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Start
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Oedo
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Sinsheondae
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POW Camp
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Finish
One of Three Best Beaches on Geoje that is Beautiful in Four Seasons
Geoje Island is a city of ocean in Gyeongsangnam-do that has 17 beaches. So if you think of Geoje Island, it reminds you of clean ocean because this is a heaven of beaches. Among them, some are Mongdol beaches of round cute pebbles and some are beaches with golden sand, and I'll show you the 3 most beautiful beaches. Geoje Island is a city of ocean in Gyeongsangnam-do that has 17 beaches. So if you think of Geoje Island, it reminds you of clean ocean because this is a heaven of beaches. Among them, some are Mongdol beaches of round cute pebbles and some are beaches with golden sand, and I'll show you the 3 most beautiful beaches.
1. Myeongsa Beach 명사해수욕장
Myeongsa Beach has a meaning of fine sand because it has high quality sand and clean water where it's quite and calm because it's located in Nambu-myeon, Geoje-si, a little bit far away from famous sites and not known to tourists.
It was a national holiday when I was there so the place was quite relaxing compared to other tourist attractions. However it is not isolated and it's 10 minutes away from Oedo Quay, Hill of Wind and Sinseondae. It's also 5 minutes away from the pension I stayed. Plus, it's quite close to the new tourist attractions like Yeocha and Hongpodo so you can enjoy quietness and easy access.
The beach is quite small, 350m long and 30m width. The hollow shape of beach is flat for children to play in water. People seem to be something hunkering down on the beach, right?
There's nothing else to do on a beach except in summer but you can catch manila clams here so when you can't swim, anybody can catch manila clams.
The tourists, not only the residents, were searching for the manila clams in the clothing with simple tools. You don't need any skill, you just dig the sand with a hoe and pick up the manila clams when they show up. Unlike other places you have to pay for activities, I liked that anyone can catch them.
They caught so many in a short time during lunch time and they are big. It would be nice to boil jogae tang(clam soup) or bajirak kalguksu(clam noodles) with family.
There's an auto camping site in the pine forest behind the beach. Under the natural old pine tree, you can pitch a tent, read a book, cook delicious food, catch clams, put your feet in water and rest. There are toilets and water pipes for campers so you can set up a tent during the day to rest as well.
Address : 32, Myeongsa Haesuyokjang-gil, Nambu-myeon, Geoje-si (경상남도
거제시 남부면 명사해수욕장길 32)
Telephone : Geoje City Tour Department 055-639-3198
2. Hakdong Black Pearl Mongdol Beach 학동흑진주몽돌해수욕장
Korean beaches are mostly sandy or tideland and Geoje Island has this rare Mongdol beach in four places and that's why it attracts tourists four seasons.
Among Mongdol beaches on Geoje Island, the most known one is Hakdong Black Pearl Mongdol Beach. The 1.2km long with 50m width beach is covered with small and pretty Mongdol(round pebble) which shows an exotic view. When it wasn't known, the tourists thought they were gravels and misunderstood that the beach was under construction.
Hakdong was named after crane because it looks like a crane flying, and if you look at the beach from the higher place on the right in the picture, the prominent hills on both sides somehow looks like a crane.
So this big wide beach is covered with small round pebbles so you can put your feet in the water because you won't feel uncomfortable with sands even when you're walking barefoot.
Mongdol refers to round pebbles and each one has different shape, size and color but all of them look so cute. This place belongs to Halleyohaesang National Marine Park so you're going to pay a fine if you take a pebble, so don't.
There's no sand so the water was so clean even with waves, and darker colors of Mongdol in water were so beautiful.
The big pebbles had trumpet shells on them, which means the water is clean.
The clean water and pretty pebbles looked so beautiful that I had to enjoy the view somewhere. The sound of waves dashed against pebbles was unique, quite different from sandy beach.
As this is the most famous beach on Geoje Island, it has a lot of accommodations and facilities and there is an automobile (auto) camping site to keep up with the trend.
I saw many people who were camping so if you use a tent, I'm sure you'll make more memories to remember.
