Myeongnyun Dong

p/s: with reference to batch 9 pictures

June 3, Sunday - It was drizzling almost the whole day. At around 3pm, Eileen, Ryan and I departed to Bokcheon Museum at Myeongnyun Dong. We took the subway there and then we took bus no. 1. The bus was smaller than the normal bus we take. The charges are a bit cheaper as well, about 690 won. It took us around 5 minutes to reach the museum.

As we reached there, it was very misty. There was a hill slope there, forming a natural fortress. It was very beautiful, covered with green grass and trees. The architecture of the museum and the scenery there reminded me of the olden western era, where kings and queens still exist.

There are 3 levels in the museum open to the public. The last floor is the cafeteria. There is nothing much on the first floor. On the second floor, there are displays of the ancient potteries and tombs. There are 2 main types of tombs – made of stone and wood. These categories are further divided according to their designs. The explanations are further enhanced by the displays of the models of a variety of tombs, video demonstrations, models, pictures and miniatures on its process of making the tombs. However, the explanations are all done in Korean, only the labels are in both Korean and English. The third level exhibits the normal ancient pottery and royal clothing and accessories.

Then, we had a walk at the compound of the museum. There is a bridge connecting the museum to a small green meadow. The place is really wonderful. But, soon after that, we realized that it is actually the locations of the ancient tombs. We took some photos of it. Luckily, Ryan brought along his new transparent umbrella. Else, we would not be able to get nice pictures of it as it was drizzling at that time. Then, we walked further into the meadow. There is a “green house” there. Well, it is not a green house to be exact, but a show room of the ancient tombs. The whole place is actually the locations of the previous tombs. However, the scenery here is wonderful. The place seems to be resting in peace as it was drizzling and misty. It is like a little green garden in the middle of the busy town.

As we were exploring outside of the museum, we came across a Guang Yin temple. However, there was no one there and the place seemed to be deserted. It gave us an eerie feeling. As the place become misty, the Guang Yin statue looked like as if it is very holy and god itself had descended to Earth.

We walked further up the hill and found ourselves at an abandon fortress. The architecture is very temple like and the walls kind of represent a smaller version of the Great Wall of China. There was hardly anyone around there. We explored the area ourselves and climbed up the hill following the staircase along the wall. The scenery from the top is very beautiful and mysterious. There are flags along the path as well. After some distance, we found ourselves coming to an end of the road. The place is badly maintained and there is a signboard explaining the place. It seemed that it was a fortress traditionally built to keep the town safe from invasions. We made our way back by following the hiking trails and found ourselves in the middle of a residential area on the slope. There are some small vegetable farms there as well.

As we got out of the area, we walked around finding for the bus station for bus no. 1. We ended up enjoying ourselves sightseeing at a street market nearby. There are a lot of things selling there and some of the items are very cheap. 3 Hoptop are selling at 1,000 won and a loaf of sandwich bread is selling at 1,000 won(normally more than 1,500 won each). In the middle of this town, we found ourselves lost. Thus, we took a bus directly to Seomyeom.

Seomyeom is the central of Busan. We leaved the bus as we reached the Lotte Deparment Store. Lotte is a giant corporation in Korea. They have huge department stores, apartments scattered all over the towns in Busan. They even produced food products like milk, mayonis and biscuits. We had a walk around the area, hunting for something cheap to eat for our dinner. We ended up having dinner at a small shop mainly selling “dim sum” like food. We had Bulgogi burger(beef burger) at 1,000 won each. The taste is not bad, almost the same as the one in McDonalds, but it is not very filling.

After dinner, we had a scroll around the area. The streets nearby are very happening, in fact, even better than Nampo Dong. Some of the things there, such as clothes, are quite cheap. One of the shops is selling 3 short pants at 1,900 won, around RM8. However, the quality is not very good and thus I did not buy it. We found a shop with a lot of machines for taking photo stickers and decided to have a try. We took the cheapest one, which is 2,000 won. Since it was the first time for all of us taking such photos, it was quite a mess and we ended up having all the photos looking the same. We can actually choose more than one photo. Never, I guess we will just have to try it again next time.