There are so many hidden gems in South Korea that never really make it onto the radar of foreign travelers. Seongju, Korea is one of those places. It’s a bit off the beaten path located down in Gyeongsangbuk-do and the things to see there are traditional and definitely interesting. I was invited by the tourism board there to see what there was to see and was asked to write a fictional piece of writing about the area for an anthology.
Since The Soul of Seoul is usually a straightforward no fuss no muss sort of site, I thought I’d share the fictional piece with you but below that is all of the info you really need to visit and see more of Seongju, Korea on your own. Enjoy!
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Remember it is a fictional piece, but when I was writing, considering it was for an anthology, I wanted to keep the historical information accurate so what you read as far as that goes is accurate and true to the story of the area. At the end, there will be information on the locations I mention as well as a couple more that we visited that you should visit too if you want to go off the beaten path in Korea and visit Seongju yourself. I hope you enjoy!
Dear friends in Seoul,
When I decided to move from Seoul to Seongju last year, I never imagined I’d be moving back in time. Sure, it is still 2017, but I have effectively moved from a city leaping toward the future at a cheetah’s pace to a village that doesn’t even know what the possibilities of the future are. Even though this is the case, I’m happier and more fulfilled than I have been in ages so, maybe there’s something to be said for living a slower life.
In Seoul, I was living in an apartment that was basically run by robots. I had a refrigerator that told me when my milk was going bad and ordered eggs when I ran out. There was a vacuum cleaner that came out every day at 2:00pm to clean the floors and all of the handles on the doors were self-sterilizing. These were just some of the things in my house and then of course I lived near shopping malls with gardens on the rooftops and streets where there was always a taxi to be found. Life was fast paced and while I loved the lights of Seoul and the fact that there was always something to see and a place to go, I began to feel disconnected from the earth and the people around me. It was at that time that I decided I wanted to leave the big city and move.
In April of last year I moved from Seoul to Seongju in Gyeongsangbuk province. I chose the location because it’s known for producing delicious melons called “chamoe” and they are my favorite fruit. It may be a silly reason to choose a place to move to, but it seemed auspicious to me. There is a large lake in the area and numerous farms and sprawling crop fields. The natural beauty was immense the first time I visited the area. Not much comes up when you search the name of the town online and this was a bonus to me as I was hoping to get away from the crowds and live somewhere a little more undiscovered than Seoul. With little to no information online, I packed my bags and found myself in Hangae Folk Village where the neighbors welcomed me in. The Hanok homes in the area have been standing for 600 years and are still in their original form… so no robots sweeping up after me or telling me to buy milk. I was prepared for a slower life, but this was going to be a very different experience to everything I had learned growing up in the capital city of Korea.
Hangae means “Great Ford” and the community here lived under the Seongsan Yi Clan. Yi was a magistrate during the reign of King Sejong in the 15th century. There are houses with thatched roofs where common folk lived and if you walk up the small alleyways toward the mountain, there are larger homes that belonged to wealthier people the further up you go. There are gardens and fields that the neighbors tend and a bamboo forest I can walk through. Some of the homes on the foot of the mountain had been left in a bit of disarray and it was here I decided to take up residence. A neighbor seeing that I needed to do a lot of work on my “new” home before I could move in offered a room for me to sleep while I worked every day to prepare my Hanok.
Each day, I would rise early and head to my Hanok house. I had to clear out the debris that was left behind and had to learn how to work the heating system. Unlike apartments in Seoul where you can just flip a switch and heat up the home, Hanoks require much more work which involves starting a fire on the side of the house that would filter through the flooring and heat from the bottom up in the traditional ondol system. Luckily for me, it was spring when I moved to the village so I didn’t have to worry too much about keeping my fire going all day and night. That first winter in my Hanok though, I realized how much work is required to keep a fire going all day and night to keep a house warm. If not for my friendly neighbors, I would definitely have frozen to death last year.
I loved the hard work that came with cleaning and preparing my Hanok house. Each day I worked harder and each day I felt more connected to my home and the earth that supported it. Each evening, I would join neighbors to eat dinner and we would discuss the intricate care of our homes. These homes had lasted 600 years already and we hoped our homes could last another 600 years. I learned from my neighbors that spring was the time to bring out the perilla seed oils to polish the wooden pillars of my home and so that is what I did. I spent every waking hour repairing the thatched roof, or replacing the flooring or window panes. It was a lot of work.
It took a whole year for my Hanok to be finished and ready for me to live in it, sleep in it, and invite neighbors over to eat dinner with me in it. After all of that work though, I feel far more connected to the earth around me and the people that inhabit it. We are all working toward a common goal in the Hangae Folk Village. We work to maintain the traditional of the village and we work to be a community. There are, of course, the loud neighbors and the neighbors that don’t always put out their trash properly, but everyone is helpful and caring toward one another. That is something that I found severely lacking when I lived in a huge apartment complex in Seoul. Today, I am happier, healthier and more content with my life and it is thanks to moving to this Hanok village. While I haven’t really gone back in time, it really feels as if I have.
