Mudeungsan Backside

June 4th was local election day in Korea, which means we had the day off. Because our weekends have been so busy over the last several months, we have had very few opportunities to get out hiking and exploring. We had several other things that we wanted to do that day so we opted to stay close to home. It was over a year ago that we first climbed Mudeungsan – the mountain that looms to the east of Gwangju and is the go-to hiking destination for many Gwangjuvians. There are two main hiking areas: the front side facing the city, and the backside which is across the ridge.

Earlyish Wednesday morning we caught the number 09 bus to the Culture Complex stop and then the 1187-1 around the mountain. The bus ride itself was actually really nice, winding along the ridges outside the foliage. We got off at the last stop (Wonhyo Ranger Station) and headed up to have a look at the map. There appear to be three main routes that can be taken from the backside over to the front. One is a longish loop around to the east with the temple and standing rocks for which Mudeung is best known. The second goes straight up and over the ridge towards the summit and the third loops around to the east – mostly on roads if the map is anything to go by – with views out over the city.

Because we were meeting friends later that evening, we chose the middle route which – as the very friendly, let-me-practice-my-English Park Ranger explained – is shorter and faster but harder. The guy was actually really nice and helpful, but it was a bit overwhelming. He took a bunch of photos as well so who knows where those will end up.

Once we started up the trail from the parking lot, we got to appreciate the fact that the backside of Mudeung is significantly less crowded than the front. We saw maybe half a dozen hikers from the time we left the parking lot until we broke ridge line and joined the flocks coming up the front.

We got turned aside on a trail that was not on the maps and ended up walking into what we think is someone’s house. If you see this, you are going the wrong way.

Also found this partway down our wrong trail. Korean ATV?

That is about the only good thing we can say about the centre trail though. It runs through a forested area and up along a tiny trickle that occasionally passes for a creek. There are basically no views until you break through on the ridge. It had rained the day before and the trail was still muddy with some pretty slippery sections. Trails on the backside are not as built-up as those on the front, so weather conditions will certainly have a greater effect on trail conditions.

Parts of the trail wind along a dryish creek bed.

There are some nice sized trees on the backside.

Along with a few oddly shaped ones. Hammock anyone?

After a couple hours of hiking, we broke onto the ridge and headed over to Jungbong (Jung Peak), the same place we had summited just over a year before.

The view of Jungbong from where we broke treeline.

Mudeung’s summit was playing hide and seek that day.

Heading up to Jungbong

Jungbong summit! Again.

After a few photos on the summit we headed down for a brief lunch on the rocks just below it, with a good view out over Gwangju and the rest of our decent.

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The final part of the trail was one that we had covered before and certainly had a lot more hikers than the backside. In fact, there were enough that we were rarely out of sight of other people. We did, however, manage to take a lesser known route down into the main valley through a series of wrong turns, mistaken sign readings, and good old fashioned not paying attention. It added a nice bit of variety to the end of the hike.

On the way down this little guy amused us as he tried to get by without leaving the trail.

All told we were on the mountain for about four hours by the time we boarded the 09 home to clean up for dinner. For those interested in doing the backside, we would not recommend that centre trail. It’s quiet, but there are very few views and not really anything interesting until you hit the ridgeline where you are mingling with the hikers who came up the front.

Rock Climbing near Seonunsan

Good friends of ours, Josh and Elisti, are leaving Korea for sunnier pastures in South Africa. We have been trying to meet up to go hiking or rock climbing with them for close to a month with no success. So, when their departure was magically delayed for a week and a Sunday opened up in our own schedule, it was like it was meant to be. They are avid rock climbers and had offered to take us out and teach us a thing or two.

Rock climbing is actually pretty big in Korea and there are lots of cliffs and crags with bolts and anchors already driven into them. Apparently, “Korea on the Rocks” is a great climbing guide to the peninsula. We caught an early bus to Mokpo where Josh and Elisti picked us up from the bus terminal and we headed north to Seonunsan Provincial Park in Jeollabukdo. We did not go straight in to the park, but stopped at a cliff/crag area near the turn-off. It was a picturesque location surrounded by rice paddies and shaded areas to lounge when not climbing.

Looking toward the crag from the car.

We followed this trail to the base.

Lounge location anyone?

A little R&R after lunch.

It’s a spectator sport as well. Perfection!

Some trees are just made for watching others climb.

