26 May 2022
Little Xian
Walking around the Hwaseong fortress wall in Suwon
The main attraction in Suwon without a doubt is the wall that circles the city. Well it almost completely circles a part of the city, there is one small bit that is gone and not rebuilt.
This is the second best city wall I have walked a lap of, sorry Suwon but Xi'an in China is superior, please do not deport me yet.
The Suwon wall is still great, and it is a UNESCO heritage site, so you can read all about it there, but the crux of the story is, a King in one of those slow motion crying K-dramas based in the time of the Joseon dynasty built it to honour his father, a prince, who refused to commit suicide when his father, the previous king, demanded he do so. For failing to suicide on command he was instead buried alive inside a rice chest. So now he has a fortress to protect his rice chest. Although I have no way of knowing for sure because at the time of writing there are over 9000 Korean shows set in the time of the Joseon dynasty, but I will just assume at least one of them is based on this little nugget of tear fodder.
Apart from the wall, there is what is called a temporary palace at the centre of it. I went there as well, temporary means it was never the official palace but built for other reasons such as travel, war, boredom with the main palace, somewhere to hide your mistress, that sort of thing.
Anyway the wall was great, and worth the trouble of staying here in Suwon for a couple of days.
On my way to the wall I passed lots of huge new suburbs under construction. The old man guarding the construction entry gate was not happy I was taking a photo.
Suwon has its own sewer park stream. It is very long and quite nice and I detected no odour.
No chance of getting lost today, I decided to start and end the wall at the top, the hill is called Paldalsan. There are lots of big rocks surrounded by ropes and signs warning you to keep off, so I am assuming they are graves.
I found the wall. There are people on the other side of the wall, but I could not get to that side. I had to walk back down and back up again once I got on the correct side of the wall. I am always left on the outside of everything.
Before entering, and at many points along the journey, there are public toilets. This is an AAAAA+ national tourist experience.
Now that I am inside the wall, heres some more shots of the wall from near the top, actually this is the wall extension to the adjacent part of the fortress, a sign told me so.
There is Suwon, to answer a previous question, population estimates vary greatly because it is joined onto Seoul and various other cities, its just one huge urban area with the occasional UNESCO heritage site or mountain.
It was quiet on most of the wall today.
Suwon the other way, or some other city. You can see parts of the wall if you look hard. Also there is a major air force base just to my left, military jets were flying circuits all day, very common in Korea.
Tomorrows mountain. Seoul is in that direction.
I have descended down Paldalsan along the wall. I should point out, there is no cost to walk along the wall.
There are 4 main gates but probably 8 smaller ones. I think this is a smaller one, I read signs that went on about bastions and turrets and what not, but it all just looked like a wall to me.
Many of the wooden structures require you to remove your shoes, so I walked around them.
Lots of people pose for photos, I tried to stay out of their way, you can see one lady here striking a pose for a camera person out of view.
Remember to read right to left....
Here is the other end of the Suwon sewer stroll, I think they could market it as that, has a nice ring to it.
We are getting near the end of the wall shots, I promise.
This is mildly concerning. An archery field. No one was shooting arrows while I crossed over the top, but what if they sneeze as they fire?
In Korea you can appreciate the moon in the middle of the day.
I had now finished the wall and headed to the Hwaseong Haenggung Palace, where a Korean ninja show was in progress.
Ancient warriors also where masks.
No Korean palace is complete without lasers. The palace was a little underwhelming and had an entry fee, all of about $1.50.
Here is part of the wall that is no longer connected to the wall, right in the middle of the old market. It is probably the biggest of the gates.
Then I found an entire network of covered shopping streets and markets. I did not know they were here, I became lost, then I realised it also goes underground and became further lost.
Lots and lots of food.
Even more food featuring live and dead sea creatures.
I let the sea creatures be, and enjoyed a delicious chocolate mint cream sandwich. Really I did!