Jeonju I

I was a very lucky foreigner and I got free tickets to Jeonju via this website! So on Sunday, I visited this beautiful city with a newly re-created traditional Korean village, with a busy shopping district, many museums, hiking trails, the portrait of king Taejo and many other sights. Also, there is an international film festival in Jeonju every year!

Hanok Village

Our bus stopped near the traditional village, so me and 1 000 000 other tourists headed there. Thank god the place is fairly big, so there are even many fairly empty streets. Of course, those where there are Bibimbap restaurants, street food and souvenirs are always full with Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and an occassional Caucasian. 

Gyeonggijeon Hall

This shrine is located within the Hanok village and asks for a modest fee of 1000 Won for entry. It holds one of the two portraits of king Taejo (the other one is in North Korea, so it's not that easy to see it). Thanks to rapid transfer of the portrait between the shrine and other places, it has not been destroyed by neither Japanese nor Korean peasants. The portrait is considered to be national treasure.

 

Jeongdong Church

This statue is pretty creepy! Do you see the person emerging from the ground catching the ankle of the fleeing man? I wonder if it is connected to some mythical/book situation.

Street food! Puffed extruded corn pastry filled with dark chocolate and cheese ice cream.

Nambu Market

A fun place to walk through, but the quality of produce seemed lower to me (and prices higher) than my favorite fruit vendours near Wangsimni. Nothing beats a big bag of melons/tomatoes/pak choi for 1000 Won (around 0.75 E).

Pungnam Mun

Couple fashion! My colleagues say it's OK to wear only until you finish your BSc though, they claim it would look freaky on graduates.

A purikura place!

Film Street

Jeonju Art

The cutest telephone booth ever!

Another street market

Birds. It looks really weird but there was some sort of bird pet shop right next to these so I assume they belonged there too. It makes me sad to see them in these tiny cages though.

City hall

Biiiiig Home Plus! But it was closed since it was Sunday. TT___TT

Back to the Hanok Village

Weird Greek influence on Korean architecture. =D

More matching couples!

I passed by the beginning of some hiking trail.

Museum of Ecology 

Korean language only I assume since even ticket information was not translated to English. I gave up, since I don't think my knowledge would allow me to read about sustainable energy.

Nature around Jeonju

Cute toilets!

An example of a historical parking lot. Hyundai has apparently veeeeery long tradition in Korea.

Korea is very photographer-friendly!

Namcheongyo bridge

It is the only bridge in Korea with a pavillion built on it.

And back to the hanok village for the 3rd time...

Ice beer looks very tempting, but it is a very bad idea to drink it after only eating ice cream. I felt slightly tipsy after gulping it a bit too quickly. And the icy foam on top is actually weird.

Eating some greasy meat and sausages helped me with the weird feeling after dirnking the beer.

It was a great day and I'm really excited to be going back to Jeonju with the lab! If you to Seoul make sure you book one of the free seats in the bus too, because Jeonju is really worth visiting. It's not the most unexplored or raw place, but there are many activities to do and the atmosphere is very happy and laid back. I ended up with a major sunburn because I was too busy admiring the city to apply sunscreen... And on the way back, I made a new friend from Shanghai!

Yours truly

Vita