Who said you need flexibility for climbing? Good try, boys. Good try.

They started us out with a nice easy route and built us up to some harder ones.

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Before one of the climbs that Josh did (way over our capability) we noticed a wasp caught in a spider’s web under an overhang. What followed was one heck of a battle with the wasp trying to sting the spider and the spider trying to wrap up the wasps legs. Eventually the wasp, with a broken wing, fought free and fell out of the web. Five minutes later we saw it climbing determinedly up the rock for round two, which played out much the same. It would seem the wasp was actually the attacker.

For his last climb, Blake went back to the easiest one and lead climbed it. For those who don’t know, lead climbing is when you climb up first to attach the rope at the top. Every couple of meters there are bolts in the rock to which you attach quick draw clips and then your rope. This means that if you fall, while you won’t hit the bottom, you’ll actually drop a couple of metres before the rope catches you.

Blake lead climbing. Same route, same amount of risk, way scarier.

Counterweights.

It was an amazing time! Afterwards, Josh and Elisti were kind enough to drive us back to Gwangju and join us for dinner before heading back to Mokpo. We will certainly miss them and hope we can catch up with them in South Africa sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Rock Climbing! (the indoor-Saturday edition)

On Saturday, Tamara joined some mentees from the orphanage with which we volunteer, as well as some other mentors in an outing. First stop was HI!ER Climbing Gym, which is an indoor climbing wall, situated above a “camping” themed restaurant.

HI!ER Climbing Gym. The entrance is on the far right.

Eight teenage boys and six mentors started climbing just after 4pm. Everyone started by pretty much just playing around on the walls, soon realizing just how difficult rock climbing can be. After half an hour or so, an employee at the center came up and gave everyone a few pointers, as well as some challenges. Of course, he also showed off some of his skills, which really wowed the boys and seemed to give them enough energy to give the wall another try.

 

Just a little boost…

I kid you not, this boy was a miniature Korean Spider Man. Amazing.

Tamara and Miranda!

The people who worked there were very generous and allowed the boys to climb for free, and only charged us mentors 10,000₩ (about $10)!  When everyone was tuckered out, we headed off to a nearby bowling alley. Unfortunately, they had no open lanes, so we reserved two for a little later and hit up a kimbap restaurant for dinner.

Bowling was also a blast, although just as with rock climbing, some of us are not exactly skilled at the sport. Our mentee constantly teases Tamara about her bowling style (after she throws the ball, she leans precariously to the side to “encourage” the ball to go in the direction she wants it to go), and he continued to mock her throughout the evening.

Some of the middle school boys had to rush back to the orphanage for an 8pm compulsory English test, so just before eight, we quickly wrapped up our games and headed for home.

It was a truly memorable day with some of the sweetest, most considerate boys you’ll ever meet. 고마워요 (pronounced: “Ko-ma-wo-yo” – Thanks),  boys!

Gosapo Beach (고사포해변) –

A few Sundays ago we were really craving a beach day, so we opted to trek out of the city to the coast of the province just north of us, Jeollanam-do. We hopped on an early bus from Usquare to Buan (부안), and from there, caught an intercity bus headed to Gyeok-po, which would pass Gosapo en-route.

Since we spent a day at Byeonsan Beach with friends last year, we opted to check out Gosapo Beach (a little south of Byeonsan Beach) this time around. We’d heard that it’s a little less well-known than Byeonsan, and since we were looking to escape the noise of the city, that was pretty appealing.

Once we finally sorted out which intercity bus to take, we boarded and were on our way. We got off at the Gosapo “stop” (sort-of-kind-of in the middle of a 3 way intersection, seemingly in the middle of nowhere) and walked the few hundred metres to the walkway, which took us through a little forest (complete with some little military lookout posts) and eventually to the actual beach.

There were a bunch of these along the headland.

They were oddly derelict except for relatively fresh coats of paint.

This appears to be the equivalent of a command post for the cluster of defences. We really can’t tell what they are about.

Looking out over Gosapo Beach.

There were a few more people than we’d expected (some sort of group was there playing various noisy games), but it was still nice. We didn’t get as much sun as we’d hoped (it was pretty cloudy), but we somehow managed to burn a little anyways. The constant breeze made it feel like we were not tanning at all, but the rays are definitely a little stronger here than back in Canada. Since most Koreans do not want to soak up any sun at all, we watched many fully-clothed people wade in the ocean and dig for clams in the sand. We were quite the spectacle in our swimsuits, and got a fair few funny looks.

