WORLD GUIDE
Love & Sex in Korean
May Day Protest, Seoul South Korea, May 2003
Free Tibet Protest, Shibuya Tokyo Japan, March 2009
Kampong Glam, the Edgy New Alternative Heart of Singapore
Korean Sights -- The Sights of Korea
The Temples of Asia
FaceOff -- The Faces of Asia
Great Cities of the World
Japanese Ruins
seoul // girl hunting
588 red light district :: chejin's urban landscapes :: ethnic quarters of seoul :: fatman seoul :: gay and lesbian seoul :: hollywoods in itaewon :: january 5 2008: sky cruising :: meeting college girls :: mongolian girls in seoul :: russian girls in seoul
IF I RECALL CORRECTLY THERE WAS A COMMERCIAL AIRLINER FLYING BY AT MUCH THE SAME ALTITUDE, IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION. I looked down to see, much lower, a smaller craft possibly coming into land in the city. Something about the sight of these two planes flying at different altitudes, the sense of three dimensional perspective they engendered, had a magical effect on me. It was like looking at a whole world and a whole way of life miniaturised into one of those bauble things they used to sell which snowed inside when you shook them. There was a whole world and a way of life there compressed between the mountains, and as I looked ever more intently, I could make out landmarks I had encountered on my previous forays there, back in 2002 and 2003. The city was laid out like a circuitboard, like a subway map bereft of the subway stations (since they were underground), but nonetheless prominently cut by the Han River. Yellow peaks and apartment towers. We were flying like 30,000 feet. My next foray comes in the middle of 2009.
Hof was the first Korean word I learnt when I hit Seoul, my very first time back in 2003 -- of course it is not actually a Korean word, but rather German. By the way, "mun" means "gate" in Korean, and you can see a lot of old fortified gates all over South Korea, particularly in Seoul. I don't know what Hof means in German but these establishments also go by the more Anglofied name of ba.
Unlike other structures of the age which were constructed of stones, this fortress was built of bricks and with the very first Korean crane, invented by the great Confucian scholar Jeong Yakyong (1762-1836). This has been recognized by experts as the best structure of its kind built in Korea before the Industrial Revolution.
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