Address : Hakdong 5-gil, Dongbu-myeon, Geoje-si (경상남도 거제시 동부면 학동5길)
Telephone : Geoje City Tour Department 055-639-3198
3. Gujora Beach 구조라해수욕장
The last place I'm going to show you is the Gujora Beach that is famous for find sand.
The beach crowded with tourists is Hakdong Black Pearl Beach and Gujora Beach, and Mongdol beach has a lot of tourists due to unique scenery of Mongdol(round pebble) but it is bumpy due to stones so those who enjoy swimming prefer to go to Gujora Beach. It must've been especially popular 'cause there are not many beaches of fine sand like Gujora in Geojedo.
It has beautiful views with Mangsan(mountain) to the east, Sujeongbong(peak) to the west, Anseom(island) in the front, and Yundolseom(island) to the west sea, and the water is so clean that I can see inside. This used to be a beach used by US army when the POW Camp was settled down in Geojedo after the Korean War such that it has more foreigners than Koreans even a few decades have passed.
The beach is white and clean. It's quite different from stones that I've stepped on, it's softer and cozier.
The sand is soft, water is not deep, and the water temperature is proper so it's best for swimming, but since it looks like a quiet lake as inland-type coast area, you can sun bathe, read a book or just rest.
If Mongdol has round and black trumpet shells that look like round pebbles, Gujora Beach has white clams that look like a sandy beach. It's not against the law to take the shells here so you can pick a pretty one.
Address : 500-1, Gujora-ri, Ilun-myeon, Geoje-si (경상남도 거제시 일운면 구조라리 500-1)
Telephone : Geoje City Tour Department 055-639-3198
The Very Best Gukbap Restaurant I've Tried, Chungnam Sikdang(Restaurant) 충남식당
The biggest traditional market in Geojedo is Gohyeon General Market and there's an old restaurant that my friend from Geoje strongly suggested. That is Chungnam Sikdang(Chungnam Restaurant) that is famous for gukbap(rice soup). It's so popular among Geoje Island but not so much for tourists. Well, the real good restaurants are loved by residents, don't you think? So, shall we?
Chungnam Sikdang is 30 m away from the entrance at No.1 exit of Gohyeon General Market. Mostly people travel Geoje by car so tourists do not visit the market because there is not enough parking place, and probably that's why it's not known to outsiders.
If you enter the exit No.1 at Gohyeon General Market, there are various shops and if you walk about 30m inside, you'll see the sign on the left.
So get in the alley at the red sign outside, pass a narrow path in the shopping district and you'll see Chungnam Sikdang.
It's famous but it's not so big inside, rather small. It could occupy about 20 people so when it's meal time, you should probably wait in line or sit with strangers. It was before lunch time but the restaurant was crowded already.
After we ordered, the common dishes were served, nothing special, just the common ones! Personally, I love raw onions. ^^*
The most famous one in Chungnam Sikdang, Naejang-gukbap. It is milky soup with pig's intestines and the rice is already contained in the soup.
Naejang-gukbap had pork tripe, heart, liver and lung, and for the garnish of the soup, rice, sliced perilla leaves and welsh onions were inside. Salt is applied properly already so you should taste your soup before you put salted shrimp or salt.
This is normally called dadaegi(seasoned red-pepper sauce), right? I put a scoop of seasoned red-pepper sauce in the soup and I was surprised that the milk soup didn't smell of pork at all. The pork intestines didn't have disgusting smell either, it was rather clean and soft. If I exaggerate a little bit, I felt like I was eating ice cream, it was so soft and tasty as I chew more. It's fresh enough even for those with weak stomach who normally can't eat intestines. Well, these people must've come here even when there's no parking space because of this taste. It's really amazing.
The second one was Sundae-gukbap that my wife ordered. It has rice inside just like Naejang-gukbap with meat broth, sundae and welsh onions on top. It's salted a little bit when it's served.
It also had plentiful intestines and if you're a woman, you'll be full with one bowl of this. Sundae is regular sausage with cellophane noodles and they were chewy even in the hot broth.
