Musings of MissyNandar: A Journey to the K land! Day 4 Part 1

Sunday, April 7, 2013

A Journey to the K land! Day 4 Part 1 - 5 Feb 2013

2,000 Won Kimbab breakfast before heading to Suwon

Our plan for today is to join Suwon Hwaseong Tour at 10:00am so we took subway to Suwon station on Line 1 (the line going towards Sinchang). We went out from Exit 4 to go to the Suwon Tourist Information Center but it wasn't there! There was a city tour bus with nobody inside. So we didn't know where to buy tickets. As we were looking around, luckily 3 tourists were walking towards the bus with red lanyards! So we asked where they got their tickets from and found out that the Suwon Tourist Information Center had temporarily moved to Exit 5 as there was construction work going on at Exit 4! It was 5 minutes to 10:00 and we ran to the Tourist Center, bought tickets for 11,000 Won each and ran back to the bus. But guess what, we didn't need to run at all because the two ladies selling tickets in the Tourist Center were our tour guides and the bus would not leave without them :-/

Anyway, among the two tour guides, one could speak Japanese and another one could speak English. In addition, each seat has a recorded playlist which would explain about each attraction in the language you choose. Convenient huh?

Our first stop

Toilet House (which was later turned into a museum)

The shape of this house was really like a toilet bowl!

Really similar right?

Look at the shape of flower vases

Various statues in the compound showed how the toilet had evolved over the years

Meet my twin haha

See the stone fence beside the toilet? There were pigs there!

Our second stop

Hwaseong Haenggung Palace

(Haenggung Palace = Temporary Palace of the royal family)

This is also a filming location for "Jewel in the Palace"

Our third stop

Hwahongmun Gate / Buksumun Gate / North Water Gate

Northern Gate of the Suwon Fortress

With the fortress wall behind us

Our fourth stop

Yeonmudae / Dongjangdae

In the past, soldiers gathered here for military training and exercises

Our last stop

Suwon Hwaseong Museum

Miniature version of Suwan Hwaseong Fortress

On 16 October 1796, a feast was held in Hwaseong Temporary Palace to celebrate the completion of the Hwaseong Fortress.

With our super nice tour guide

The tour took place from 10:00am till 1:00 pm or so. The tour bus brought us back to the Suwon station. We were quite hungry by then so we just cross the road and had BBQ for lunch.