UNESCO World Heritage site - Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon

[TaeyoungKIM]

Hi fellow LGs, 

Let me introduce you the city I spent half of my life and home of my parents - Suwon. 

Amazingly we Koreans use traditional Chinese alphabets in many vocabularies but pronounced differently than that of Chinese. 

So if you ask many Koreans if we speak Chinese... I would say somewhat. 

These beautiful fortresses and a small palace were built during Joseon dynasty. 

Hwaseong Fortress - UNESCO World Heritage in Suwon, South KoreaHwaseong Fortress - UNESCO World Heritage in Suwon, South KoreaHwaseong Fortress - UNESCO World Heritage in Suwon, South KoreaDragon - Imaginary creatureHwaseong Fortress - UNESCO World Heritage in Suwon, South KoreaHwaseong Fortress - UNESCO World Heritage in Suwon, South KoreaHwaseong Fortress - UNESCO World Heritage in Suwon, South KoreaHwaseong Fortress - UNESCO World Heritage in Suwon, South KoreaHwaseong Fortress - UNESCO World Heritage in Suwon, South KoreaHwaseong Fortress - UNESCO World Heritage in Suwon, South KoreaHwaseong Fortress - UNESCO World Heritage in Suwon, South KoreaDistance from Suwon?

[MariaBi · Accepted solution]

Hi @TaeyoungKIM

A warm welcome to Local Guides and our Connect community forum. Thanks for sharing these great photos! I just moved your post here in the "Share your Discoveries and Photos" board as it is the best place to share your photos and experience:). On the "Photography" board you can share instead all your knowledge, ask other Local Guides for advice or learn and share your tips to get the best picture.

Many thanks.

[ErmesT]

Hi, @TaeyoungKIM, thanks for your beautiful photos about a so interesting place.

These fortresses are impressive.

Can you tell us something (not from wikipedia, please) about the story of this amazing place?

Tha nks for sharing

Ermes

[JohnnyE]

Beautiful place @TaeyoungKIM and stunning photos. Thanks for sharing.

[TaeyoungKIM]

Hi @ErmesT @JohnnyE @MariaBi 

Before the birth of Republic of Korea, we had Joseon Dynasty ruled by Kings. 

When a king dies, tomb site is selected according to good fungsui. 

in 1762, the crown prince was locked in a rice container and ended his life by his father. 

Because the crown prince was a great shame in the royal family, he could not have "proper" king's tomb. 

Ironically the son of the crown prince became the king and the first thing he wanted to do was to reinstate his father's honor and put him in the proper king's tomb. 

Relocation of king's tomb is very very rare thing to be done but depending on the strong belief of fungsui, it can be done.

When the kingdom decides to locate king's tomb to another place, the people who used to live in that place within tens of kilometers also need to be relocated. 

The name of the town is also relocated. 

That is the birth of my town Suwon - meaning origin of water. 

The king loved his parents so much and he wanted to stay close to his father's tomb so that he can visit him more frequently. 

Then he ordered his officials to build a fortress and a temporary palace (Haenggoong) so that he can come to Suwon quite often. 

The capital city of Joseon Dynasty was Hanyang - currently known as Seoul. 

The fortress has four main gates - North, South, East, and West. The gatekeepers were divided into four groups based on four mythical symbols given different color of commanding flags.  

- North: Black Tortoise

- South: Vermillion Bird

- East: Azure Dragon

- West: White Tiger 

When you go there on the top of the hill, there is a commanding post. You can see the communication post where army used smoke and fire to communicate and all the flags change due to direction. 

It was the first fortress in South Korea constructed by using cranes. 

The circumference is about 6.5 km a nice 1 hr or 2 hr walk around the fortress. 

Also has martial art performance during the day for visitors. 

Go have fun! 

[ErmesT]

Thanks @TaeyoungKIM

For the interesting story. I love to learn by our friends in Connect, and this is an interesting way to learn. 

Ermes 

[JohnnyE]

Thanks for sharing your story @TaeyoungKIM. Always love to learn more from fellow Local Guides. 👍

[TaeyoungKIM]

@JohnnyE @ErmesT 

It is my pleasure!

Cheers,

TK

[JohnnyE]

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@TaeyoungKIM wrote:

@JohnnyE @ErmesT 

It is my pleasure!

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@TaeyoungKIM keep up great work. 👍

[OSAMA]

Wait wait how I miss this post !???@TaeyoungKIM  😊

Next time when you write a wonderful incredible post like this mention me I have no allergies from mentioning 😊😊😊

This is amazing place Amazing photos 

And Amazing Story ,

Thanks for sharing 😉