Meat broth always goes well with kkakdugi(sliced radish kimchi). Deep and fresh soup with a piece of sundae and kkakdugi on top of it tasted amazing. I even ordered for some to-go and my 6 year old cousin, older relatives all enjoyed it.
Address : 98-27, Gohyeon-dong, Geoje-si, Gyeongsangnam-do (경상남도 거제시 고현동 98-27)
Telephone : 055-632-1332
Operating Hours and Holidays : 10:00 ~ 20:00, Closed on National Holidays
Cozy Mundong Recreational Forest 'Mundong Falls' 문동폭포
There are many people who drive along the coastline in Geoje because this island reminds you of blue sea but when the salty sea bores you, you should drop by Mundong Recreational Forest where there are cold falls and clean valleys. It's 15 minutes away from the popular places with good restaurants in Jangseungpo or Gohyeon-dong, so you could eat there and take a walk in this forest.
Mundong Recreational Forest in Mundong-dong, Geoje-si, has the only falls and valleys in Geoje Island. Drive about 4km to the east from Geoje City Hall and you'll see the entrance to Mundong Reservoir on the left. Walk about 100m after passing the reservoir and you'll see the parking log around the hillside of Bukbyeong Mountain.
From the parking lot, the trail starts and it takes about 20 minutes to the mountaintop, which is good for kids or old people.
There are low wooden benches along the valley that you can borrow for 5,000 won, take some snacks and enjoy the rest. Normally the people who live in Geoje were resting there and if I knew there were benches like that, I would've bought a lot of snacks at Gohyeon General Market which is 15 minutes away by car and enjoy my meal by the cool valley… It's a pity. Maybe next time…
The weather was hot but the valley water was cold in the dense forest. I was told that the red leaves look amazing in autumn and I was wondering how it would look like.
Geoje Island is so famous for ocean views so I didn't expect much when I climbed the mountain for a walk, and I was surprised to see the valley so clean and the general view wasn't behind the valleys in Gangwon-do at all.
After 20 minutes of walking, we could see the Mundong Falls at the hillside of Bukbyeong Mountain. It was a few days after the rain so the water was heavily dropping. I was told that the falls drop
heavily even when it doesn't rain. So when the water is short, the water from the reservoir is released here to make an artificial falls.
Mundong Falls is small but it's still high so when it rains, it drops heavily, almost scary. There are benches for a break by the falls so you can rest. The water is not deep which is even good for the young children to play with tubes.
The water was of course ice cold in September but it looked so clean that I had to put my feet inside. As I soaked my feet in water, I felt like I was in a valley in Chungcheongdo or Gangwondo, not an island in the ocean.
This was our final destination for the day but there's a trail to Guksabong(peak) or Uleumjae to the left of the falls. If you have enough time and want to get good energy and phytoncide, you should walk more.
On our way back from the walk, the water was still flowing. The sound of water took my stress away.
It was September when I was there and the temperature was over 30 degrees, so hot. However, the path along Mundong valley surrounded by high trees was cool.
Mundong Reservoir is right at the entrance to Mundong Recreational Forest so there are a few observatories where you can take a closer look at the reservoir and we had a pleasant walk while we fed the fish in the water. So why don't you have a nice meat at a restaurant in Jangseungpo or Gohyeon and drive 20 minutes to here, Mundong Recreational Forest, to have a walk? You've seen enough ocean, haven't you? ^^*
Address : San 8, Mundong-dong, Geoje-si, Gyeongsangnam-do (경상남도 거제시 문동동 산8)
Operating Hours and Holidays : No holidays, open always.
The World Champion Cook, Chinese Restaurant 'Yihwawon' 이화원
It's an obligation to eat fresh seafood in Geoje Island but this time, I went to the restaurant my friend from Geoje suggested. I was surprised to hear that it's a Chinese restaurant. The reason was that the chef won the world champion held in China who used to be the chef of the best hotel in Korea and I cannot eat this even in the city so I had no choice.
