Korean Job Discussion Forums

[captain kirk]

Well, you don't have to love Andong, not if you don't want to. I've never really stopped and looked around but was curious. The QUEEN of England, Queen Elizabeth, made that her ONLY stop in Korea. What?! She didn't go to Kyongju? I mean, who has ever heard of Andong compared to Kyongju. Everyone goes to Kyongju. What kind of inside info does that darn, blueblood Queen have that us plebes (I speak for myself, of course) don't.

I went by motobike from Daegu, an on/offroad 350cc that's like 'riding a dragonfly'. Why? It hums. One cylinder. Built like a mountain bike. It humms right along with lots of vibration from the one, big cylinder and with the bike's bicycle-like lightness it's like flying. Or 'riding on a dragonfly'. Hmm. Maybe you're not into bikes.

Trolling in comparison to the fastest traffic, but breezing along. A little bit south of world famous because the Queen visited there Andong, the country gets strange. The geography/topography/landscape. Very distinctive. The little hills of mountains are step sided with cliff. Looking very ornamental, like 'ideal cliffs/scenery' you'd see around a manmade, ornamental pond. Still, probably not distinctive enough to draw the Queen.

I went off a sideroad following a brown 'cultural spot of interest' sign to some yangban village. It's amazing how much money goes into sprucing up temples, shrines, old forts, hilltop signal stations, and this yangban village. People live there, but the walls piled of stone separating the yards (topped with rooftile) and the houses themselves are restored to look like the houses 'back in the day' (Like five hundred years ago. The time of Columbus. So when America was just being discovered these walls and buildings were doing their job, sitting there, smugly, thumbing their nose at Columbus and 'new empires'. Or maybe not).

A big, roadside (huge, actually) billboard sign. It shows a picture of Queen Elizabeth in pillbox hat, wearing baby blue suit outfit, white gloves, holding a bouquet of flowers (no, I'm not fixated on the Queen) beside a Choson era building. The sign says, 'Andong, Spiritual heartland of Korea'. Hmm. Was the Queen spiritually seeking and so came to Andong, and Andong alone? Is there a Guru there, the Queen's Guru, in fact? Never heard of this....

And what's so spiritual about Andong? Well I went to the Andong Folk Museum and since I was a foreigner they wanted me to sign the guest book, so I did. Apparently they flooded to make a dam and alot of the museum stuff is from under the lake, or rescued before the flood, like. Being a folk museum it was about lifeways and not so much full of actual artifacts. But what was the spiritual stuff? Apparently Confucianism. Big old Confucianist centres of learning/schools. But done out with the tile roofs, pillars, intricate carved gables, pavillions, courtyards. All very showpiece architecture. For the upper ups, the in the loops, the makers and shakers. Like the Queen, ah, there's the affinity.

There's a brick pagoda there that's huge and from 500 years ago. It's tall, huge, bulky, and awesome. Just down from the folk museum. I mean somebody could have looked at it, decided they needed the bricks, and pulled it down. Or some invaders could have given it the heave ho just to be remembered as particuarly capable invaders.

With the abundance of restored Choson era buildings around Andong I had to wonder, 'why did they go to so much trouble?'. How do we make buildings today? Four walls and a roof. Simple, boxed. But the pillars, intricate gable/inner roof structure/load bearing beams for the heavy, tile roofs. That's all a lot of bother. And some buildings built in such a manner don't even have walls. Just pillars throughout. It seems, then, that aesthetics and style in architecture were boss. The flowing lines of the dragon rooves seen against the flowing shoulders of a mountainside. Nice stuff.

In the Folk museum there was a good display about the keratin bow. The bow made of horn laminated with wood and sinew. They imported the horn (water buffalo) and the bows, unstrung, look small and silly. But strung they're vicious, nasty bows. I wouldn't mind getting one and Robin Hooding like a real Mongol. Not far from Andong, in Yechon, old guys, living treasures they're called, try not to be too proudly self-conscious as they make these bows (so they can concentrate on what they're doing). I don't think they sell them cheap considering all the mystique, aura, and Elvis charisma they put into making these bows (if Elvis were Korean he'd be making bows).

So that's Andong. Ya gotta go there, but then it's not absolutely necessary and entirely your call. But the Queen went.....

[captain kirk]

Ha, just what I thought! No-one has been to Andong!

[ilovebdt]

I've been to Andong and quite liked it.
It is like a little country town, but they do have a KFC!
I went their for their annual Mask Dance Festival and I will definately try to get there again this year.

ilovebdt

[thursdays child]

[matthews_world]

I try to visit Andong Lake once a month as I meet my Daegu friends their to do watersports during the Summer months.

www.aqski.co.kr

Check the Denmark Hotel nearby, 40-50,000w per night.

Click my Yahoo! 360 below, search photos and go to my "Korea - Places I've Visited" and I'll have some pics of Andong at the end.

If it weren't so small, quiet and out of the way, I'd think about living there for a year.