There was a small beach adjacent to Gosapo that was less crowded, but appeared to have fishing nets just offshore.

There was a small military installation behind the beach with this awesome sign.

Just before we called it a day.

The view along Gosapo. Sadly, not a very sunny day.

Given that buses from Gosapo to Buan are not exactly plentiful, after a few hours of reading and relaxing, we opted to hop on the “next” one (unfortunately, the bus we hoped to catch passed us as we were walking to the stop). While we were waiting, we had a lovely chat with a guy who’d just been hiking, and who shared his candy with us. In the spirit of sharing, we gave him a cliff bar, although most of the Koreans we’ve met who’ve tried them haven’t exactly enjoyed them.

June 4th was municipal election day and election activities were well underway in Buan. We had to walk through several groups of candidates and campaigners. Some campaigners were waving signs (complete with party numbers) on the side of the streets. Some candidates gave speeches via microphone from the back of open-sided cube vans. One campaigner apparently wanted to practice her English, as she stopped us on our way to the bus station and asked for our e-mails (this is not the first time this has happened to us). She also gave us some slightly confusing directions to a café, which we tried to follow in the hope that she wouldn’t follow us.

Election speeches on the street corner.

We also saw this neat little vehicle cruising along the main street of Buan.

We think we missed the café she’d suggested, but found another one in which to enjoy some coffee and whipped-cream covered honey bread (yum!).

Anywho, despite the cloud cover, we had a lovely afternoon at the beach and made it back to our apartment with lots of time to spare in the evening.

Getting to Gosapo:

Currently, there are usually 6 direct buses running from Gwangju’s Usquare to Buan each day (at 8:00, 9:30, 10:45, 14:25, 16:05, and 18:25). The trip, about 90km, takes approximately an hour and 40 minutes, with one stop in  신태인 in between.

When you arrive in Buan, you’ll need to find the intercity bus terminal (a strip of street with many bus shelters and a row of buses). If you can speak a little Korean, it might be easiest to stop someone and say “실례합니다. 고사포 에 갈거에요. 시외버스 터미널은 어디인가요?” (Excuse me. I’m going to Gosapo. Where is the intercity bus terminal?”) It should be across the main intersection by the bus terminal you arrive at. You want to find a bus going to Gyeok-po (격포). The Gosapo Beach (고사포 해변) stop is on the way, a few minutes after the Byeonsan stop. Be sure to confirm with the driver that he’s going in that direction.

Look for this sign to get on the bus to Gosapo.

 

Namhae: Part 2

Saturday morning we had a leisurely breakfast of biscuits and apples in the room before heading out for the day. Because the morning was overcast, we decided to explore the other side of the island including the German Village before coming back to spend a bit of time on the beach.

Sangju is not well situated for bus travel to the far side of the island. We caught a 10:40 bus from Sangju to Mijo, which is an active port on the south-eastern part of the island. We had a bit of spare time in Mijo before we could catch a bus to the German village so we explored the port.

Bus selfie on the way to Mijo.

They were in the process of upgrading the port facilities, so things were pretty loud, but the town itself is actually interesting. There appear to be fewer places to stay than in Sangju, but there seems to be a bit more variety in restaurant selection. We actually like the general feeling of Mijo better than Sangju. It has more character. There is a sense that this is a working town rather than a tourist spot. We saw fewer foreigners and most of the locals seem to be fishermen rather than minbak owners. The town is built into a hill and has a lot of those narrow, windy streets that are so interesting. Unfortunately, there is no beach inside the town; you would have to catch a bus to reach one.

Right on the port side there is a coffee shop called Cafe ét Thé where we stopped to relax near the water while waiting for our bus. Coffees were very good and they also have ice cream and a variety of other snacks. The best part was being able to sit outside above the water. It was a bit loud with the construction going on across the way, but still nicer than being cooped up on a beautiful day.

Blake in front of Cafe et The.

We caught the 12:25 bus up the coast road, which is a really pretty drive,  to the German Village stop (Mulgeonmaeul). The German Village (독일마을) was established a little over 10 years ago to help Koreans (and their families) who had gone to work in Germany after World War Two feel comfortable settling back into Korea. It was not really designed as a tourist destination. But it has certainly become one.

Tamara at the entrance to the German Village.

