Another weekend trip is in the books! A few weekends ago (sorry, I fell behind a bit) my friend and I ventured to Jeonju. Jeonju is situated only a little over an hour by bus north of Gwangju so it was easy to get to. We caught a bus on Saturday morning and pulled into Jeonju around 11 am. We had arrived a bit earlier than expected so we headed to a cafe before checking into our hostel. The owner of the hostel was incredibly kind and allowed us to check into our room a bit earlier than usual. Our room was very nice with two twin beds and our own bathroom–very fancy for a hostel. The owner also gave us water bottles and told us he’d make us breakfast in the morning for free. So kind!
We started our adventure in Jeonju with an afternoon at the Hanok Village. Hanok refers to traditional Korean houses. Jeonju’s Hanok Village is the largest in Korea with over 700 hanok houses. Historically, Jeonju is a very important city because it was where the Yi royal family was from as well as being the center of administration throughout the Joseon Dynasty. As time has passed, the hanok houses have become surrounded with modern buildings making Jeonju a unique mix of traditional and modern. Jeonju was appointed as an International Slow City in 2010 because of the traditional culture it retained.
Seeing the traditional hanok houses was a very cool experience. They were beautiful with pretty tiled roofs and gorgeous wooden frames. While walking through the Hanok Village, most everyone we saw was wearing hanbok. Hanbok is traditional Korean attire and many Koreans and foreigners wear it while visiting hanok villages. There are many shops you can rent hanok from for the day and they’ll even style your hair too. I loved seeing the different hanok; it was all beautiful and it was fun to see the matching hanok for couples and families.
One of the major attractions of the Hanok Village was the Gyeonggijeon Shrine which was built in 1410. Within the shrine is a portrait of King Tae-jo who was the founder of the Joseon Dynasty. There were also buildings that were used for ceremonial purposes. One of them held the Annals of the Joseon dynasty; these were records of life during 472 years of the Joseon Dynasty. It was amazing to think about what was written in those annals and how much we have learned about life from that time due to them. Another interesting room was the placenta chamber. This was an area in which the placenta and umbilical cord of a royal baby was preserved as it was thought to be essential for the health and success of the baby.
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering about the Hanok Village. We went into several museums, including a fan museum and an art museum. Fans are also an important part of Korean culture and a staple of Jeonju. It was interesting to see the evolution of fans unfold and amazing to see the details that were put into making them.
We also stopped at a cafe that was one of the tallest buildings in the Hanok Village so we had a great view of the entire village. One of my coteachers recommended it to me and I'm really glad we went. It was here that you could really see the blend of traditional buildings with modern skyscrapers; it was amazing to see the contrast to and see how different those two eras were.
We made our way out of the Hanok Village and walked to Nambu Market which is Jeonju’s traditional market. It was a bit empty at the time we went, as apparently it gets busy during the night, but we saw a lot of vendors selling all sorts of veggies, fish, and different types of food. We ended up buying some really cute mini macarons. They were delicious:)
While walking around that area we stumbled upon Joella Gamyoung which were the government buildings during the Joseon Dynasty that were in charge of the administrative, judiciary, and military work of the southwestern area of Korea. This complex had recently been restored in January of 2021 so it was very cool to see if after it had been so newly restored. The sun was setting while we were visiting which also made for some beautiful views.
The rest of the night was spent walking around a downtown/shopping area that had
loads of restaurants and stores to look at. We had dinner at a pizza place and it was fun to see everything that was piled on the pizza. I am always amazed by everything that is put on Korean pizza; you think you’re ordering a BBQ chicken pizza and then when it arrives you get green beans and potatoes on it as well. Always a fun time!
Our next, and last day, in Jeonju started with a wonderful breakfast made by our hostel owner. We had a lot of fun chatting with him and learned he actually lived in Gwangju for a lot of his life so we were able to connect with him through that. He was a great host and he made my first Korean hostel stay a success!
After checking out of the hostel we caught a bus towards Jaman Mural Village which was a village that they revitalized by painting murals to make it more of a tourist attraction. I’ve noticed that there are many villages like this in Korea and I think it’s such a great idea to generate more interest in areas that were maybe becoming rundown. We accidentally got off a stop early, but somehow ended up at another place we wanted to go to which was the Omokdae viewpoint. We climbed some stairs up to the top of a little hill where we found a beautiful pavilion waiting for us. There was also a monument as well that marked a place where Ye Seong-gye, the first king of the Joseon dynasty, stopped to celebrate his victory against the Japanese army on his way home from war. From the hill we had a great view of the Hanok Village and it was easy to imagine an army celebrating a victory while looking down upon their city from there.
Eventually, we made it to Jaman Mural Village where we wandered around and enjoyed looking at all the murals. It was pretty busy as there were many other tourists also there to see the murals. After looking at the murals we stopped at a cute and very colorful cafe to get a break from the heat and plan our next move.
We ended the day back in the downtown area so we could explore that a bit more. After grabbing some lunch (dakgalbi) and walking around a bit more we headed to the bus terminal a little early so we’d have time to get there and chill before our bus back to Gwangju. This is where our trip got interesting. We went back to the bus terminal we had arrived at because we assumed our bus would be leaving from the same place… however, when it was 6 o’clock and we went to the platform to find our 6:10 bus, it wasn’t there. At first we thought it may just be a little late as sometimes that happens, but when it was 6:05 and no bus was in sight we started getting a bit concerned. We went to ask a bus driver who was checking tickets of passengers on his bus and when he looked at our ticket the first words he said were, “Oh my god.” Uhhhh…..yep we’d messed up somehow. He looked at the clock, looked back down at the ticket, looked at the clock again, muttered “no time not time,” and then pointed across the parking lot to some buildings down the street while saying “One, two. One two,” and then “Go, go, go.” So off we went, sprinting across the parking lot, not quite sure where we were actually supposed to go, but just knowing we were in the wrong place. We saw a bus terminal a few buildings down the street and figured that’s what he was telling us, but at that point it was already 6:10 so we thought there was no chance we were making this bus. However, as we raced onto the platform we saw our bus still there with it’s doors just closing and the bus driver about to pull out of the parking spot. Luckily, he saw us running and he let us on. And here I’d thought we’d made every mistake possible when it came to riding buses. What an exciting way to end an otherwise relaxing trip to Jeonju.
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