The Way to Gyeongju

I left Seoul for Gyeongju very early in the day about 5 o'clock, because I wanted to meet the bus bound for Yangdong Folk Village which was just designated a World Heritage in 2010. I planned to take KTX, Korea Train Express by which it would take 2 hours from Seoul Station to Singyeongju Station. I reserved a Korea Railway Pass for foreign visitors, with which I could make a round trip a day.

 I took a train in South Korea for the first time, and I didn't mention if there was an introduction about how to use KR Pass on the its official website (probably not). I got a KR Pass card in Seoul Station the last day, and just went to the station with it in the morning. The card was just a piece of hard paper. I didn't know how it worked. I kept going to close the train thinking a ticket gate and a station employee would be in front of the train. But it wasn't -- no ticket gate and employees were there. I got on the train and selected a seat to sit down, though I found all of the seats had a number. I was nervous and waiting for the departure. Finally, the train started to move. 

A young female employee came into my car to check ticket after the train left the second station from Seoul Station. When I showed her my poor card, she seemed to have trouble. I asked her if I couldn't take this train with the KR Pass. She said no. She could speak limited English words, and kept to touch the screen of her hand machine. I tried to guess what did she want to say. As a result, I went along the train to look for an unreserved seat car -- I though there would be one, but there were not. I went back to ask the employee. She still touched the machine screen ceaselessly (In fact she was searching a seat for me. I knew it later) while speaking some single English words. What the hell it is? She seemed nervous and to be at a lost. In the end she asked me where to go and gave me a seat number. At that moment, a man in the uniform likely the conductor passed us. The female employee called him and spoke to him about me. I guessed the dialog was as follow.
F: Conductor, this foreigner has a KR Pass but not reserve a seat. 
M: Where will she go? Busan?
F: Singyeongju.
M: Then give her a seat.
F: OK.
M: Where does she come from? Japan?
F: No, China.
Uncle conductor was very nice. I liked his smile. Though I didn't know Korean at all, I got it! How exciting!

When the train was getting close to Gyeongju (I knew it because I kept time and I had a GPS), I prepared to get off the train. The woman asked me something in Korean. I guessed it was "do you get off at the next station?" I nodded definitely. But the next station wasn't Singyeongju which station the train would arrive at several minutes later. Anyway, I arrived in Gyeongju safely. 

When I returned Seoul in the evening, I got to know I should reserve a seat by showing my KR Pass card to the employee in the window of the station before getting on the train.

I took the 5:30 KTX

In the train

Singyeongju Station

In the station

Why did I go to South Korea?

I went to different places for different reasons, most times for fun, sometimes for exciting experiment or just filling the free time, but they're all not the answer. I went to South Korea with a particular purpose.

I have been to Seoul a few years ago when I transferred in Inchon Airport, a place famous for the U.S. army's landing in 1950. The airport was great. You could do shopping, see a show of Korean traditional culture or draw a Korean-style fan for free. I loved these thoughtful details just like that in Japan, while the behavior of the Korean staff were not also -- they were like Chinese more. Two stuffs talked with each other while walking. They were smiling and seemed relax and not saying something not about work. I've never seen that scene in Japan but China. At that moment, I recognized that a portion of this country was similar to China, while the other resembled Japan. Maybe many people who have been in China and Japan can find it easily and feel it too usual to worth thinking. But to me, it's huge.

I have known if I am looking for the differences of two issues, finding a point between them as a reference is likely a good idea. I thought China and Japan were similar to each other. The people look like almost the same. And Chinese elements such as Chinese characters, tea culture, and so on were accepted  by Japan from Tang Period and continued until now. I have been told this SIMILAR theory since I was a child in China. But when I grow up and come to Japan, it makes me confused. At that time I met Korea, the reference point of China and Japan.

I learned Korea history roughly before the journey around South Korea, and found that the nationality is closely related to the geography. Korea Peninsula is between China and Japan, geographically, and socially or politically. As a peninsula, Korea has both Chinese-continental and Japanese-marine natural environment; As a small country, Korea was under the pressure of BIG China and STRONG Japan until 1945 or even now. 

I visited three places in South Korea: Gyeongju, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla (57BC - 935AD), where a vast number of historical heritage remain, Seoul, the current capital, famous large metropolis and a city you must go to when you visit South Korea, and Panmunjon, a crack of Korea Peninsula, divides a whole country to two portions. 

Now, I'd like to talk about my journey ~