We got off the bus to find the main road into the village nose-to-tail traffic with the usual impatient honking. The village is built into a hill with a view of the sea and the parking lot is at the top of the hill. This means all the tourist vehicles must go through the village to park causing quite the traffic snarl. To say side walks were also crowded would be an understatement. One of our friends had recommended a visit to a little shop down a side street that sells home-made bratwurst, but when we eventually located the shop it seemed to be closed for the weekend. We were forced to visit Cafe Liebe for our sausage fix. While it was decent food, it was certainly not home-made and four sausages and some fries cost 20,000₩!

Beer and sausages at Cafe Liebe.

Even in the German Village, the Korean propensity for putting exercise equipment on hills is evident.

A view out over the German Village. There is a smaller Korean village near the sea.

A Cafe right near the village entrance.

We did run into some of Tamara’s students while we were  eating. Of course their parents insisted on taking a photo of all their kids with the English teacher on Namhae. They were pretty cute kids, so we got one as well.

Tamara with some of her students.

Overall, the German Village was a bit of a disappointment. If it were not so overrun by tourists, and consequently overpriced, it might be a nice place to wander through. Possibly non-holiday weekends are better. We don’t really know. But, based on our experience, it is not somewhere we would recommend visiting unless you are already in the area.

Once we finished off our sausages and a beer for Blake, we headed back down the hill and caught the 2:40 bus back to Mijo and then another on to Sangju. Our plan was to head out to the beach while it was still relatively warm. The weather had been on and off cloudy all weekend so we were not holding out for a blue-skied afternoon for sunbathing, but we hoped to get a few rays and a swim.

Unfortunately, the wind coming off the ocean had picked up and was strong enough to blow the sand around pretty powerfully. Coupled with the overcast sky it made for a pretty chilly beach experience so we only lasted about an hour. Blake got in a quick swim and then we headed back to the room to get cleaned up and change.

Blake out for a quick dip. The water was quite shallow for a ways out.

The rest of the evening was spent exploring Sangju looking for a good restaurant. Not that there is a major shortage, but we were not really feeling like seafood at that moment. Looking out from the main beach, you can see a couple of restaurants and other buildings on a point to your left. We wandered out to see what was there and discovered two seafood restaurants and a ton of fishermen. Apparently, this is the place to go if you want to do a bit of fishing on your vacation.

Looking along Sangju Beach during our evening stroll.

Eventually, we found a little restaurant in the middle of town that looked promising and settled in for a meal. Unfortunately, Tamara forgot what 멸치 (myeolchi) means, and so in ordering myeolchi ssambap, we soon received a heavily spiced dish with green onions, garlic, and (is-that-what-I-think-it-is) whole anchovies that you wrap in lettuce with some rice. Of course most people eat these little four inch fish whole, but the bones were a bit much for us. Not quite the dinner we had in mind.

There were several murals involving garlic in Sangju, but this was the best one that we found.

After dinner we went for a short wander along the beach before heading back to our room to read and relax.

Sunday morning came quickly, and after Tamara took a quick dip in the ocean, we packed up and headed home. Long weekends usually mean really crowded buses, and you are not able to reserve a specific bus to or from Namhae. We caught the 9:10 bus north to Namhae Eup (complete with local teens blasting music in the back), then jumped on the next bus to Jinju where we had lunch before getting on the 1:00 bus back to Gwangju.

Namhae Logistics

Getting Around: Buses from Namhae Eup seem to go down either side of the island to Mijo, then turn around and head back. This means that if you want to explore the opposite side, you must catch a bus to either Mijo or Namhae Eup first. Most buses around the island will cost between 1,500₩ and 3,000₩ from place to place and they run roughly every 45 minutes to an hour.

Schedule of buses from Namhae to Sangju/Mijo.

Accommodation: There are accommodations all over the place – mostly minbak and pensions – but apparently options along the beaches are full during July and August. In hindsight, we probably would have been better off staying in Mijo. It is more convenient for buses and we liked the feel of the town more. However, those planing to just lie on the beach will want to stay in Sangju or any one of the other beach towns. In Sangju, you can also camp near the beach.

Getting There: Getting to the southern part of Namhae without a car can be a little bit tricky. Our total travel time on the way home was over 6 hours and our connections lined up really well. From Gwangju there appear to be two main routes. The first is through Suncheon and the second is through Jinju. We chose the Jinju route because there are way more buses between Jinju and Namhae than there are between Suncheon and Namhae.

