March 9, Korea

It is freezing. We knew that it could be cooler as we got to this area, but we did not prepare for 0C. Our tour today was mainly outside so we had on lots of layers. At one point it was snowing.

Our first stop was at a folk village. This is a village constructed to give an idea of life in the 18th & 19th centuries. Houses and artifacts were brought to this area to demonstrate what life was like at that time. We are docked in the port of Icheon about an hours drive from Seoul. It has a population of 1.7 million and Seoul has a population of 11million. Korea is 50 million total.

In 1883 Incheon was the first part of the country open to the Western world. The Japanese had colonized Korea during the period 1910 – 1945. During that time the Japanese built the current highways and railways. There is a very good public transit system with many buses, railways and subways. Most people use the public transit system on a daily basis. After the war ended in 1945, the allies put Korea under their protection and Russia had the northern half. In 1949 the allies withdrew and the Russians left many up to date weapons. There are still many people trying to escape from North Korea. It used to be forbidden to talk about North Korea and they could be put in jail for it. Now things are easier and they can talk about NK.

During the Vietnam war Seoul and Incheon were largely destroyed, they have since been largely rebuilt. Now most people live in high rises, the average unit is 85 sq. meters, home for 3 – 4 people. The unit is usually 3 rooms plus a bathroom and kitchen and the layout is all the same. Many of the buildings look alike, so are numbered in huge numbers on the outside and often with a picture or logo.

Their diet is mainly grains, rice and seafood plus a cabbage based dish called kimchi. In the fall families used to make enough to last the family all winter. This might have been 20 very large pottery jars full. The cabbage is first fermented and then pickled. The jars were then buried and dug up as needed. We had some for lunch and it was very hot spicy.

The village we see is made up of houses brought to this location from all parts of the country, so we see homes for each of the classes and from the north and south. To go into the village we have to pass by the guardians. This consists of 3 rocks and a bunch of totems. Two of the rocks are phallic symbols, the belief is that if you walk between these two rocks you will have a baby. Interestingly no one on our tour chose to walk through the rocks! Some of the totems have “wings” out to the side, these are the males, the ones without the wings are females..

The houses are all very basic. Roofs are made of straw, shale, thatch, rice straw, bark, stones and for the rich tile. The people lived by farming and fishing, in the winter they would weave carpets from rice straw. As late as 1970 more than 60% of the population still lived this way. Each house was home for 3 or 4 generations. The rooms are tiny and all in a straight row. To get from one room to another you often would have to go outside. In the south the kitchen is at one end and the houses are raised on stilts to allow air to flow under and keep the rooms cooler. In the north the kitchen is in the centre of the house and the rooms are on rocks that are heated from the kitchen. The women had to wake up every 4 hours to tend the fire to keep it going all night. (some things never change – women’s work is never done).

Now they heat their homes using hot water under the floors. Of course the toilet in the village is a “squatter”, in a wooden shack with dirt floors. The guide tells us they used squatters until the 1980s. We saw a couple of rooms set up with dummies to show the rooms. The women with a single braid down their backs are single, married women have a braid piled up on top of their head. We saw a “bamboo wife”. This is a roll made of bamboo in a woven design, it is about 5 feet long and the men would sleep with their arms and legs wrapped around the ” wife” to keep cool.

We saw a pharmacy of herbs. They made herbal teas from the herbs. The main herb is ginseng. They still use these pharmacies for preventative medicine and go to a western doctor when they are sick. Ginseng is still the most popular herb and while they grow it domestically the wild ginseng is highly valued and a long root is worth $100,000. 

We toured the old governor’s residence in the village where we saw a few torture devices. One is a wooden bench in the shape of a cross. The victim would be tied face down on the bench and beaten with a large wooden paddle 20 to 100 times until the bones showed. Another device was a wooden chair, the victim sat in the chair and their ankles were tied together, 2 large sticks were placed between their legs and then spread forcing their knees down to the ground (ouch).

We watched a dance – “farmers’ music and dance”. The music was all supplied by drums of different sizes and shapes. The dancers had on hats with streamers attached to tassels which they used to fling around in time to the music. 

Married women keep their father’s family name. Siblings do not use each other’s names but refer to each other as big sister, oldest brother etc. Families traditionally get together twice a year – Korean Thanksgiving and New Years when they go to the family grave to honor their ancestors. Status is very important and they are always trying to figure out who is senior or junior to them. This is one of the times when they use their cars, usually they travel by public transit, parking in the cities is $6.00 per hour. The main industry is car manufacturing, Hyundai and Kia, we don’t see many other brands on the road. The guide points put that most cars are black, white or grey with an occasional red one. Blue and yellow is reserved for buses and trucks.

Seoul was founded in 1395. There is still an outdoor market inside the old city walls. There are five royal residences in the area. We visit the outdoor market, which is freezing! Most of the stores are small stalls built into the walls but we do go into a couple of bigger stores that are like small department stores. We also go into an accessory store which is really a factory for jewelry and other accessories. There are rows and rows of people making these things. The market is similar to others we have seen on the trip, lots of stalls, people carrying things on their backs, motorcycles with stuff piled high, merchandise piled everywhere. Organized mayhem.

The people blame the royalty for surrendering to the Japanese and there has been no royal presence since then. Seoul and Incheon are basically large modern cities, one thing we both noticed was no laundry hanging from balconies!