The entire city used to be within the walls, which were first built in 1396 under King Taejo's rule and extend 18.2km around Seoul. Nowadays, the walk is a popular tourist attraction, however; on the north part of the circuit, around Mount. Bugaksan, the wall is still heavily militarised.

When we arrived at Changuimun the first thing we did was set off a very loud alarm by getting too close to a pagoda. There were no barriers, and no signs in English telling us to keep away, so we were rather startled. But then we did it again and took a video! Much to the annoyance of the guards and fortress-wall employees!

The area around the mountain is a military controlled area as it overlooks the presidential residence (Cheongwadae). In 1968 there was an assassination attempt on the President's life from the fortress by North Korean troops! There is a tree (still standing) that shows the bullet holes it received in the cross fire. 

To begin our hike we had to fill out an application form, hand it in along with our ID cards at a desk, wait while they checked that we weren't North Korean spies, and then we were issued with a pass that we had to wear around our necks for the duration of the walk. 

There are "city wall officials" every 100 meters along the wall and soldiers complete with rifles at regular look out points. You can only take photographs in certain areas, and you're watched like a hawk constantly. After getting a telling off by a city wall official, I asked why we weren't allowed to take photos in the particular area, the answer was a short and precise "secret". The wall is protected by no less that three barbed wire fences on the outside and alarmed motion detectors on the inside. It was more intimidating the the DMZ! 

Aside from the excessive security, the walk was great. As usual, we unintentionally started our hike on the wrong side of the mountain, meaning our ascent was incredibly steep and painful, and our descent on the other side was much flatter and more gentle! The advantage of this was that we were the only people going in that direction, everybody else was coming down the way we were going up. 

At the summit of Bugaksan (342m above sea level) we were randomly interviewed for by a Korean radio station about what we thought of the fortress walls. It was conducted in English, by a Finnish interpreter. 

The views were great; from the wall you can see over to Namsan tower, the river and the sprawling neighbourhoods of skyscrapers that wind through the valleys between dozens of mountains. 

Access to the protected part of the wall stops and 3pm, and you must be out of the area by 5pm. As we were going against the flow of most of the Korean hiking enthusiasts, this meant that as of 3pm we alone on the wall (except for the ever present soldiers and guards keeping an eye on us!)

The steep climb from Changuimun to the top of Bugaksan.

Namsan mountain.

Bugaksan

When we got out of the military protected zone on the opposite side of Bugaksan, we left the wall in search of food and water! It was a great afternoon walk and I think we'll definitely return and walk another section of it. 

From the section of wall at Waryong Park we took a bus to Insadong, where we did some shopping in the wonderfully tacky tourists shops and ate a platter of pajeon in a traditional restaurant.

Pajeon

Pajeon is Korean for pancake, on our platter we had: mung-bean and chilli pancakes, fish curd pancakes, spinach and seaweed pancakes, pork wrapped in sesame leaf pancakes, and crabstick and sausage pancakes! It was a grease feast.

Wonderful Wonderland and Korea Co-teachers

"Everybody Smile At Wonderland"-My School's [grammatically inaccurate] Slogan

My school is a franchise called Wonderland. And yes, sometimes being 6ft tall, I do feel a little like Alice when she drinks the magic potion, grows into a giant and can't fit through the doors!

The franchise has a really bad reputation, so bad in fact that when our agent, the mysterious "Doyle", told us we had an interview with Wonderland we immediately wrote it off and decided that we'd do the interview only for practice.

Wonderland

Our minds were changed however, during the interview. The friendly laid-back manner of Ian, our supervisor, put us at ease and when we found out that the two teachers we were replacing had been there 2 and 7 years we figured it was worth re-considering.

The fact that the school is a franchise means that it's run like a business. There's no government funding, and the only income comes from the [extremely high] fees the parents pay. This also means that while my school is considerably well run, another Wonderland school just down the road could be completely different.

The bad reputation of Wonderland stems mainly from blog entries and sites such as "the hagwon blacklist", that claim "the school didn't pay me on time", "the school tried to dock my pay when I was off sick" and other such petty complaints. Having been employed at Wonderland for 3 months now I feel strangely protective of it, and of the wonderful people who work there.

My desk

Stereotypically a large majority of the people that come to Korea to teach English are American or Canadian, they've just graduated from university, they've left mummy and daddy behind and they have no frickin' clue about what life is like outside of their North American bubble.

The school didn't pay you on time?? Poor baby. Welcome to the real world. I've don't think I've ever had a job that did consistently pay me on time!

(I think this explains why my closest friends here are those who already have some considerable experience travelling.)

I want to set the record straight about Wonderland. It's not perfect, it's a business, it's a job. Deal with it.

Clockwise: me, Soomi, Claire, Haley,
Michelle (who Ric replaced), and Daisy

At my school there are four native English teachers (myself and Ric and two Americans), and six Korean teachers all of whom are young, funny and WONDERful!

On Tuesday this week all the teachers went out for dinner together to a traditional Korean restaurant whose theme was seemingly a Korea harbour 80 years ago. The decoration was cool, the smell was bad.

The Restaurant

We ate pajeon, Korean pancake made with spring onions, carrots and squid tentacles! And Korean stew (sausages and kimchi), and a variety of traditional Korean snacks (silkworm larvae included). It was surprisingly tasty.

Haley, Daisy and the pajeon

Wonder-teachers

Silk worm larvae, everyone's favourite snack.

Graffitti to mark the occasion, the Korea bit says "teachers"
in case you didn't know.