[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] "Gongju" May 22nd-23rd

While Gongju's main obvious claim to fame is as a cultural heritage sight, it also looks great naturalistically. This is what the Woongjin World Park (웅진지구공원) looks like from the south side of the river. I can legitimately see all those capital moving shenanigans as being in part motivated by the desire of rulers to live near the Geum river (금강). It has this wondrous power to make obviously large objects look rather small. In person those bridges are monstrous. In profile they look like toys.

Observe how even when the picture is taken at a closer angle the emphasis remains on the overall design of the landscape. OK, OK, obviously the park itself was product of some deliberate human engineering yet even so! An artist really could not ask for a better canvass than this. At its best Gongju is frequently reminiscent of Jeju in how well-designed it is aesthetically. Alas, actually seeing the city like this does require climbing up some high mountains. Nothing really comes for free, after all.

But let's turn away from the river and back to the fortress. Every hour on the weekends there's an elaborate ceremony by which traditional Baekje guards file out of the fortress and do...guard stuff. You know, marching single file, waving their spears around, following orders, all that good stuff. They do this because it looks cool. Traditional military uniforms are pretty slick.

As are other costumes, of course. This woman was in charge of narration while I was in Gongju. So she was also the one to make announcements through the loudspeaker, like when someone's kid got lost or some event was starting. I'm a big fan of traditional clothing- it looks so unique compared to what everyone wears in the modern day, and the Baekje stuff is no exception.

By the way, the end of any program at Gongsan Fortress is accompanied by photo time, and there's always an assuredly long line of people who want their photos taken with the various costumers. Taking photos with real live people is, to me, probably one of the better phototime experiences offered because it's also a reminder that in times of yore, these weren't drama characters. They were actual real life people.

Gongju is also home to a Christian pilgrimage site- information about which I am bizarrely unable to confirm. Every map I can find simply states that there's a mountain in between Gongsan Fortress and the Royal Tombs, with no mention of the existence of a metaphorical "Jesus died for our sins" mountain trail and martyrdom story much as I saw in Gamgok. But it's real! See?

If only I had some idea what these rocks are supposed to symbolize. Oh well. Still better than my experience at the tombs, where I ended up getting lost and popped out of a mountain trail in the middle of nowhere.

The final main event of my Gongju experience was a trip to the Seojangni Museum (석장리박물관), admission to which is for some bizarre reason offered in a package deal with Gongan Fortress and the Royal Tombs, even though the Seojangni Museum is about prehistory, not Baekje. It's also about halfway between Gongju and Sejong City so to call it a Gongju site at all is a tad disingenuous.

Outside its displays like this, great for the kids to play on. Inside there are also play rooms, as well as exhibits explaining the general history of archeology in Korea. All written in Korean, for the most part. In practical terms the Seojangni Museum is really more of a stealth educational park than it is a site really intended for tourists.

Take this sad little yurt. Technically it is a monument to the kinds of old time structures that our ancestors used to live in. Today, though, in the blistering sun it is mainly a place for kids to run inside and play in while pretending to be cavepersons. How adorable.

Article by William Schwartz

 

Advertisement