Gyeongju

On the 3rd we got up early, took the subway to the Busan bus station and got on the bus to Gyeongju. The guidebook claims it is a museum without walls. It was actually pretty neat. It was the capital city of the Shilla or Silla Dynasty and was once the capital of the unified peninsula of Korea. Of course this was up until 927 A.D., so it was awhile ago. The easiest thing to pick out when you visit Gyeongju are the huge burial mounds for the kings of the Silla Dynasty. They reminded me of the Indian burial mounds I'd seen in the U.S., though I'm pretty sure they were constructed differently. It was a little over an hour to get to Gyeongju from Busan. We dropped our bags off at our hotel (once we found it) and then went to Noseo-ri and Nodong-ri,the first parks we saw with the Royal Tombs. We then walked to Tumuli Park which contained more Royal Tombs including Cheonmachong, the only tomb in Korea that you can enter and see a cross section of how it was built and what it contained. You couldn't take pictures, so I'll do my best to describe. Grass is on the outside then there is a large layer of stones. In the middle is a wooden room with treasures and the body of the person buried there. Pretty cool. We then walked to Wolseong Park where we got to see Cheonmseongdae, an astronomical observation tower from the 7th century. We were sort of part of a group of school children at this point and they lead us to the next part of the park, Banwolseong, which used to be a fortress. All that is left is the ice building. Next up was Anapji pond. This was once a pleasure garden in 674 A.D.. King Munmu built this lotus pond. We then spent some time at the Gyeongju National Museum which had a lot of the items found at the ancient sites around town. On the property was the Emille Bell, the largest bell in Korea weighing 19 tons. We then took a taxi to Bulguksa temple, Seokguram Grotto and Bunhwangsa. Bulguksa temple

was built in 528 A.D. and of course was destroyed during the Japanese invasion. It contained several National treasures, including two stone pagodas.There was a place near the back of the Temple there was a place where people could put rocks on top of others. I think I've explained it before, but you do this to get luck or a wish. If it's knocked down, then your wish doesn't come true or you run out of luck.Next was Seokgurum Grotto. Unfortunately, you could only take pictures of the outside. Here is picture of the outside.I had to take a picture of a couple of postcards to show you what was inside the grotto. It was pretty cool, but there was a thick clear plastic wall in between you and the actual grotto that made it hard to see and really appreciate what you saw. The views out onto the ocean were pretty amazing though.Next we went to Bunhwangsa. It wasn't much, but what once was a 70 meter high pagoda was something a little smaller. It was by far the most expensive taxi ride we've had in Korea. For lunch Ben wanted to go to lunch at a place with ssambap. It was over 20 different little side dishes with rice, leaves. The side dishes were anything from bulgogi to little fishes. There were all kinds of things, but unfortunately, most of them were not that appetizing, at least to me. We took a taxi to Paseokjeon and then did a lot of walking Paseokjeon was not very interesting. Just take a look at this picture. All that is left of this once pleasure garden is a small water canal where Kings used to play drinking games. We then walked to Najeong, something even less impressive. Here is what it should have looked like.Here is what it looked like. Maybe if it had been preserved it would have been better, but it really wasn't that great. We continued walking towards town and saw Oneung Tumbs, or the five tombs. Finally we got back into town and had dinner at a place near one of the parks. We tried the famous dessert of the city. It was two small pancakes with a sweet red bean paste in the middle. It actually wasn't too bad. I liked Gyeongju and am really glad that we went there.