Suwon Fortress - It's There.

About an hour south of Seoul is the decently sized city of Suwon. I believe it to be the capital of the Gyeonggi-Do region, and it is also home to my immigration office. BUT that's not all it has.

Suwon Fortress is a UNESCO World Heritage site (what that REALLY means or matters, I do not know). Basically its a rather large tourist site, but it is actually a pretty nice walk on a very nice day. The fortress wall has been compared to China's Great Wall (perhaps you've heard of it), and I can assure you it can't be any more UNlike China's Great Wall. The wall goes most of the way around Suwon (I believe it used to go all the way around, but as time has gone it the city has gotten bigger and grown around it. It's roughly 5km (about 3 miles) long. There are a few guard towers at various corners which give you interesting tidbits of history in Korea's uneasy past. It only costs between 1-3,000W to do multiple parts.


Getting there is a bit of an annoyance if you're not directly in Seoul at the start. If you ARE in Seoul - take the subway Line 1 to Suwon Station and then hop in a cab or you could even walk about 20 minutes. Bring something that has Hwaseong written on it in Hangul, because the cab driver did not understand me whatsoever when I tried to say it in Korean. The exchange went something like this:

Me: Hwaseong, Chuseyo? (Fortress Please)
Him: Ehh??
Me: Hwaseong? Paldalmun? (South Gate)
Him: Ehhh?
Me: I give him my Lonely Planet Book...
Him: AHHHHHH HwaSEONG!!! (emphasis on a different syllable).
Me: Ne. (Ugh, Yes.)

He brought us to where we wanted to go, for about 3 bucks, so I can't really complain. Overall - I recommend it if you're looking to get out of Seoul, but not if you're looking for a big change of scenery. It's just a wall in a city.