Seongbulsa Temple, Mt. Namsan, Gyeongju
With our first blast of brisk weather and leaves starting to turn, fall is finally settling on Gyeongju. In about a week or so all the brilliant red, orange and gold autumn leaves will be at their peak, so I suggest getting out to enjoy their beauty before the dreariness of winter sets in. If you need any inspiration to get out of the house, here’s a photo essay of my favorite fall scenes in Gyeongju. Here they are (in no particular order): read more
Buddha Labyrinth, Manbulsa Temple, Yeongcheon
If you’ve ever taken the bus from Gyeongju to Daegu, you might’ve caught a fleeting glimpse of a giant golden Buddha off in the mountains to the north. No, this isn’t some apparition induced by sleep deprivation or soju poisoning. This huge Buddha actually overlooks Manbulsa (만불사), or literally “Temple of Ten-thousand Buddhas,” nestled at the foot of Mt. Gwansan (관산) on the way to Yeongcheon (영쳔). read more
Gyeongju: a Field Guide to History (cover image)
Over the last couple of months I’ve managed to collect a few really killer guidebooks on the Gyeongju, mostly through tips from friends and browsing through the Gyeongju National Museum book store. If you’re visiting Gyeongju, you’d be doing yourself a big favor by picking up at least one of these books and giving it a read before hand. I guarantee you’ll have a much more rewarding trip. Unfortunately much of the on site information around Gyeongju is poorly translated or lacks coherence. read more
Seogyeongsa Japanese Zen Temple, Gyeongju
The other week my wife and I were walking through an older neighborhood of Gyeongju on our way downtown to grab a burger at McDonalds (Yeah, yeah. I know, but she’s pregnant. I’m not going to argue.) About a block from the courthouse, we turned the corner and stumbled on something we’d not seen since our last trip to Kyoto: the sweeping rooftop of a Japanese Buddhist temple. read more
Gyeongju Cherry Blossoms
Okay, so it looks like my predictions about the cherry blossoms being over this weekend were (thankfully) bogus. The cherries have survived our nasty bout of snow and cold Wednesday night and it looks like they’re still going strong. Barring any freak windstorms or rogue typhoons, the cherry flowers should still be in full bloom this weekend for the start of the Soju and Ddeok Festival. I’ll have more on the festival posted up here soon. Until then I thought I’d experiment with the WordPress photo album option. Just for the heck of it, here are some close-ups of the cherry blossoms I shot with my 300mm zoom/macro lens. Enjoy. read more
Phoenix Street of Traditional Culture, Downtown Gyeongju
With the KTX slated to start running to Gyeongju by next Winter(fingers crossed), there’s been a lot of hustle and bustle around town lately If you’re local you may have noticed there’s been a lot of construction downtown over this last year. Seems the city decided to give a serious makeover to the pottery and antiques street, just a block over from McDonalds and Baskin Robbins. read more
Being a new blog and all, I’ve been trying to flesh out the “Links” section of the site as it’s been looking a little sparse. Here’s a short run down of some of the recent websites I’ve post in my links.
My friend Paul at Dongguk Uni. has a pretty sweet photo blog called Adventure Dog Photography. He ‘s got mad talent and posts new photos pretty regularly, usually from around Gyeongju.
I’ve got a weird thing for ancient megalithic monuments, called dolmen, erected by prehistoric peoples and Korea’s got a lot of them. Here’s a funny little interactive website put up by Hwasun Dolmen Park in Jeollanam-do. There are apparently some dolmen around Gyeongju that I’d like to check out some time. read more
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