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Ibike
Korea People-to-People Program
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 Photo essay: Ulchin to
Ganggu
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(56mi, 90km) We follow the coast, passing villages and over headlands.
Points of Interest: Squid fishing villages, Wosang Pavillion, sandy beaches,
rocky coast, coastal defenses |
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Squid left out over night, basking in the sunrise |
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 The beach at sunrise
(left). Mile after mile the surf rolled in (right) |
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The other view on the
coast is preparation against possible North Korean infiltration. It is not
an imaginary threat because over the decades there have been attempts using
fishing boats and small submarines to get personnel in.
 Isolated
parts of the coast road are lined with chain link fence and razor wire (left),
there are periodic military bases and all along the coast there is a series of
observations posts (right). Some are more camouflaged than others and from
casually passing by, it is not clear if or when they are manned.
Day-to-day life seems to go on unconcerned and unperturbed by any threat. |
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 It is fascinating to watching the
fishing boat arrive at the wharf in the morning. They are met by a throng
of buyers equipped with note pads and cell phones. |
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This boat has a catch of squid.
There seem to be relatively few squid boats relative to the number of people
"processing squid." It appears that families buy the fresh squid and then
clean and dry them as a family business. I only saw one or two "factories"
that looked like they might be doing "industrial" squid processing, but even
these were quite small in scale. |
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cleaning squid |
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 hanging squid |
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lines of one-thousand squid |
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a wall of ten-thousand squid |
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racks of one-hundred-thousand squid.....you
may be thinking that this is too many squid pictures, but you should be thank
for the ones I am not posting. We passed through squid villages for over
80km (50 miles). We saw hundreds of racks with 1000 squid -- that's
100,000 squid. We saw scores of racks with 10,000 squid -- that's a couple
100,000 more squid. And we saw several racks with what seemed like 100,000
squid. We might have seen a million squid during the day. I tried to
resist taking too many squid pictures -- somewhat unsuccessfully.
 Granted
it was very much the exception, not the rule: More than once I saw squids
hung on the same line as the regular laundry -- it was hard to resist the
impulse to take a photo (right). This is squid country. |
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New along the coast,
between 2004 and 2006, are signs evacuation routes -- probably a response to the
Indian
 Ocean
tsunami of December 2004. It is interesting that the "Evacuation Route"
signs (left) are primarily English (for the itinerate visitor) and the detailed
evacuation procedure signs (right) are entirely Hangul (for the permanent
resident). |
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Confucian seowon (school). |
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Wolsongjong (pavilion) and the nearby
beach and pine forest have traditionally been considered one of the eight
scenic areas of Gwandong region. It has attracted many poets and men of
letters. Local tradition has it that four leading Hwarang, elite youth warriors,
of Shilla visited this area to appreciate the scenic beauty created by the
harmony of a forest of 10,000 pine trees and a 4 km long sandy beach.
There is another legend that the pavilion was named "wolsong" because the four
Hwarang visited the pine forest (song) and the pine seeds which
were brought from the country of wol. |
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Here we take a shortcut
through the rice fields. The farm roads, which are smooth concrete, become
our private bike trails. I sure beats the highway. We have no
complaints because we have avoided heavy traffic 90% of the time or more. |
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Monument commemorating
the struggle and liberation from the
Japanese |
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Goesi Village was originally called
Hojichon because it has a pond named Hoji. The village was given its modern
designation by Yi Saek (1328-1396), also known by his pen name Mogeun, who was a
great Goryeo scholar famous for his Confucian learning and writing in Yuan. The
village has about thirty listed cultural assets. |
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Traditional heritage house being restored in Goesi Village |
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Mulsowa house: This house was built
for Nam T'aek-man, a 9th generation ancestor of the present owner. |
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Head residence of the Yeongyang Nam
Clan: This house is said to have been constructed by Man Pung-ik towards the end
of the 17th century. The house has a square layout with a courtyard at the
center. There is a women's quarters, a men's quarters, kitchen and several
other rooms. It is a good example of residential structures prevalent in
the latter part of the Choson-period (1392-1910). |
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When you only visit
someplace once you only get a snapshot of life. It is hard to get a feel
of where it has come from and where it is going. Visiting more than once you get
slightly more understanding of the dynamism of the society. That is
reflected in this wind farm which was rugged hill tops before and then appeared
in 2006. Bearing in mind that wind farms are located in windy places,
it is an provocative questions, "how do they make repairs to the blades?"
Answer: They send a man up on a long boom (right). The five foot high man
is probably at least 150 feet above the ground. The other turbines were spinning
when the picture was taken -- the wind was blowing! |
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 Rugged coastline (think beautiful) along the East
Sea, north of Ganggu. Inspiring panoramas kept coming hour after hour all
day long. Between the hanging squid, fishing villages, crashing surf and coastal cliffs,
this is perhaps the most scenic day of the trip. |
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 Did I remember to mention
the specialty food of Ganggu? |
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The beach at sunrise
(left). Mile after mile the surf rolled in (right)
Isolated
parts of the coast road are lined with chain link fence and razor wire (left),
there are periodic military bases and all along the coast there is a series of
observations posts (right). Some are more camouflaged than others and from
casually passing by, it is not clear if or when they are manned.
Day-to-day life seems to go on unconcerned and unperturbed by any threat.
It is fascinating to watching the
fishing boat arrive at the wharf in the morning. They are met by a throng
of buyers equipped with note pads and cell phones.
hanging squid
Granted
it was very much the exception, not the rule: More than once I saw squids
hung on the same line as the regular laundry -- it was hard to resist the
impulse to take a photo (right). This is squid country.
Ocean
tsunami of December 2004. It is interesting that the "Evacuation Route"
signs (left) are primarily English (for the itinerate visitor) and the detailed
evacuation procedure signs (right) are entirely Hangul (for the permanent
resident).
it is an provocative questions, "how do they make repairs to the blades?"
Answer: They send a man up on a long boom (right). The five foot high man
is probably at least 150 feet above the ground. The other turbines were spinning
when the picture was taken -- the wind was blowing!
Rugged coastline (think beautiful) along the East
Sea, north of Ganggu. Inspiring panoramas kept coming hour after hour all
day long. Between the hanging squid, fishing villages, crashing surf and coastal cliffs,
this is perhaps the most scenic day of the trip. 
Did I remember to mention
the specialty food of Ganggu?