Korea has made many efforts to keep alive its pastoral traditions, according to the Rough Guide, including preserved folk villages. We visited one such community where residents suvive on a mix of home-grown vegetables, goverment subsidy and tourist-generated income. This one has World Heritage protection.
There’s a shuttle bus from the car park so all the cars we saw belonged to residents. We approved of the shuttle bus instructions:
Tne village has over a hundred traditional countryside houses made of mud walls and thatched roofs which are clustered together in the bend of the river:
We thought this building might be a toilet:
The village dates back centuries and lots of its traditions are still practised including the maintenance of a kind of fertility tree (600 years old) in the middle of things:
Rice fields at various stages of harvesting surround the village:
As for the vegetables: gardeners, how’s this for produce?
We think it’s pretty organic as there were loads of caterpillars dropping on us when we stopped for coffee and a snake on the muddy path we were wondering along (Miriam screamed; Sue was heroic in tossing it into the long grass).
There were some more substantial buildings including an unlikely church:
The autumn colours were just developing:
The village has a bit of folk art around the place but it seems genuine, rather than prettied up for the tourists: (well, maybe not true of the bottom one):
But of course there’s the contemporary version as well – though definitely outside the village:
It was a magical start to the day!
What good fun all round!
Oh yes! Really good fun ( apart from the s—-e moment on the path by the river) – and really big cabbages…
Looks much more authentic than the usual model-village-ancient rural-life type of thing they usually have and the folk art is lovely – much lovelier than the modern stuff which seems to tend towards cartoonish and cutesy.
Well, Koreans definitely do cartoonish and cutesy – but not here. This felt more or less (possibly less than more) like a working village, growing rice, satellite dishes in place, cars in the garage,accompanied by the occasional bus load of tourists…
What’s so interesting is how similar villages are across the globe. We’ve just been to the living Weald outdoor museum – some very similar structures. Also how amazingly fertile.
Well, I guess mud and thatch are global, more or less? And yes, very fertile – I’ve never seen such huge cabbages and there are vegetable plots everywhere – loads of onions, green stuff ( no idea) and cabbage the size of , dunno, fiat 500s?
What a lovely place. I bet those houses with mud walls and thatch roofs are great to sleep in. Yes enviable vegetable yields. Looks a very relaxing, beautiful place to stay in
Yes, indeed – a lovely place, green, fertile, UNESCO blessed?
Spectacular and such a wonderful contrast to the stark demilitarised zone and highly urbanSeoul (where I arrived very late last night)…
Hope urban Seoul is very good fun, Nicky – we loved it!