Korea 4

Republic of Korea
Kyong Ju area

Pusan is Korea's southern port city. It's also my wife's home town, so I've spent some time in it. Quite different from Seoul in geography, it's a long and narrow city that snakes along between the coast and the mountains behind, so there are none of the wide, straight boulevards you'll find in Seoul.

How many of you knew that Korea had a good-sized island 60 miles to the south in the East China Sea, raise your hands? It's Cheju Island, a volcanic island that is the traditional honeymoon retreat of Korea's newlywed couples. If bandwidth were no issue I'd like to show you a good representative sampling of shots, but as it is, below are just a few.

	It's a little hard for me to decide where the city center is of a long, winding city like Pusan, but I guess it would have to be where you'll find the Pusan Tower, just visible on the right in this photograph. Center is an island that forms part of the city; you can see the urban sprawl growing up its sides.
One of my favorite Sunday afternoon trips was to go just out of town to an area where ladies in wet suits would dive for fresh seafood, and others on shore would cut it up and serve it to the locals, who would wash it down raw with a belt of "soju" (in the green bottles), Korea's traditional vodka-like rotgut booze. You can tell by my description that I went there for the photography, not for the food.
	The island of Cheju has a modern capital city, but it's the rest of the island that has much to offer the sightseer. There are underground lava tunnels that you can explore, and rugged wind and water carved sandstone cliffs, as well as waterfalls. There are also many traditional houses, made of stacked volcanic rocks covered with thatched roofs. These aren't folk village mock-ups; they have TV antennas and real live Koreans looking back out at you.
The island is dotted with "Harubang." "Harubang" are stone carvings, one of which is pictured here, that are the traditional protectors of the villages and their inhabitants. You can't go very far on Cheju without running into them.
	One last image, that of these little girls that I met one day. I'll leave you to decide if this is your year to visit Korea. I won't mention that the Korean won is at a historic low against the dollar as I write this. . .