Dirty South meets South Korea: Sculpture Park and P.O.W. Camp

A few weekends ago, J and I hung out with two of our college-aged female students, Hui Su (he-sue) and Da Young (dah-yung). We met them in the morning and took a local bus to the nearby village of Jangseuongpo. They said that we were going to go for a hike, but it was really a stroll on the city and country roads. We first went almost straight up this one road because the incline was so severe. J laughed at us after the first 5 minutes, because the three of us girls were chatting and charging up the hill not realizing how fast we were going. Then we got tired and had to slow to a mere slog. After leaving the city area we came around a bend in the road and saw wonderful views of the coast. It was so gorgeous but these photos can't do it justice. It was icy cold and so windy from the coast! It would've been awesome to have been down on the shore and see the waves crashing against the rocks. We forgot the name of the little island in this first photo. I tried to capture it in the photos but failed, but the sun kept shining through the clouds like a spotlight on the waves and lighting up a section of them. It was so beautiful because it made the water glow like molten silver.

We turned left after this view and walked down a country road following the coast. I can't wait to go back in the spring and summer because the sidewalk was lined with Japanese Cherry Blossom trees. I will post a blog about that in a few months. There was a nice sidewalk to get away from the traffic and outdoor workout equipment along the way. Workout equipment here in Korea in nice because they put the machines in convenient places that people go to walk or exercise (on mountain tops too!). I've seen equipment like this before in the US, but only a few pieces at each park. Here, they put about 5-10 machines at each place that they are putting the equipment. When we hiked Guksabong (bong means mountain) they had such cool machines to help you stretch and exercise. I will do a blog about that one day too.

Da Young, Hui Su, and J

So we walked for a long time along this road and coastline, maybe 45 minutes, until we came to a sculpture park. I'm not sure if the park commemorated anything or had any special meaning, but it was pretty cool. Of course, the first thing that caught my eye was the funky bathroom!

It's a snail with a fountain on the right (shaped like a black seal with a blue ball)

I bet this park will be a perfect place to come and read on the grass this summer

The village/city of Neunpo in the background

Korean graffiti

Hui Su and Da Young wondered why I stopped to take a photo of this, but I thought it was cool. I could make a stab at translating the characters, but to my eyes it doesn't follow the rules of the Korean language. I am beginning to learn the Korean characters and almost have the alphabet down-pat! Pronunciation is next.

After we left the sculpture park we went down into another village that was near the park, called Neunpo. We got some delicious food that we all shared, but I forgot to take a photo of our food. It's considered nice to share food because it means that you are eating with friends, and don't you sometimes share your food to some extent with friends or your significant other. Then we took two busses to get to Gohyeon, which was maybe 25 minutes away. The girls thought (rightly so) that we should see the P.O.W. camp while we were living in Korea. They wanted us to know their history and the horrors of the war. J has personally (I think for school) done extensive researching on the Korean War, but I was almost ignorant of ANYTHING besides knowing that there was a war in Korea by that name! It was very enlightening for me and sad to see the truth of what happened and I went home after it and did my own research on the war.

This is what Wikipedia had to say about Geoje Island-- "Out of a total of 170,000 prisoners of war about 85% were from North Korea, and the rest from China. The (camp) is meant to be reminiscent of the daily lives of the prisoners. The theme stresses the humane treatment of the internees."

The P.O.W. camps were all over the area that we live in now, Okpo, and far beyond that. While at the park, we also saw an interactive movie with shaking seats and, supposedly, wind (which I didn't feel). The movie showed a story about two soldier friends from North Korea who fought in the war. It was sad because one of the young soldiers dies in the end right in front of his mother just as he was about to escape the camp. He was an anti-communist living in a communist camp and was being helped by the American and South Korean soldiers to escape this very communist camp and get to another camp (nearby) that was anti-communist. There were many, many different camps in this area. Maybe 100 or so guys to each camp. Alliances began to form very quickly in each camp and blood ran hot, so each camp became either anti-communist or pro-communist. The North Koreans and Chinese living in these camps would kill each other if they weren't in agreement with them. Also the North Koreans and Chinese were extremely divided about repatriation. The pro-communists wanted to be repatriated to their home country after the war, meaning they wanted to go home. The anti-communists knew they couldn't go back after being so outspoken against communism and they didn't WANT to go back to North Korea/China, so they were against repatriation and many stayed in South Korea or other countries after the war. So this young soldier was murdered by his fellows North Koreans while escaping over the barbed wire tall fence. Of course, this movie was just a fictionalized drama about the war, but I think it still captured the tone of what was going on in the camps at the time.

And now, ziplines! "What do ziplines have to do with a P.O.W. camp?" you might ask. Well, apparently during the war some prisoners attempted an escape from one of the camps. It didn't work, but today we have the pleasure of going on an awesome zipline tour right inside a P.O.W. camp. I tried to get Da Young to give it a try, and after I agreed to go first, she said that she would do it. J also tried it but Hui Su couldn't be convinced to go on it. It was pretty cool and had some actual drops on it. I've been on one other zipline, but I've never heard of a zipline having drops on it like a roller coaster. It was slightly sketchy when I'd zip around a corner and a tree limb would be maybe 4 feet away from me. I tucked my legs in under me after that because a broken leg is never fun. I can see my mom cringing at this point and my dad laughing. We thought the cost for the tour was 9,000 won ($9), but their machine that allowed automatic retrieval of the gear was broken, so it was free if we carried our harness and 5 pound gear back up to the start of the tour. I think it was worth it!