Since 2007 Jason has been telling me about this fortress he visited in Suwon. How amazing it was... How I had to go see it to believe it... How impressive the walls were, blah blah blah! So last Friday we finally got there. The kids had off school so Jason took the day off work. We got a bit of a late start due to some much needed sleeping in and some general goofing off, but eventually we looked up the directions and headed out.
About a 30 minute drive later, we found it. What we forgot to look up was where to park. So we drove around a bit looking at fortress and trying to find a place to park. Meanwhile, the clouds decided to roll in and it started to rain. Luckily we had some umbrellas in the trunk! The main benefit to traveling in Korea while its raining is the crowds seriously thin out. I think thats the main reason why we stayed at the fortress even in the rain. Jason was totally right, by the way, the fortress is amazing!! Boasting that it is the world's first planned city, along the walls are so many different military fortifications that can't be found at any other fortresses in Korea. (See link attached)
As we were walking up to the front of the fortress we noticed bell structure. This is the typical structure we have found in Korea and this is as close as you can get. Jason was thrilled since he loves these oversized bells here. We have to stop and take some pictures.
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| Large bell with structure. Very common here. |
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| Typically this is how close you can get, maybe even closer than most. |
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| Jason and the bell. |
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| Main gate of the palace within the fortress. |
Within the fortress is a Palace that was used as a subsidiary to the main palace. The fortress itself also functioned as a second capital. As we toured around I noticed that the stepping planks were perfect to my stride proving once again how much I fit in this country. Unfortunately we weren't able to take too many pictures because of the rain.
We did decide to continue with our hike around the grounds despite the rain and I'm so glad we did. Not only did we see some great scenery, at the top of the grounds we found a HUGE bell. Every hour it rings 3 times and the tones are phenomenal. As I stated before Jason loves these structures so he was ecstatic to be able to get this close to one. It was a real treat that we thoroughly enjoyed.
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| Our goal! We wanted to hike to this point! |
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| Palace grounds from above. |
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| Inner wall and pagoda. |
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| The bell at the top we could walk right up to! |
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| Yes, he rang the bell in the end. |
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| A little goofing around goes a long way! |
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| A VERY long way! |
Walking along the wall it reminded me a lot of the Great Wall of China. The construction at Hwaseong seems to have a little better quality. Perhaps the restoration is just better. I loved the purpose everything had. There was a reason behind every hole, every angle, every corner. Every inch was extraordinarily well planned. The views were breathtaking even in the rain. At the end of the day I was VERY glad we went and stayed even though we were all soaked! At least it was Friday and we had Happy Chicken to look forward to. Enjoy the pictures and the link.
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| Me walking along the outer wall! |
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| The river fortifications were amazingly beautiful. |
Link to information on Hwaseong fortress
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