Sunday, Mar 31st, Busan, South Korea

Greetings!

Busan is the only area to escape the ravages of the Korean War.  Escape is the right word for it, as the city became the home of refugees both domestic and international.  The U.S. retreat ended here, just about the last place it could end - as it fronts on the southern beaches of the country.  United Nations forces fought back from here, and the locals provided a safe shelter for us.

The current city is the most international in the country, and the second largest.  And you can see it in the Jagalchi Fish Market.  Everything found in the sea is here, and everyone with an interest in good food is here to buy it.  And you needed not go too far to enjoy it, as the market's third floor contains food servers who will cook and prepare what you buy at first floor stalls.

After another cornucopia of seafood choices for lunch, our travels took us to the Gamcheon Cultural Village. an urban regeneration project employing unemployed artists to create a hillside of color and imagination.

During the Korean War, allied soldiers died throughout battlefields all over Korea.  Generally, temporary graveyards were developed and maintained where possible nearby.  When access and logistics made it possible, the remains were repatriated out of the country, or moved to more secure locations.

Gradually, the bodies moved south.  And the last location to hold un-repatriated remains was a site in Busan.

In 1951, work began on the UN Memorial Cemetery at Tanggok, Busan.  Between 1950 and 1954, 11,000 casualties were interred there before being transferred to their final destination.  Currently, the Cemetery holds 2,300 servicemembers in 22 sites designated by the nationalities of those buried there.  A sculpture park and twenty-nine memorials have been added.  A wall containing the names of all of the 40,681 allied servicemembers has been placed on the site.  Some of us found what we believe to be the names of relatives on it.

Our hotel (Haeundae Grand Hotel) looks out on the stretch of the East China Sea in the direction of Japan in the great distance, and Jeju Island in the nearer distance (we're flying there tomorrow).  Jeju is a sister city to our hometown, Santa Rosa, and we're looking forward our stay there.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Sunday, Mar 31st, Busan, South Korea.

Saturday, Mar 30th, Seoul, South Korea

Greetings!

We began the day visiting a Confusion shrine of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897),  Jongmyo.  The longest building in Korea of traditional design, it was founded by the first King (Taejo) whose family dominated the early years.  The Dynasty eventually included 27 Kings, 19 of which are enshrined here.

In May of each year, ritual ceremonies are held contiuing a tradition begun in the 14th century.  Both the shrine and the ceremony are on the World Heritage List.

Skipping ahead 300 years, and only a few blocks, we took a quiet walk through a hillside neighborhood (Bukchon Hanok Village) which has also been designated a historic district, and which enforces strict quiet among the visiting tourists.  Signs and patrols enforce the silence, and 600,000 visitors arrive annually to see the homes of government bureaucrats who served the Joseon Dynasty.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Saturday, Mar 30th, Seoul, South Korea

Friday, March 29th, Seoul, South Korea

Greetings!

I learned much in the last three days that I should have known before now.  I don't know how it happened, but I have grown to believe that all I needed to know about Korea was that my father's generation got sent to somewhere cold and frustrating for too long, and that a significant number of them died or were wounded.  While they make up most of the VFW groups, I have never thought to learn much about the circumstances of their service.  I don't think many Vietnam veterans ever learned about how much they have in common with Korean veterans.

In both Korea and Vietnam, in the aftermath of a foreign colonial power's leaving, America stepped in to impose its political system and influence to a weak and confused people.  In both cases, it gave  up on local development and fell back on depending on our military to solve the problem.  In the long run, it was a giant waste of time and people.

I am shocked at how little I know until recently about the power of the Japanese empire from the end of the 19th century until World War II.  And how important that would have been to better understand the social and political dynamics of this part of the world.  My government and school history lessons taught me to fear China.  In particular, the Chinese rebels who forced the deposed government we backed to flee to a tiny island and brutally mistreat its people as it ended Japanese rule.  The rebels who spent most of their time and energy while I was fearing them struggling to help its people recover from the 35-year occupation by Japan. The Japan who had defeated the expansionist efforts of both China and Russia, and had established itself as the dominant power in Asia.  The Japan whose obvious next step was to attack us.

Why I didn't question the premise that people in Asia freed from such tyranny and brutality for so long would choose to follow a foreign power advocating separation and military aggression?  Because I didn't know any of the history over here.  Because I was a lot more ignorant than I thought I was.  But learning new perspectives is one of the benefits of travel.  Nothing's always purely right, but benefits from new viewpoints.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Friday, Mar 29th, Seoul, South Korea.

Thursday, Mar 28th, Seoul, South Korea

Greetings!

The Old Kingdom's Palace for the changing of the guard, the National Folk Museum to learn about the everyday lives of the 19th century Koreans, Insa-Dong Street for lunch and shopping, National War Memorial to discover much about the Korean War, and dinner in the Seoul Tower - highest restaurant in the country.

An exhausting day that has us prepared for our visit to the DMZ tomorrow.  For those of you who want a detailed look at the Korean War, from the spring of 1950,check out this video documentary. 

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Thursday, Mar 28th, Seoul, South Korea.

