Holiday Journal

• Start
•  
• Gwanggyo Reservoir
•  
• Hwaseong
•  
• Hwaseong Haenggung
•  
• Janganmun
•  
• Suwon Chicken Alley
•  
• Haegungdong
•  
• Paldalmun
•  
• Finish

Walking Along Janganmun Old Road, the Road that the King Jeongjo Used to Walk

Personally, I often travel Suwon because I love the history of Suwon but I feel that there are so many places that I don't know of yet. Suwon-si is actively searching for old cultures and places and promoting business for providing services to tourists visiting Suwon, and I'm going to show you one of those places. Starting from Hwaseong Temporary Palace(Palace), you'll get to the front gate of Suwon Hwaseong Fortress called Jangan Gate through alleys.

I'll show you the way with pictures. Leaving Sinpungru, the front gate of Hwaseong Temporary Palace, behind your back, walk a little to the left and you'll see the building decorated with pretty tiles as above. If you find this building, you should turn left at the crossroads.

On the corner, you'll meet a tour information cafe called JINSCUP. It says 'Customer Wanted' on the walls. They want you so if you want, get inside. ^^

Walk about 20m from JINSCUP and there's a starting point of Janganmun Old Road to the right. In the narrow, winding and old-looking alley, you can see pretty mural paintings everywhere. This old road has residence since the Suwon Hwaseong Fortress was built, and it's just 500m road that the King Jeongjo used to walk from Gyeongbokgung(Palace) to Hwaseong Temporary Palace through Jangan Gate. Follow the brown line on the floor and you'll get to Jangan Gate.

Indifferent yet sophisticated flowers seem to be welcoming me.

Gas pipes on the walls and three flowers looked beautiful.

The alley looks like a filming site that reenacts the alley in the 80s. If there's any empty space, it has pretty paintings on it.

On the walls made of cement blocks, sunflowers bloomed. Walking along the alley was fun even if it's narrow even for a car to pass by. Especially there were a few people so it's friendly and countryside. My wife was wandering around leaving me alone to take pictures. I must say, all women seemed to love this alley.

I could see the hopscotch on the floor that I also used to enjoy as a kid. I used to play this hopping everywhere. It's been long since the last time so it was fun. ^^* By the way, the brown line on the floor splits into two. But this will meet soon enough so you can choose either one.

Breathing a new life to old and rough walls is really a great thing to do.

My old house also used to have this small window with bars outside. Through this window, my friend Minsu said 'hey my friend, let's play' then I shouted 'okay' and ran out. It's old and nothing special but I feel like the memories are new again.

On the wall, there are paintings, mosaic pattern with tiles and small structured combined altogether. There's not even one thing that is not special.

It might've been depressing (?) wall but a sunflower, snail and frog in the cloud made it look fun. I'm proud of them.

The real flowers in the alleys were welcoming us as well. They go well with tree flowers on the walls, don't they?

An old lady was holding a basket of peppers saying that she needs to dry them up when the sun is shining. It's hard to see this kind of thing in big cities. Then she reminded me of my mom in the country.

Pretty wooden benches were prepared for tourists as well. Why don't we sit down and wipe the camera lenses? ^^*

It's a simple painting but I could feel the sense of the artists. If these paintings were not here, how would these walls look? One painting makes the house pop.

At the end of the alley, there's a pretty lamp made with hanji(Korean traditional paper handmade from mulberry trees). Pretty alley, isn't it? The brown precast pavers are guiding the road so you just keep following them.

This is the resting place at the end of the alley. Where else could you see this in Korea except here? I could see small and cosy structures with paintings and feel the old atmosphere which is special.

We're almost there at Jangan Gate. You see that over there, right? FYI, Seonggwak in the picture above is a small yet popular Korean style restaurant, and that a guy with beard in Hanbok cooks food. If you're hungry right now, I say you should eat here.

So this is the Jangan Gate in the north of Suwon Hwaseong Fortress. It's in the north facing Hanyang for the King to use when he visited Suwon. This Jangan Gate is the biggest castle gate in Korea, even bigger than Gwanghwa Gate in Gyeongbokgung(Palace). Jangan indicates capital of Joseon and this proves the King Jeongjo decides to make this Suwon Hwaseong Temporary Palace as capital to spend the rest of his life here.

What are these holes here in Jangan Gate Podium? This is blood of Christ(性穴). This is custom coming down from the prehistoric times where they used to make holes to pray. I wonder what they were praying for at the biggest gate in Joseon. Did they pray for their husbands and sons that they pass the state examination in Hanyang?

The ramparts still have shells left as well and Jangan Gate was partially destroyed during the Korean War. But even if the building was destroyed, the castle gate did not collapse entirely and stood there as long as it could.

Inside the door, it looks like this. It's a double structure that it had another castle to protect the castle gate, which has the best defence power. When the foreign historians visited here to designate this as UNESCO world heritage, they said Suwon Hwaseong Fortress wouldn't break even if they used all western new weapons at the time. I guess the consecration techniques of the castle in the late Joseon Dynasty was unequaled.

