JeonJu-city

/JeonJu is the provincial capital of Jeollabuk-do and is famous for being the birthplace of two things - the Joseon dynasty and bibimbap ( a dish of rice, meat and vegetables with some hot sauce - it's one of my favourites). The Joseon dynasty is the last dynasty of Korea and spanned over 600 years from 1392 to 1910. Joseon temples are found throughout the whole of Korea. The most important contribution of the Joseon family was the creation of the Hangul language. Hangul is the language of modern Korea and is so easy that Korea has a 100% literacy rate. Using my trusty Lonely planet phrasebook I was able to learn written Hangul in less than a month. There are a number of historical sites to visit in JeonJu including a traditional Hanok village, Gyeonggijeon (portrait house of the Joseon family), Gaeksa (military officer's rest house), Pungnammun Gate, Jeondong Catholic church, the Chinese gate and much more. I went to JeonJu by myself during my first month in Korea (before I started working). My first stop in JeonJu was the Hanok village. There I met another Canadian teacher who was being escorted around by two of her Korean students. They invited me to join their party.



Buildings in the Hanok village. In Korea almost all of the traditional houses have been replaced by large cookie-cutter apartment buildings. The Hanok village is one of the last remaining 'old style' communities in Korea. All in all I was not super impressed with the village. It was pretty small.

Please enlarge and read.

Archway leading to the portrait house.

Off to one side, before entering the buildings, is a little sanctuary with a small bamboo forest.

Doorway to sanctuary.

Bamboo forest.

This is a the portrait of the Joseon King. I found out after I was not supposed to photograph him.. oops.

Portraits of the Joseon family.

A the very first Hyundai.

Jeondong Catholic church. Constructed between 1908 and 1914, it was errected on the site where Korean Catholic martyrs were exectuted in 1781 and 1801. From the inside you can see stained-glass windows depicting the martyrs.

First built in 1398, Pungnammun is an impressive (nam = south) gate and it is all that remains of the old JeonJu city wall.

JeonJu Chinatown.

A praying mantis strolling down the street in Chinatown. This guy was about the size of my fist.

The J.I.F.F. (JeonJu International Film Festival) district. Korea has an amazing film industry, with its two main centres in JeonJu and Busan. Every year a huge film festival is held in both cities.


My Korean tour guides took me to this beautiful park where at 5pm sharp there was a musical waterworks demonstration.

Bordering the lake was this lotus flower wetland.

/My Korean tour guides insisted on taking me out for some bibimbap at one of the best restaurants in JeonJu.... mmmmm. At dinner they told me about the JeonJu fringe music festival (SORI) which was going on at various locations throughout JeonJu.

SORI music festival location - JeonJu University. This was a kickass all-woman punk band. Check out the guitarist's mullet.

The highlight of SORI was this drumming act.

My Korean tourguides, Mr Tak and Dennis, and me.