A few weeks ago I left the hostel early in the morning with the thought of going in a direction I hadn’t walked through before. Slowly an even road began to have a slight incline. I noted several small galleries and marked their location using gps. I told myself I’d revisit them at a later time and do a post on them. I later discovered that I was unknowingly walking near the South Korean’s presidents house (called the blue house).
The shops were just opening and even though the sun was shinning strong the morning still had a nice cool freshness to it. I wanted to keep enjoying the beautiful weather while it lasted, so I kept walking upward. Seoul is surrounded by various peeks and the only one I had yet to visit was the one where the n Seoul tower was located.
No blog of Seoul would be complete without a post of the N Seoul tower so look for that later on as well!
This morning I decided to simply keep following the incline until I couldn’t any more and much to my surprise I found a beautiful gem in the city. A long winding road went from tourist shops to upscale residential to beautiful forested mountain path.
Here’s when I knew I had stumbled upon something nice (take my word for it when I say it doesn’t do the actual incline justice):
After another long hour uphill walk I found myself surrounded by mountains, singing birds and a gentile breeze.
While walking up the path I noticed one of the city buses drive on by. As I kept walking it seemed a little surreal that all of this was located a short walk or bus ride from the middle or Seoul.
A little information about what I later discovered was Mt Bugaksan. Unfortunately I’m not able to find a great deal of information about this mountain. It’s located a short distance from the south Korean presidents “blue house”; His home during his presidency.
From one of the sign post: “The fortress wall was built in 1396 to surround Hanyang (the capital of the Joseon and former name of Seoul). In 1422 the parts that were built with earth were replaced with stone, and the walls we’re heightened. In 1704 the week parts of the wall were reinforced. […] The fortress wall was about 18 km in circumference and 12 m in height. The walls linked together the ridges of Bugaksan (Mt.), Inwangsan (Mt.), Namsan (Mt.) and Naksan (Mt.) which surrounded Hanyang. […]”
Approximately half way up the hill there was a small bend in the road and a rest area with some exercise equipment. I discussed this with my Korean friend because I thought it was funny that they had placed some exercise equipment half way up a mountain and not at the bottom of it. There didn’t appear to be any neighborhoods near the exercise machines so maybe they took the bus up to them? (can you feel the ‘funny’ in that statement?) I also took advantage of this area to snap a couple of shots of the N seoul tower and surrounding city sprawl.
Just past the bend and a little higher up the road was a small gated entrance to the Sungkyun Kwan private university. The university was originally established in 1398 to offer prayers and memorials to Confucius and his disciples. You can read more about this old university at wikipedia here.
Walking up the mountain slope the sounds of birds and the smell of fresh air continued to increase. Seoul has a fair bit of smog on certain days which you’ll notice in some of the pictures. Getting a breath of that fresh mountain forest air was refreshing.
Finally having reached the top of the mountain road I was greeted with another exercise area, a guarded military post, a small path into the mountains and an old ajuma (middle aged Korean woman) selling drinks and food out of the back of a truck. You can find these small cantina trucks all over Seoul.
A short distance afterward is where the old Seoul fortress wall and path ways began. A sign also noted that foreigners should have their passport available for inspection:
I really don’t have as much historical information about the wall as I’d like (being a little bit of a history enthusiast). The views were simply majestic and it was surprising to have all of this located a short bus ride (or a long hike) from downtown.
Walking along one of the many available paths provided some impressive views of Seoul and it’s various neighborhoods. Here we had a row of actual houses (with real estate costing what it does in a city with 10 million inhabitants, owning a house is a sign of significant wealth). Unfortunately on this day the smog was present. I would call this an average smog day in Seoul (You’ll see heavy smog days in later post):
Finally after wandering through the nice mountain trails you reached the top of the fortress wall. I’ve tried to include a few shots with perspective of the wall (to show just how high it was built) and well as some of the ancient turrets, that had also been modified to hold modern equipment (guns):
I read in one of the guide books that this whole area used to be closed off to civilians due to the presidents house being so close. I’m not sure exactly when they opened it up to the general public, but they have definitely taken advantage of it. While wandering around the top of the wall I stumbled upon a little area where couples and individuals were sitting in the shade with a cup of tea or snacks and enjoying the views. Once you reached the top it flattened off a fair bit, depending on whether or not you stayed on the indicated trail. There were lots of worn down paths which weren’t official but took you to very nice and relaxing spots:
Finally on the way out I stopped and had a quick lunch at the ajumas cantina truck. Two bottles of ice cold water, a cup of warm instant noodles and a boiled egg for 4600 won. Approximately 4.60$ Canadian. They even gave you a little bit of salt with sesame seeds to dip your egg into. I leave you with a picture of the simple but filling lunch and another picture that brought out my funny side. I ask you, does this block feel like it’s letting down it’s fellow block or not doing it’s job properly ? ;-)
i missed this plc. definately will visit this plc my next trip.