Yihwawon, the Chinese restaurant, is located in Gohyeon-dong, the most popular town in Geoje Island.
As we entered, the restaurant was in general sophisticated and classy with so many models the chef won from different cooking contests. I am not an expert in cooking so I don't know what those medals mean but my expectation got higher. The medal says 'Master(名人) Award in Beijing World Cooking Contest and 'Special Award for Group in Taiwan World Cooking Contest'.
It doesn't look like a normal Chinese restaurant in a small town but it looked fancy. It's not like a Chinese restaurant, rather an Italian restaurant.
Prices were higher than I had expected but we ordered a few dishes expecting great taste from a five-star hotel. We ordered unusual names 'Honam fried rice' and 'Fried Jjambbong', and we moved to the dishes.
We wanted to try at seafood at least once in Geoje so we ordered small dishes of Palbochae(stir-fried seafood and vegetables) and Rajogi(stir-fried chicken in hot sauce). It's quite a lot for two people but this kind of restaurant offers small amount of food with high quality and I am sure we could eat them all, plus we have to finish food even if it's too much!
First, Palbochae was served. Palbochae was named because it was made of eight precious ingredients including seafood, mushrooms and bamboo shoot.
Just like I had expected, properly sliced ingredients were chewy and tasty. The seafood was fully grown and fresh that I could taste of the ocean.
The sauce was not strong such that it made me taste the original taste of every ingredient.
Secondly served main dish was Rajogi. Gi in Rajogi refers to chicken so it looks like Tansuyuk(sweet and sour pork) but it uses completely different sauce.
The fried chicken later fried in salty oyster sauce was completely different from sweet and sour Tangsuyuk. This one was also not so strong, rather simple and neat.
After the main dishes were served, the meals were served and this is not tomato spaghetti, it's fried Jjambbong.
Seafood and the noodles were fried in spicy Jjambbong sauce. It also contains various seafood and the noodles were chewy, which was fun to eat. It was very tasty.
After we finished all, the last food was Honam fried rice. We were full already but Koreans should eat rice!!!
Egg soup made of clean and savory chicken broth was served with fried rice. It went with rice.
Honam is fried rice in Honam area. Beijing and Sichuan-style food is famous in Korea but this is called Honam-style because it satisfies the Korean taste the most. Properly sliced seafood with properly salted rice was quite okay, not so special.
Address : 987-24, Gohyeon-dong, Geoje-si, Gyeongsangnam-do (경상남도 거제시 고현동 987-24)
Telephone : 055-637-2266
Operating Hours and Holidays : 11:30 – 21:00, No holidays
1950.6.25 Historic Park of Geoje POW Camp that the Pains from Korean War on Jan. 25, 1950 Remains 거제도 포로수용소 유적공원
The Korean War was a tragic war that took away numerous lives. The war is over but the pains of people who survived the nightmares, people who lost their parents and husbands, fellow soldiers and widows in the neighboring countries still remain. Today, I will show you the remains of the war to see an aspect of tragic war at History Park of Geoje POW Camp. It's not so old history because my parents' generation all experienced, and it's not over yet so we all need to look at the history in the right way.
The tour starts from tank exhibition center behind the ticket office. There's no real tank in here, only the center buildling looks like a tank. ^^* FYI, the tank above is T-34 Soviet tank that was in a firing line to invade South Korea.
In the exhibition center, the names of people who were involved in the war were displayed such as Kim Il-seong, Lee Seung-man and the presidents and generals of each country. Before you watch the displays, I think you need to know who caused the war.
The diorama exhibition allows you to see the general life in the camp including camp placement, lifestyle and the riots. Diorama means directing the scenes with models on a background and POW refers to Prisoner Of War. You must've read P.W on the back of the prisoners of war on a movie or a drama.
I could assume this place from solid pictures and sculptures. It's messy and devastating history.
Haven't you seen this before somewhere? The war seemed to be over with Incheon landing operation but the Chinese joined the war and the UN forces had to retreat. The refugees had to cross Daedonggang railroad bridge that was exploded and desperately flee to live for freedom. So many people died of falling from Daedonggang railroad bridge. The picture above shows the situation.
