Buyeo (it's a county, not an exclamation)

Regardless of what you might think, that line never gets old with me. I spent December 12th and 13th in Buyeo county, Chungcheongnam-do, and visited a few of the local historic sites. Unfortunately looking through my pictures now I see that most of them suck. Nevertheless, here are a few, with more in my Flickr gallery.

As Wikipedia says, Buyeo was the capital of the Baekje Kingdom from 538 to 660, under the name of Sabi. Baekje existed in the southwest of the peninsula, with Kaya to the southeast, Silla to the east, and Goguryeo to the north. Here's what a placard at the Buyeo National Museum has to say about "Planned City, International City The Royal City Sabi":

Buyeo, then known as Sabi, was a planned city. Work on the city was executed from the late 5th century through the transfer of the capital here in 538 by King Seong. It served as a gauge in the consolidation of the state and in the reformation and projection of power as the center of royal authority. The north and south were bounded by rivers and protected by city wall on the east. Mountain fortresses were placed to the north and the royal palaces and government offices were protected by nearby mountain fotresses. Scholars are able to conjecture on the orderly structure of the streets and markets of Sabi through remaining vestiges of the road structure. Trade and diplomatic relations were promoted in a lively manner through waterborne traffic made possible by the rivers connecting Sabi to the sea. Sabi developed as a international city with visitors coming and going from Silla, China, and Japan. Through engraved tiles and stone beacons we can catch a glimpse of the fortresses in the city and provincial areas.

Yeah, anyway, the county's English webpage isn't helpful at all, but you can glean more information about the county from this 2007 article by Robert Koehler on Tour2Korea. Here's a bit of what he had to say:

Because both cities were capitals of their respective realms during the Three Kingdoms Period, Buyeo is often compared to Gyeongju. The comparisons, however, only go so far. While both towns have more than their fair share of historical remains, Gyeongju is far larger and has historically been the recipient of much more government largesse. Although it enjoys more tourism than most counties of its size, Buyeo is still a sleepy market town[.]

. . .

That being said, Buyeo’s sleepy nature is part of its attraction. If Gyeongju is characterized by triumphalism, Buyeo is touched by the sweet sadness of a defeated capital. Its ruins remain, for the most part, just that — ruins. Its most renowned tourist site is where several thousand court ladies committed mass suicide (at least according to legend). The former royal garden Gungnamji Pond is a microcosm of the town’s esprit de corps — you could happily spend the day there with a bottle of milky-white makgeolli rice wine, watching the willow trees and contemplating the city’s former greatness.

You may also remember me mentioning Buyeo a couple times because of the lotus festival and the Baekje Culture festivals held there each year. Both the Baekje festival and the World Samulnori Festival---how the hell can you have a World Samulnori Festival?---were cancelled this year because of swine flu.

One of the main attractions are royal tombs a few minutes outside of Buyeo-eup. These seven are set on a hill in Neungsan-ri:




Buses from Buyeo bound for Nonsan will stop near the tombs, or you can take a short cab ride. Interesting to note the light stripes that circle each mound.



If you're looking at these pictures, and are thinking that it'd be awesome to sledride down this hill, you weren't alone. In line with turning Christmas into another couple's holiday in Korea, one that isn't complete without ridiculous hats and ice cream cake, perhaps other countries could adopt Seollal to help break up the monotony of February, and could set up burial mounds to have a little fun. Upon further investigation, though, I found they're simply too steep.



A lot of the historical sites are still being built. Across from those royal tombs a temple is being reconstructed.



The sign outside of it calls it "temple site in Neungsan-ri," but doesn't say when it was destroyed and when it will be rebuilt. It will look like this when it's done:



Work was also being done at Jeonglimsa, a temple right in the middle of town.



That five-storied stone pagoda is designated National Treasure No. 9. The temple is located next to Buyeo National Museum, a very nice museum as far as they go. It holds a very recognizable piece of Baekje-era art, the Gilt-bronze Incense Burner of Baekje, also designated a National Treasure. There are also deer on the grounds.



The museum and this temple are a few minutes' walk from the bus terminal. About a ten-minute walk in the other direction from the terminal is is Busosanseong (부소산성), the remnants of the old mountain fortress. As with the one in Gangjin-eup, where I used to live, the gates are gone and you can just barely make out the wall as you wander up the hill.




There are several shrines and pavillions in the area.



You'll have a nice view of the town, weather permitting, from a pavillion further up the hill:



And don't look now, here's somebody being intentionally ironic:



On a temple nearby was another warning against graffiti:



On one of the temple's paintings the faces are scratched off; not sure if it's students or earlier vandals:



Here's another painting:



It tells the legend, perhaps apocryphal, associated with Nakhwaam, a rock at the northwest corner overlooking the Baengma river. It's said that when Baekje was overrun some 3,000 court ladies jumped to their deaths from the rock into the river. As Robert Koehler's article says, the name means "Falling Flower Rock" because

their fluttering robes resembl[ed] falling flower petals as they crashed into the waves of the Baengma River below.

There's a pavillion on the rock now.



Probably the nicest place was the one that, unfortunately, didn't photograph well: Seodong Park's Gungnamji Pond (궁남지). It's a . . ., um, pond with a small pavillion built onto an island in the middle, is illuminated at night, and is where the lotus festival is held each summer. I'll just direct you to these Naver search results.

We stayed at the Crystal Motel, across the street from the entrance to Busosangseong and next to one of the restaurants we ate at, 백제의집. Rooms were 35,000, and weren't that bad. A little old, but comfortable.




As the woman there told us, it's listed on Good Stay, the site affiliated with the Korea Tourism Organization. Doesn't show up on the English-language page, though.

Before we left I Navered around for restaurant recommendations, and ended up trying 백제의집 and catfish soup at 백마강식당 (which is on the other side of town from the river). I'd recommend 하늘채, a buffet---with shabu shabu---a short walk up the road from the museum (map here, in Korean).

In conclusion, Buyeo is a nice area and is worth the visit if you're interested in historical sites. I think it would be especially nice during one of the two large festivals held there each year. When you arrive at the bus terminal---from Gwangju you'll first need to go to Nonsan, then to Buyeo---pick up a map, or do it at the tourist information center in front of Busosanseong. Thank you for reading my essay.

But I will add in closing that although I've had my Samsung point-and-shoot for nearly a year, I just learned that Sunday that it has "vivid" and "forest" settings. Here's a comparison:





Up until that point I had just been using the regular mode---seen in the first picture---set to "landscape" when shooting landscapes. Quite a noticable difference in the different settings, and I played around with that when I was in Japan (I hope to get those pictures posted in a few days). Interesting, but I dunno, isn't that like cheating?