Only four buses to Gwangyang/ Suncheon.

Bus times from Namhae to Jinju.

Bus times from Jinju to Namhae.

Bus schedule at the direct bus stop in Jinju.

Food: We have discovered that islands around Korea, for the most part, don’t have a lot of great food options if you are not feeling like Korean-style seafood. Breakfast options are basically nil. We suggest that you bring some good instant coffee, cereal and bowls, biscuits, instant oatmeal, and/or some fruit with you – unless, of course, you like rice, fish soup, and kimchi for breakfast. Those planning to stay in a Pension, these often have cooking areas included, so bringing your own lunch and dinner goods may be a viable option.

 

 

Namhae: Part 1

Friday, June 6th was a holiday in Korea and we decided it was the perfect opportunity to head out to an island. After a little research and debate about ferry travel times, we decided to opt for an almost island – or an island attached to the mainland by a bridge: Namhae.

Namhae is way down on the southern part of Korea, one province over in Gyeongsangnamdo. It is best known for being a very rural area with lots of agriculture. The main crop is apparently garlic and their is a garlic research centre near Namhae Eup (the main town on the island). On the southern tip of the island there are several popular beaches, the best known of which is Sangju. Apparently this beach is wall to wall people in July and August. Two sections of the island also make up part of Hallyeohaesang National Park. We were really excited for the prospect of a little time out of the city, in the mountains, and on the beach.

The Garlic harvest appeared to be wrapping up while we were there. We often saw garlic laid out and drying like this.

Getting there from Gwangju is a bit of a mission, especially on a long weekend. There are two main routes: one through Suncheon and one through Jinju. The Jinju route is more reliable with more frequent connections so we opted to head for Jinju Thursday evening. Blake had an appointment after school, so we caught the last bus to Jinju and stayed the night in the Family Jjimjilbang, just up the highway from the express bus terminal.

Friday morning we got up relatively early, got cleaned up, had breakfast in a cafe, and headed to the bus stop. There are two main bus terminals in Jinju: express (where buses from Gwangju arrive) and direct (where buses to the smaller centres arrive). In theory we should have had to go to the direct bus terminal across the river from the are where we stayed to catch a bus to Namhae. However, a couple hundred meters to the east of the bus terminal – near a pedestrian overpass – and on the other side of the street, there is a small stop where it is possible to purchase tickets for the local buses on their way out of town. This saved us a ton of hassle.

New meets old in Namhae.

An hour and ten minutes later we arrived at Namhae eup bus terminal. It was surprisingly large and includes a motel, sauna, and mart. Sadly, Namhae eup is not on the island’s coast, so we caught a local bus south to Sangju (about 45 minutes). We had not booked accommodation, so our first order of business was to find a place to dump off our bags and sleep. There is no shortage of options in Sangju. Almost every house is a pension or minbak. The first three we stopped at had no rooms and we were getting a little twitchy by the time the fourth person told us that she had rooms available. We jumped at it and likely paid more than was necessary. The pension was called Hanseong Pension and we got a smallish room but had (intermittent) hot water and access to an outdoor cooking area.

Looking into the pension. Our room was in the back corner.

Pension cooking area.

After a bit of wandering, we headed over to the Oasis Pension and Restaurant for a bite of lunch. The menu was a bit on the expensive side, but the seafood juk was good. They were also very helpful in explaining how we could walk up the valley to the trail head for the Geumsan hike. Given the overcast weather we had decided to do some hiking in Hallyeohaesang for the afternoon. Unfortunately, it was already two in the afternoon and we did not want to spend an hour walking along roads to get to the base. Trying to figure out the bus system was confusing to say the least and taxis were few and far between. We finally managed to flag one and got a lift to the base. We started up the mountain a little after two and the trail was relatively quiet. Most of the people were coming down and even they were few and far between. Part of the trail is slightly steep, but for the most part it is relatively easy. It’s well maintained throughout.

Stone stairs for miles.

A little break for tree climbing.

The inevitable stairs.

This guy was dragging this LPG container up to the summit. Looked like a heck of a challenge.

The first kilometre and a half were pretty boring, but then we reached Cheongyangmun (gateway to Geumsan). There are two caves in the rock that you hike through. Inside, there are smaller offshoots that are blocked off, but Tamara could hear bats moving around down one of them. In the other, there was a stone railing. Both caves had great views out over Sangju and the ocean.

