the Bonghwang-dong

no, i'm not writing about dirty things... this post is about the area in gimhae known as bonghwang-dong (dong being akin to 'hood). this is a historically significant area that has recently been renovated to increase it's importance. basically gimhae has been home to people since the bronze age and this particular area housed the ruling class of the Geumgwan Gaya period. it is also the site of the first archeological excavation in korea (in 1920).

really it's a nifty little park now. i'd never visited it though it's been in the back of my mind since fall. i pass by it all the time and today i was walking by and decided to finally check it out.

a map of the whole area. i basically walked around the whole thing in about 30 minutes.

at the front entrance (bottom left of the map) there is a big field where kids play and families picnic. to the right of the field there's a little 'lake' (more of a dirty pond...) which is sort of neat because it has a traditional boat sitting in the middle. on the shore there are raised houses in the style that would have been here hundreds of years ago.

see the boat? and the house? there's a walkway that goes out over the water.

here's a better shot of the boat. (it's actually filled with water.)

i veered into the wooded area to walk around the whole area. when i got to the top i found the Hwangse Rock. i'm lucky the area was renovated in the last few years because that meant signs in korean, english, and japanese, so i could actually learn about the area.

the hwangse rock.

the rock is significant because the son of the prime minister of the Garak period hung out here with his girlfriend, before he knew she was a chick. they played the "urinating game" (whatever that is) here, of course, she couldn't pee standing up and had to trick him using a peice of bamboo. i know, it sounds really weird. here's what the actual sign says:

Hwangse was the prime minister Hwang’s son at the time when the King Gyeomji (Suk King), the ninth king of Garak, governed the country. The prime minister Hwang and Chul were friends and made the promise that if they had a son each, they would be sworn brothers and if they had a son and a daughter respectively, they would be married. The prime minister Chul told Hwang the lie that Yeoeui was a man when the Hwang’s family was ruined.
Hwangse and Yeoeui was brought up together. One day Hwangse suggested the urinating game to Yeoeui. Yeoeui evaded the crisis by using hemp stalk. This game happened at the place call the Hwangse Rock now.
Yeoeui became feminine as she was growing up. Hwangse doubted her sexual identity so he suggested her that they went to the Geobuknae for a bath. Yeoeui was at a loss for the suggestion and confessed the fact that she was a woman. Finally they made a promise to be married.
Afterward, Hwangse got married to the princess Yumin according to the order of the King in compensation for winning the war with Shilla. Yeoeui missed the general Hwangse and was dead. Hwangse also missed Yeoeui, became sick and died at the year when Yeoeui was dead. And the sad legend that the princess Yumin left home to the mountain Yumin and became a Buddhist nun has been handed down.

uh, ya, ok. sorry for making you read that... but it's kind of funny isn't it? (on a side note i wonder about the translations of historic sites in canada and if they sound as bad in other languages as the korean ones do in english...)

the bonghwang-dong is also home to the Yeoeuigak. a shrine to Yeoeui.

up the stairs to the shrine.

and a little further there is another area with raised houses and other traditional buildings.

raised houses and semi-underground buildings were typical in the Gaya period.

this was a neat little area. you can't get in any of the buildings, but they're neat to look at. i'm going to put up some more pictures on my flickr account if you're interested. that's pretty much the bonghwang-dong. it was a nice walk on a beautiful day with a little history lesson to boot!