Historic Gyeongju

We're back in Busan now after 2 days in Gyeongju, a city that was the capital of the Shilla Dynasty for almost a thousand years, though this was around a thousand years ago. Therefore there are a lot of old relics and things to see. It's only an hour by bus from Busan so a nice place to visit, and the town is fairly small (though some of the sites are further outside of the town).

We arrived and checked-in to stay with a local family who have a couple of rooms that they rent out. It was great to stay with them, chat somewhat (the mother spoke a few words of English) and see a Korean house (a fairly nice one that was built recently). The lovely mother was so excited that Hannah was there (her first baby guest) and got some great photos of Hannah waving Korean flags etc. We then promptly headed into town to explore the local market - a really top-notch food market. Totally local! We managed to find something to eat, a few stands had a sort of buffet going on with various things: the Korean egg pancake, tofu and other vegetables went down well.

First up was a bus out to the UNESCO World Heritage site, Bulguska temple, which is a nice enough temple, and fairly large, but nothing spectacular (we didn't even bother with the additional bus trip and entrance fee for the Seokguram Grotto which is also part of the UNESCO designation). We then went back into town and stopped at the Gyeongju National Museum. In theory most of what they have found from the ancient city (houses, tombs, temples etc) is housed there, but one of the main buildings was closed unfortunately. I was somewhat disappointed. Maybe because the dynasty was so long ago, not much has been found (due to age/theft?) or maybe there is not a lot known about the era so not a lot to tell visitors... anyway, there were some nice artifacts here and there, and the standard section on culture with samples of armor, utensils, clothes etc. But again, nothing outstanding. The highlight might be the children's part, which was very well done with brass rubbings, stamps, jigsaws and all sorts for the kids to do... a bit beyond Hannah's age, but she did her best.

Afterwards we walked across the road, as darkness fell, to see the Anapji Pond, which is a lake that used to be beside a large temple. The temple is now no more, the lake yielded up a lot of great stuff (which formed the culture exhibition at the museum) and now there is just a pretty lake with a few re-built parts of the temple. At night, with wonderful lighting on the temples, trees, and water, it looks wonderful and is an insanely popular place for a 1km or so stroll. Andrea got some great photos which we'll upload at some point once we get home. Then we kept walking towards town, bumped into a fair to celebrate the bell festival (I think) which was a nice distraction, saw the Far East's oldest astrological observatory (also nicely lit up at night) and finally got back into town. We ventured into some real local eateries on the way back but were not brave enough to eat: we'd really just be pointing at some strange letters on the wall and hoping it would be edible.

Once back in town though we found a nice little Japanese place and then headed back to the homestay. The next day in the morning we took a bus out to a beautiful village called Yangdong established in the 15th or 16th century. It has around 150 wonderful (and wonderfully preserved) houses, some of which are very grand, and make for a pleasant few hours walking around and strolling into, even in the light rain. Our lunch there was bibimbab; a trusty staple food! The mansions, courtyards, building design and architecture was all excellent. There was also a good little museum near the entrance giving more detail. Apparently the village is also a (separate) UNESCO World Heritage site (along with a similarly well preserved village a couple hours away).

We still had some time afterwards so we then walked around the tombs of the Shilla Monarchs. Now they are just large mounds covered in grass, but one of them has been opened up so you can see the construction and interior: basically the king would be buried in a large wooden box alongside some treasures, then a lot of stones would be piled on the box (presumably to keep out thieves). I'm not sure what happened to all the treasures. There were not a lot in the museum, so maybe they were stolen or have not been excavated yet. Fairly interesting. We then had a decent dinner in a local dumpling restaurant that actually had an English menu (shock, horror), and a foreigner eating there who was a regular and gave us some tips.

Gyeongju is definitely worth a couple days visiting; certainly Yangdong, the temples, the pond and other bits and pieces make it worthwhile. There are hundreds of other touristy things to do there as well from theme parks, to culture parks, to the Shilla experience and all sorts of other ruins to see if that's what one likes. We're glad we went and managed ok despite the iffy weather!