Wednesday, Mar 27th, Seoul, South Korea

Greetings!

There is a routine that we've gotten down pretty well now for arriving at a hotel, especially if it's from an airport after a long flight, but following an afternoon of touring.  Sometimes we have to drag our luggage from the bus to the hotel lobby, but usually it means that either the hotel is in an area too expensive to house staff, or the hotel can't be reached directly by the bus.  But usually they are there with their very enthusiastic personalities.  Once in the lobby with our bags, we're given room keys, and told when to meet in the lobby to head for dinner.

In the time we have before dinner, the task is to find, examine, and equip the room.  Finding it is easiest, though we're often side-tracked by the elaborate layouts and decorations we find on the way.  More and more hotels are displaying the arts of their cultures throughout the building.

But there is no standard for the layouts of the accommodations around the world.  Especially where they put the electrical outlets, much less what kind they use.  Because we're now in need of re-charging the various mobile and computer devices we've been using all day, we need to be very strategic in plugging them into the wall outlets.

We also need to lay out the bathroom gear, get a sense of what the hotel has provided in the room, and change and freshen up.  Sometimes, we also get to turn on the television (after figuring out how to do so), see what happened in the world, and how this culture watches its television.

Today, we flew from Taipei, Taiwan to Seoul, South Korea.  Two brand new airports, built to handle millions of new passengers, with state of the art equipment.  If you ever want to experience what air travel is capable of being, try one of these destinations.  And when you get to Seoul's International Airport, try one of the information kiosks set up for the most recent Olympics.

There are only a few more photos taken this evening as we walked the streets of Seoul to dinner.  You can see them at: Wednesday, Mar 27th, Seoul, South Korea.
 

Tuesday, Mar 26th, Taipei, Taiwan

Greetings!

While our luggage took the bus today, we boarded the bullet train and sped from Tainan to Taipei.  Tomorrow, we fly to Seoul, South Korea.  But before we leave, there are a few more stops that we'll have time to see.  The first is the Grand Hotel.

If you guessed that the hotel is the brainchild of Chiang Kai-Shek, you'd be right.  His intention was to have a decent place in the mid-1950's for invited high-profile foreigners to stay when they came to the country.

After lunch in its Golden Dragon restaurant, we drove to the Taipei Martyrs Shrine, dedicated to the 390,000 soldiers who died in the War  of Resistance against Japan and the civil war between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China.

We checked back into the Folio Daan in Taipei for our last night in Taiwan, and then went back out to take a walk in the Taipei's old-town area (Dihua Street).  Our guide, Sam, directed us to the Taiyuan Asian Puppet Theater Museum.

And finally, our Taiwan adventure ended with a custom hunger game tour in the Taipei Night Market by Tour me Away.   Twelve local dishes you've never tasted anywhere else (Hint - No one on our tour was able to finish all of them).

To see all of the photos we took today, click on: Tuesday, Mar 26th, Taipei, Taiwan.

Monday, Mar 25th, Tainan, Taiwan

Greetings!

Today was a temple day.  We also visited two Dutch forts, and old gate,  a large department store, a park with 130 standing inscription stones (stele), and we walked through quite a lot of Tainan's more artistic neighborhoods.  But what we saw and learned most about were temples.

Taiwan temples focus on Buddha, Dao, Confucious, and Matsu.  And sometimes more than one in a temple.  Like the people who worship in each, beliefs tend to be mixed in together, with ancestral worship anchoring all of it.

We weren't alone.  While we tried to find a pattern in the national origin, socio-economic class, age, or language of those around us, we struck out.  We felt welcome everywhere, and our guides helped us understand what we were seeing and hearing.

We first visited the Guan Gong Temple, an all-purpose temple which started out in 1665 as the base of operations for the recapture of China by followers of the Ming Dynasty.  Now, it serves to inspire literature, architecture, educational testing, and even finding a life partner.

Next, we went to the Dutch Fort of Zeelandia (Anping Old Fort), built in 1624 as a strategic trading position in the far east.  Building a fort where there was no clay for bricks, or wood in abundance, is not easy.  The solution: sticky rice, sugar, and crushed clam shells.  No kidding, the walls still exist.

The Dutch decided they needed a fort further inland, and in 1653 they built Fort Provincia two miles east of Zeelandia.  Both forts were supplied by the first Dutch outpost in the east, Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia).  Their occupation of the area lasted for 38 years.  In 1662, the forts were taken by a southern Chinese leader (Kozinga) who had fled China when the Ching dynasty defeated the Ming, and intended to use it as a base of support to retake China (sound familiar).

The final temples on our daily tour were dedicated to Masu and Confucius.  The former is loved by every Taiwanese, and arose out of fisherman family folklore.  The latter better known for housing the key tablets ascribed to Confucius and his distinguished disciples.

As if our day wasn't full by then, we walked back to the hotel via the brand new Tainan City Art Museum.  We were just in time for a special party honoring the retirement of the Chair of the Board of Trustees, and wandered around in the exhibit halls as they put the final touches on the art.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on: Monday, Mar 25th, Tainan, Taiwan.