M.P Bridge where the soldiers stand guard is the only gate for the prisoners. When you pass this place full of tense atmosphere from the war, you'll see the life of prisoner. When you pass COMPOUND#62, every behavior of everyone is restricted based on prisoner control rules.
Find the person who will 'fly soon' among prisoners. ^^*
The prisoner lifestyle exhibition has models, pictures and image materials that show the lifestyles of prisoners who lived in the camp as the prisoners of war based on Geneva Conventions.
The exhibition was helmet-shaped. The ideology conflict center of prisoners showed explanations and stories of the opposing ideologies between anti- and pro-communists.
What is that ideology that caused the murders among same race? The conflict between the two got worse when the North Korea asked for compulsory repatriation of North Korean prisoners and South Korea argued that the decision should be upto each prisoner. In order to force the repatriation, communists started riots and massacre which caused the loss of over 2,000 lives. This is outrageous history that took away people's lives due to an ideology with no remorse.
Now I'm going to enter the prisoner camp relics museum. This building has relics related to the war including various recordings and image materials.
In the hallway, the pictures taken during the war were displayed on the walls. It shows the contrast between thatched houses for people and the barracks of prisoners. Assuming there's not even single tree on the mountain, the life of people must've been devastating at the time.
The supplies used during the Korean War were displayed. But I guess some things haven't changed yet. I bet canteens, water bottles, flashes and spoons are still used.
In one corner of the museum, the weapons used by Korea/UN were compared to the ones of North Korea/China. It will be more useful if you look at the pictures with comments on small tags.
COMPOUND#78 shows the life of prisoners barrack, guard post, field hospital, toilet and kitchen. The movie titled
During the war, this place used to capture anticommunist prisoners and procommunist prisoners of war altogether. Some of them were anticommunist prisoners but they were captured just because they lived in the north, and some of them lived in the south but captured because they were communists.
Forcing anticommunists and communists to stay in the same place caused a lot of troubles. During the repatriation of prisoners after truce agreement, there were troubles between the south and the north, and even if they were all North Korean prisoners, anticommunist prisoners did not want to go back to the north and communists were desperate to go back to the north. The anticommunist prisoners knew they were killed or conscripted into coal mines, so it often caused bloody situations among anticommunists/communists and finally in 1952, Geoje commandant General Dodd was kidnapped by communist prisoners, which shows an abridged version of ideological conflicts during the age of cold war.
Inside the barracks, the lifestyle of the prisoners were displayed along with the pictures taken at the time.
The pictures of Chinese soldiers captured by the forces were impressive. You would realize that leading a life is much more important than ideology. You could see cruel pictures here so I think you should see them for yourself.
So the kitchen looked like this. They must've made a fire in a big furnace, make rice and boil soup in an iron pot. It's funnier to imagine the people at the time.
Now only the site and the entrance have remained and this place used to be a ballroom and P.X. Most of stones used here were brought from Gohyeon Fortress in Joseon Dynasty that surrounded Geoje City Hall. The war caused tremendous loss.
This used to be the office for chief guard, barracks for guards. Now there are only walls. You could see this kind of remains of barracks in a few places on Geoje Island.
The armored cars, tanks and combat planes used in the Korean War were displayed. But UH-1 helicopter and the howitzer were not used in the Korean War but in the Vietnam War.
+ Opening Hours : 09:00 – 18:00 (Mar. – Oct.), 09:00 – 17:00 (Nov. – Feb.)
+ Holidays : National Holidays, Fourth Mondays in Jan., Feb., Mar., Jun., Sep., Nov., and Dec. (If it's a national holiday, it's closed the next day)
Last comment…
Geoje Island is the second biggest island in Korea next to Jeju Island so it has a lot to see. It's impossible to see all around in two days and it has too much food to try as well. I wish my journal would help you planning your trip to Geoje Island, and have a pleasant trip with your family or boyfriend/girlfriend in an amazing day in autumn. Because we all know autumn is not so long just like youth!!!
