Wing Fai & Wendy: Korea 2011 - Day 8 (Suwon, Hwaseong Haenggung, Hwaseong Fortress & Dongdaemun)

We traveled to Suwon, a city south of Seoul, where we spent the day visiting Hwaseong Haenggung and Hwaseong Fortress. Haenggung means a shelter where King rested or retired from a war. Hwaseong Haenggung is the biggest shelter. Kings used them since the Jeongjo King period. Hwaseong Fortress is the wall surrounding the centre of Suwon. It was built in the late 18th century by King Jeongjo of the Joseon Dynasty and was designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1997.

We reached Suwon early in the morning and had initially planned to visit the 5.74-km-long Hwaseong Fortress. However, it started raining heavily even before we started our walk on Hwaseong Fortress, so we decided to go to Hwaseong Haenggung instead and wait until the rain stopped. We had to brave the rain and walked in flooded streets to get to Hwaseong Haenggung. By the time we reached Hwaseong Haenggung, we were drenched but the rain was getting smaller, so we decided to go to visit Hwaeseong Haenggung first.

Suwon

We spent the late morning and early afternoon walking around Hwaseong Haenggung. We also managed to catch two performances (Royal Guard Ceremony and Martial Arts Performance).

Hwaseong Haenggung.

Royal Guard Ceremony.

Martial Arts Performance.

Photo with performers.

After that, it was already close to 4pm when we finally made our way to Hwaseong Fortress. We were hungry but we did not stop for lunch because we wanted to finish climbing the 5.74-km-long Hwaseong Fortress. We just got a bun each from the stall we walked past and ate it before making our way to Hwaseong Fortress.