I hope now that I have finished work on my Hanok and it is prepared that you, my friends, will come and see what a slower life in a rural village feels like. Trust me, you will want to stay.
Come visit anytime… and maybe never leave.
HB
Where To Stay
Seongju Go and Go Pension
There are a lot of great pensions out in Seongju. This is one of those areas in Korea where you won’t find too many hotels but it’s where you’ll experience the rustic beauty of Korea. Most of the pensions even have pools and some feature private pools. Check out Go and Go Pension for just one options and see what else you can find on Agoda.com.
What To See
Royal Placenta Chamber of King Sejong’s Princes (성주세종대왕자태실)
While I doubt anyone takes to the internet to search out placenta burial grounds when they’re planning a trip, this certainly would make for an odd conversation starter if that’s what you need at the dinner table. Set on the Taebong Peak in Seongju are jars that contain the tae, or placentas and umbilical cords of King Sejong’s 18 sons (both the legitimate and illegitimate) and one grandson, who later became King Danjong. The tae was considered sacred and a symbol of life and a child’s destiny.
Before being stored, the placenta of a newborn prince was washed in a river and then enshrined in a jar within a small tomb-like chamber in a ritual called taejang. There’s a museum here that talks about the taejang ritual unfortunately all of the information is in Korean so you’ll have to walk through and sort of figure it out if you can’t read Korean.
After visiting the museum to learn about the ceremonies and rites surrounding the placenta burial, you walk up the side of the mountain, it doesn’t take too long, and you can see the burial grounds where fourteen of the original nineteen chambers are still intact. The ones that are not intact were actually destroyed purposely because the owners of said placenta were hostile toward Prince Suyang after he usurped control from King Danjong. Who doesn’t want to support a usurper after all? Prince Suyang then became King Sejo and his placenta burial chamber was elevated to show his now elevated status.
Visiting the grounds is extremely interesting especially if you have some understanding of the history and the drama surrounding the princes and kings. Our guide was very good at filling us in and it made for a rather fun morning discussing kings, princes and their placentas. Never thought I’d say that.
While the information in the museum was only available in Korean, the information available on the walk up the mountain and near the burial grounds is all in both Korean and English on signs so don’t miss stopping to check out the signposts.
Or the forest outside of the fortress in Gyeongsan-ri, Seongju as the sign would tell you upon arrival, is not so much a forest as a large space of land with some gigantic trees in on area and a vast empty space in the other. While forest may have been a good name for the area at one point, it really doesn’t convey what it is currently. Set on the banks of the Icheon River that runs westward there are 55 gigantic pussy willow trees that are between 300 and 500 years old. The trees were originally planted during the Joseon Dynasty to protect against erosion from the stream as well as to ward off evil spirits.
The area is a public park today and a visit to see the beautiful trees and the flowers that are planted beneath them in the summer would be lovely but also wouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to walk around so keep that in mind when you’re planning.
This traditional Korean folk village is a living village meaning there are still people residing in these cottages that are 600 years old. This community came from the Seongsan Yi Clan and there are currently over 60 cottages and houses to walk along.
Yi served as magistrate during the reign of King Sejong in the 15th century. As you walk through the village, you can read signposts outside of various homes that talk about the distinguished people that lived there. Among them is Lee Seung Hui, an independence activist who was committed to the “save the nation movement” at the end of the Great Korean Empire and was forced into exile to Vladivostok, Russia in 1908. There are numerous interesting tales of the people that have come from this traditional Hanok Village and beautiful Hanok lined lanes to walk along.
The village is surrounded by the blue dragon ridge and the white dragon ridge in the back with Icheon river and Baekcheon river in the front. This is an auspicious set up for any village in Korea. Much like the Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul, this is a residential area still so keep that in mind if you visit and don’t get too loud, leave trash around or visit before sunrise or after sunset to respect the residents there now.
Currently, there are nine homes designated as the cultural property of Gyeongsangbuk-do and seventy-five traditional homes that include six houses where sacrificial offerings and rites are performed. Most of these homes were built in the late 18th century to the earl 20th century.
PRO TIP: When you visit, don’t miss heading up the paths and ducking behind the stone/clay walls into the massive bamboo forest that’s hidden away on the side of the mountain too. This bamboo forest is just gorgeous, but I will say, Juknokwon Bamboo Forest in Damyang is definitely easier to walk through with beautiful paths and everything.
Visiting Seongju allowed me learn a lot and it made me remember the last time I visited Gyeongsangbuk-do in the autumn. On a tour with the Korea Tourism Organization, I was introduced to the area of Cheongsong. Cheongsong is another great off the beaten path town in the province and hosts the Cheongsong Apple Festival each year. That area is also known for a very interesting chicken dish that is BLUE and a type of unique white porcelain that can only be made there. It seems Gyeongsangbuk-do has quite a few towns that are holding onto their history and doing it in a very proud way which I dig.
This place was a very special find and there are so many hidden gems like it around Korea that you shouldn’t miss. Want to find some more? There are other great folk villages in Korea to find. Check them out if you have time.
