The DMZ

Today I went on a tour to the DMZ with two of my co-workers, Andrea and Nate and 2 of Nate's friends, Mary and Brian.  I've been wanting to go the DMZ since I got here.  Nate and I vowed to each other that we would go when the weather got nicer.  Then Andrea found this cool tour to the DMZ, so the three of us decided to go.  We left this morning at 9:30 and arrived at our first stop (there were 4 different locations we would be visiting) about 10:15 or so. 




ImjinGak is the northernmost point you can travel to in South Korea without special permission from the government.  At ImjinGak, we saw the Freedom Bridge (the bridge used to exchange prisoners after the Korean War), the War Memorial (an altar where those who cannot go back to their homes in North Korea get together on special holidays and pray together) and the Peace Bell (an enormous bell which is a symbol of the wish for peace and reunification of the two Koreas).  It was really cool!

Next, we went to Tongilchon.  Inside the DMZ, there are 2 villages.  Tongilchon is one of those villages.  In Tongilchon, we ate a traditional Korean meal and walked around for a bit.  Then we climbed back on the bus and were given a brief tour through the actual village.  The village is really small, but the people make really, really good money there (close to $100,000 annually which is a lot in Korea).  The village is famous for rice, soybean and ginseng, so maybe that's how they make their money.  I'm not sure what exactly their professions are or why they are there; I didn't understand a lot of what our tour guide said.  But the people we saw are the South Koreans living the closest to North Korea.  Also, at Tongilchon, we watched a brief documentary on the Korean War and the DMZ since the war.  As you all probably know, North Korea attempted building several underground tunnels after the war to infiltrate Seoul and South Korea.  Throughout the 1970s, the South Korean government found 4 of these tunnels.  The 3rd tunnel is the most famous in that it was the closest to Seoul and the biggest.  They estimated that the tunnel would allow 10,000 armed soldiers to invade Seoul within 1 hour.  We had the opportunity to go down into this tunnel and see it.  It was so wild to think about all these soldiers building this tunnel for so long and the possibility that there are other tunnels out there that are yet to be discovered.

After Tongilchon, we went to the Dora Observatory.  The Dora Observatory is a high point that allows you to look over the DMZ and into North Korea.  It was unfortunately foggy today, and, honestly, I could barely see anything.  You're supposed to be able to see the Propaganda Village of North Korea, as well as Kesung city (North Korea's 2nd largest city).  I did see the South Korean and the North Koreans flags facing each other where the two countries meet at the DMZ.  It was pretty neat.  The North Korean government intentionally built their flag tower taller than that of the South Korean flag, which is apparently quite a sore spot for the South Koreans.  At the Observatory, the South Korean government is very strict about where you can take pictures.  Picture taking areas are depicted by these big yellow lines on the ground.  Apparently the reason is that the South Korean government worries that the North Korean government will find pictures that have been posted online of the way the South Korean guard posts, security, etc are set up and then the North Korean government will be able to use it to their advantage.  Thus, you are allowed to see a lot of stuff at the DMZ but not allowed to take pictures of some of the really cool stuff.

The last stop of our trip was Dorasan Train Station.  Dorasan is the northernmost train station in South Korea.  Something like once a week, a train crosses from the South into the North to take supplies to North Korea (don't quote me on this....the details are really foggy in my mind).  It was like a total ghost station.  Apart from my tour group, there was 1 Korean family of 4 waiting to take that train one stop south.

Overall, the day was really cool and a lot of fun.  I loved walking around and hearing all the stories of the significance of the places we were visiting.  And it was really nice to get out of Seoul if only for a couple hours.  Plus, the people I was with today were really great.  It was an all around enjoyable day!

I love you and miss you all!!!  Hope all things are going well in the States.

It's ALL About Him,

KendallCooke