We’ve had another huge day, but it’s been amazing. We woke up to find that the weather forecast was wrong - the rain had stopped earlier than anticipated! So we set off without umbrellas to climb the city walls.
First, we went to the City Wall Museum to gain some context about the wall and learn its history. We saw the different types of stones used during different periods out the front.
Seoul today has roughly 10 million residents and takes up an area of 605 square kilometres, however, back in Joseon times, Seoul (then called Hanyang) was contained within the 18.627km long, 5-8m high city wall constructed in 1396.
The Korean name for the wall is Hanyangdoseong, because originally the capital was called Hanyang. The wall snakes around the four mountains here - Namsan, Naksan, Bugaksan and Inwangsan. Its intention was to keep the Joseon royals and their palaces safe, and keep the enemy out. It did so for a period of 514 years from 1396-1910, the longest functioning time of any city wall in the world. After this time it fell into major disrepair. Throughout its history it has been repaired and conserved many times, with those building or rebuilding the wall inscribing their name and region into the stones (we later saw this on our walk). However, after 1910 much of the wall and some of its gates were removed to make way for houses, public buildings and more, particularly on flat sections among the city.
Today, 13.37km of the wall is still in tact, with some original stones incorporated but many other stones used in the reconstruction. In some sections it is now not possible to restore the wall due to buildings etc. being in the way. The stones that were taken from the wall were often used for constructing other buildings so are probably dispersed throughout the city. Some were even taken from the ruins we saw yesterday to build the stadium that then stood on top of them.
An organisation tried to protect the wall in 1936, but people still continued to damage it. However in 2012 UNESCO declared it a world heritage site.
Upstairs we saw paintings of the wall from the 1700s, and the very top floor was all about the construction and labour that went into making the wall. In the late 1300s, 197470 people were conscripted to build the wall. This was a dangerous job with many suffering injuries or death particularly during the moving of the rocks.
Unfairly, the people inside the walls didn’t have to pay taxes to maintain it and could not be conscripted for labour, but but the people on the outside did and could be. Commoners outside the gate were only allowed in for a few reasons - government exams, craftwork on demand and supplying products on demand. The gates were closed during curfew hours. The start of curfew was signalled with 28 bells, while the end with 33 bells. A water clock like the one we saw yesterday was used for the timing.
We were glad to have all this information so we could have a proper appreciation for the wall. We set off for a big day.
We had a couple of stops in mind along the way, and the first was Ihwa Mural Village. This area used to be a slum, but in the early 2000s the government revamped it and murals and sculptures were created. Some of the best ones have now been removed because the locals got sick of tourists being everywhere, but there were still some for us to appreciate. We then kept going along the wall, and saw some beautiful flowers along the way and some of the stone inscriptions I mentioned earlier.
The first section was Naksan, a relatively easy mountain to climb. It was shady and mostly locals here. Then we continued on to Bugaksan. This 2.5km section was very steep, and heavily fortified with military buildings and towers. We even had to go through a checkpoint at one point and get a special pass!! We saw a spot where North Korean commandos had fled to after a failed assassination attempt on the president in 1968. We also had some great views of Gyeongdeokgung Palace and the hoards of people in front of it at the stage we had been to on Tuesday. I think there was a concert on.
After ascending then descending some steep steps, we ended up at the Changuimun Gate. We followed the advice of a blog I had read, and walked to Jaha Sonmandoo - a dumpling restaurant. It turns out in the four years since that blog post was written, the restaurant has gained Michelin status. Enter two sweaty, stinky Australians in hiking clothes!! Luckily the lady that welcomed us in was lovely, and didn’t even bat an eyelid at our attire. The restaurant had lovely big windows so you could see the surrounding mountains. We enjoyed two plates of delicious dumplings, some of the best I’ve ever had.
Then it was on to Inwangsan. I thought Bugaksan was the steepest - I was wrong! I found this one harder, but I think it was because the sun had fully emerged from the clouds by this time so it was hot. The seemingly never ending steps finally ended, and gave way to the most beautiful view we had had all day! We could see the city sprawling below us and recognise the palaces and various landmarks we had visited in the last few days. Up the very top we sat for a while and just took it in before heading back down.
Descending Inwangsan was very steep with steps carved into the rocks, but it was no Kinabalu! But the steep descent was worth it because the views were very rewarding. The path became more flat and we saw some more beautiful flowers, and then we laughed because there was a 7 Eleven here right next to the wall. We had been wanting a cold drink, so it felt like a mirage!!
After this, we were in a section where the wall doesn’t exist anymore. As a result, we got a little lost but saw a rally with Korean flags and lots of people shouting on the way. It’s their national foundation day today, so maybe it and the concert I mentioned earlier were both to commemorate the day. Whatever it was, it was very loud!! We had been able to hear loud music and talking floating up the mountains as we walked, so we figured that’s what it was.
We then climbed up our final mountain - Mt Namsan. This hill is also called Beacon Hill sometimes because it was the last place along the wall that a beacon was lit to warn of incoming enemies. The last stretch up there was cruel because we could see the tower and it was lurking right in front of us but it didn’t seem to get any closer. But we eventually made it and went up the 480m high tower. The views were spectacular. We enjoyed day time views, then the sunset and then the sparkling lights of the city once it was dark. We timed it perfectly! I particularly liked seeing the city walls lit up and really admiring how far we walked today. I can't believe we did it! We found it interesting up there that based on distances listed on the windows, the USA, Australia and Europe are all relatively the same distance from here.
We headed down and the cable car queue was one hour plus, so we convinced our legs to walk back down. We had some yummy street food at Namdaemun Market - much of it was closed due to the holiday though. We tried fish sticks, crab sticks, prawn sticks, a quiche type thing, a hotteok pancake and then some fresh fruit juice. All delicious!!
Then we headed back. We’ve walked for nearly 12 hours solid, I’ve done just shy of 40,000 steps and dad’s Fitbit reckons we’ve also done just shy of 400 flights of stairs today. I hope my legs work tomorrow!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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