Hwaseong is an 18th Century City Wall that is mostly intact, with the exception of a small stretch where the busy market area of Paldamun has swallowed up any need for fortification. Hwaseong is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and deservedly so. When I first hear of Hwaseong I thought it would be something comparable to the Great Wall of China; it is not. Yet, it is impressive and definitely worth the adventure. It only takes a few hours to walk around and it includes an amazing view from the top of a small hill over the whole of Suwon, in which you can almost see our home.
If you go during the day you get the chance to explore the various guard posts and gate houses, and if you go towards the evening you get to witness a side of Suwon you’d would often associate as foreign to much of Korea; people out relaxing in the quiet narrow grass verges next to the sleepy streets. We managed to catch a spectacular sunset on our little circumnavigation.
We took this little walk, our second time doing it, in early September when it had gotten a little cooler. Everything was still nice and green:)
I’m a little sad that it took me over two months to actually make this post, but fortunately I got down to it in the end! I’ll allow the pictures tell the rest of the story 8)
One of many guard house doors
A view of Suwon
Another view of Suwon
Another Guard House
Descending
Nice breeze 🙂
Walking along the wall
Guard's spyhole
Guard Tower
Guard tower door with a taeguk...perhaps you're starting to notice my fascination with doors by now...
The wall from the opposite side
One of the main gates into the walled city area.
Looking out to the battlements
Not sure if this is the same view the guards in the 18th century had...
Tower looking out on the city
River running through
The bridge for the river
A closeup of some of the bridge's features - a locked gate.
A closeup of some of the bridge's features - brickwork
The second secret entrance.
Sun going down over Suwon
A sunse this impressive deserves a second look!
More of the city and wall.
A closeup of urban Suwon with Gwangkyo Moutain in the background (where we also occasionally go hiking)
Every time we looked behind us, we had this to deal with; breathtaking!
There's some nice archery you can take part in too, that is if you really want to feel medieval.
Smoke chimneys for warning about attacks - not sure if they were very used.
It got too dark to take anymore pictures. Here's the last one that came out clearly helped by the light from Paldalmun market. The big clouds luckily avoided us!
I know I might have sounded like I don’t like Hwaseong, but that’s quite the contrary; it’s a wonderful place to spend the afternoon as it only takes a couple of hours to walk around. You can also find some great friend chicken restaurants nearby, of it that isn’t your tipple, the numerous markets nearby are always worth a mooch. If only to just see how the people live there. It’s quite different from the usual Gangnam/Itaewon etc. world!