Looking out from the caves.

Stone stairs through the gateway.

Heading through the caves.

A few hundred metres further up we reached Boriam – the temple just short of the top. Here we also hit the crowds. It is possible to drive most of the way up to Boriam and a ton of people had done so. It was a bit of a let-down as this beautiful temple that we had climbed 600 metres to see was overrun by people.

Looking up to the temple.

Just visible along the bottom edge is Sangju.

 

Geumsan summit is only 300 metres past the temple, so it was also overrun. Our hiking pace from the temple up was limited to that of the seniors; tour group in front of us. Fortunately, we were able to hop over a few rocks near the summit and find a briefly semi-secluded spot where we had a great view and could have a quick snack before starting down again. We took the same path as we had on the ascent. There are several other alternatives, but we did not want to have to worry about buses and taxis after hiking.

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At the bottom we found a restaurant near the largely deserted parking lot. Seeing as it was just after 6:00 we grabbed a couple bowls of bibimbap and some jeon for very reasonable prices. Delicious, and definitely cheaper than in Sangju itself.

Restaurant at the bottom of Geumsan

Post-hiking bibimbap.

After dinner, we wandered down the valley towards Sangju. While the first part of the walk was along the main road, we were quickly able to get off onto side roads among the rice paddies. It was really nice to stroll back without having to worry about dinner or buses or taxis. Most rice paddies have just been planted and it was really interesting to see how the water sharing process works – at least the surface of it, we still don’t remotely understand the details.

Looking back at Geumsan. This field had become completely overgrown and the vines were trying to overtake the abandoned buildings as well.

We finished off our day with a quick visit to the local GS 25 – packed with people and largely cleaned out – to grab a few crackers and biscuits for breakfast in the morning before heading back to the room for some reading and relaxation before bed.

Biking (Mis) Adventure

Saturday morning Tamara was teaching and I had the morning free. The weather has been scorching hot lately, so mornings are the only time it is feasible to do anything active outdoors. Free morning + hot days = outdoor adventure time.

Since we were tentatively planning to head out of town Saturday evening, and the afternoons are extremely hot anyway, I was not going far from home. I planned to ride my bike up the river towards Damyang and then cut off towards some mountains that you can see in the distance behind Cheomdan. 10:00 saw me on my way, through the neighbourhood and onto the river path, where I turned north and began wheeling along at a leisurely pace enjoying the scenery. Five kilometres out, there was a sudden BANG and CLANG and my tire was completely blown. Apparently, I hit some sort of piece of metal as the tire was mangled beyond repair even if I had been carrying the appropriate tools.

And so began the walk back. Fortunately, the tire blew early so there was some time to enjoy this impromptu stroll. I wandered along the river and did a bit of bird-watching in a marshy area of the river I had passed earlier. There were several different kinds of heron (I think) fishing and preening in the shallows. Views along the river all involve apartment buildings. But, they also include hazy mountains and a foreground of river, which can be quite pretty.

A bit of entertainment on the walk home.

River views.

I had ridden in a large half loop following a river bend and I opted to try to cut across the neck of this on my return journey. I headed down a narrow back road that skirts a forested hill. This landed me in a small area called Banworan village, just across the highway from our apartment. There are several different names on the maps but this one seems most common. Banworan is quite interesting because it is made up of houses with legitimate yards. Behind the fences and gates there are yards with grass, pruned trees, picnic areas, and all kinds of other goodies. It actually appears to be a somewhat wealthy area. Most of the people I saw were older but there were a few kids around. Banworan has the feel of an older place that has grown to be genteel.

These are some of the nicely gated and pruned yards along one of the streets.

Grass in a public space!

Looking from the highway into Banworan.

It’s quite small and in the back corner there was a narrow dirt road heading up onto a ridge – I had left my crippled bike behind by this time so I was able to follow this gravel path up a ways. I knew it was on the same hill that we had visited frequently when we first arrived in Shinchang. What I did not know was that the same hill is home to the Shinchang archaeological site. I don’t know much about the site beyond what the signs told me – that the area was settled in first century BC and artefacts range from tombs to weapons – but I hope to learn more. The best part is that there appears to be a new dig starting there and it’s only a ten minute walk from our house.

So, at the end of the day, my ruined bike ride led me to discover a new village and an archaeological site within minutes of my doorstep. Not too shabby after all!