It has a round castle inside so even if the enemies break the castle gate and get in, they would be stuck between two gates like rats in the trap.

Facing the Jangan Gate, I could see Bukdongjeokdae that protects the castle gate to the left where the Hongipo(紅夷砲) used in those times was displayed. This is called Hongipo that indicates Red Intruders' Cannon made in Netherlands, and according to the test result in Hullyeon Dogam(Training guide) in the era of Yeongjo, the effective range is 700m and the maximum range is 2-5km. It flies so far in effect. Amazing.

How was it? Did you like Janganmun Old Road? I strongly suggest to walk along this road for once.

Address : 330, Jangan-dong, Paldal-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do 5 (경기도 수원시 팔달구 장안동 330)
Telephone : 031-228-2768

Modern and Lovely 'JS The Classic Hotel' JS 더클래식호텔

There are business hotels run by world-wide hotel chains in Suwon as well but this time, we decided to stay the night at a boutique hotel, JS The Classic Hotel in Dongtan that is decorated elegantly and luxuriously. A boutique hotel means a small hotel with unique architectural designs, interiors, business concepts and services that are discriminated from traditional big hotels.

JS The Classic is in Dongtan new town 20 minutes away from Suwon. Boutique hotels are small in general that do not provide accommodations as grand hotels but it was comfortable to come out to have dinner or check in because it was close to big market, various accommodations and restaurants.

The chocolate-shaped gate at the entrance was impressive and my wife said her friends thought it was Europe. I liked the unique atmosphere as soon as I saw it.

As I pushed the gate and got inside, there's an elegant and small front desk. While I was checking in at a very quiet and calm front desk, they finished valet parking, and said they would prepare my car if I told them 10 minutes before I use the car. I feel like I'm respected and treated well so…I loved it!

So there are different types of room here, Standard, Deluxe, Premium, Garden, Two-story and Glamping Room, and I booked the Deluxe Room, which is good next to the Standard. This hotel is characterised by high-class interior and furnitures so the bed was very comfortable. I liked it so much that I had to ask the counter when I checked out and they said the bed is the highest quality Simons bed.

And a 60 inch big TV screen is facing the bed. I've stayed at five-star hotels often but I've never seen a 60 inch TV. The plain sofa in front of TV looked comfortable than I had expected. I was watching TV and magazine on the sofa feeling relaxed from my trip.

And there were two CDs, one with relaxing music and one with dance music, with YAMAHA audio that my wife was so attracted to. The differentiated and refined service of boutique hotel must be this. Next to the audio, there was a Samsung notebook. I could enjoy my stay more, thanks to the notebook.

In the dressing room, there were hangers above and there was a safe, shower gown, sleepers and free beverages below.

Generously enough, they offered water bottles and beverages for free. The room was also equipped with electric pot and tea as well. In particular, fragrant brewed coffee in a tea bag attracted me.

The room structure seems quite special. The bathroom and the bedroom were separated witha partition not with walls or doors. Plus, the toilet and shower booth had doors to prohibit unpleasant smell from getting out of the space.

The bathroom was bigger than the room and the bath was impressive since it was big enough that even a tall man could enjoy bath with his feet stretched out.

And the sink was installed on the wall that's made of the glass. My wife was standing here for a while saying that the bathroom was better than the room and I guess she's right, it's a hotel that any woman would love.

The bathroom had amenities as well. Everything for two people were prepared including toothbrush, tooth paste, cotton swab, soap, body cleansing soap, foam cleanser, skin, lotion, wax, hair spray…phew… and in the shower booth, there was shampoo, rinse, body cleanser, everything. All you need to bring is yourself. Skin and lotion is organic goods with natural scent which is good for both women and men.

Did I say the bathroom was bigger than the room? There's a separate toilet. This hotel offers American Standard, the best bathroom product brand. I just felt my heart stopped. This hotel spoiled my wife. She's wandering around the room and said she wants to take everything home. So I was starting to feel pressured thinking that I have to make a lot of money.

This is a shower booth separated from bathroom and toilet. This is also American Standard product which looks fancy. I want it at my home now.

As I was standing for a long time looking at the interior and products in the hotel room which was bigger than the one in the five-star hotels, I started to feel tired. With a cup of coffee with my wife, I could relax after a long day.

JS The Classic, a boutique hotel in Dongtan, offers the detailed and generous services for its price, and most of all, it has elegant and sophisticated interior that even makes a Busan guy moved. If you look for a hotel for your wife or girlfriend, I vote for this hotel. Plus it has comfortable and clean bed and bathroom that made us relax, and it's even better for relax or parties being equipped with audio system and notebook to prevent you from getting bored. The breakfast is also served for 10,000 won, which is cheap, but it's until 9 in the morning so I didn't use it just to sleep more.

Address : 34-4, Seoku-dong, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do (경기도 화성시 석우동 34-4)
Telephone : 031-8015-1300