Gyeongju; Museum Without Walls

Today we ventured out of Busan to the ancient Silla capital of Gyeongju which is known as the 'museum without walls' and I am a little conflicted about this as I enjoyed the time we had to venture around and find things for ourselves. I wonder in hindsight if doing a tour might have been a better option as the city is so huge and there is so much to see and do, and because we only had today to do it in we had to pick and choose and I know there was so much more to see.

The subway journey was an extensive one this morning covering three different lines, the green(line 2) from Hauendae to Suyeong, transferring to the brown (line 3) and at Yeondonsdong changing to the orange line (line 1) before finally getting out at Nopo where the Busan Central Bus Terminal is located. From here the bus journey to Gyeongju takes about an hour and costs W4800 ($6Aus) and it is great to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and into the country side without a skyscraper in sight.

We arrived at the Gyeongju Bus Terminal and across the road is the local bus ( either 10, 11 or 700) which takes you to Bulguksa Temple and takes you on a very scenic ride around the city and in those twenty minutes I knew that it was somewhere I would like to come back to because there is so much to see and do in this pretty place.)

Bulguksa Temple (Historic site no. 502) was built during the Silla Kingdom in 526 and has been rebuilt and reconstructed roughly 40 times throughout the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties and after the Japanese invasions however fell into disrepair after the end of the Joseon Dynasty. In 1969 the Bulguksa Temple Restoration Committee was formed and the reconstruction of the temple began.

Today it houses many of the countries important cultural relics and is well worth the W5000 ($6.50 Aus) entry fee. The grounds housing the temple are extensive and although we spent a lot of time walking through the grounds and exploring the different pagodas and buildings here, I am not sure that we got to see it all but what we did see was really impressive.

We chose not to go to the Seokgurum Grotto which is another bus ride away (or a long walk from the temple) and decided to head back into the city because we still had so much to see and do and not a lot of time to do it in.

Of course we had to have something to eat as it had been a long time

since breakfast and thankfully there were some food-carts outside with lots of food choices and we went with eomuk (fish cakes) and hot dogs which filled the spot until our late lunch.

We took the bus back towards the city which is known as the 'museum without walls' and one of the reasons it is named this is because of the many burial tombs that dot the city, (the majority being located in Tumuli Park), the tombs are under huge hilly mounds and are seen throughout the city.

Our first stop was the actual museum, the Gyeongju National Museum which has exhibits mostly from the Silla period. It is a great museum to wander around and find out the history of this city and especially the Silla period when Gyeongju was it's capital. There are exhibits inside and outside, one being the Bell of King Seongdeok which is a designated National Treasure (no, 29), the bell weighs 18.9 tonnes and when rung can be heard up to 60kms away.

There are some amazing relics and a mock-up of what the palace would have looked like in it's day and it looked totally stunning which led us to our next port of call the area of the Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond (Historic Site No. 18) which cost W2000 ($2.50 Aus) to enter the grounds.

Donggung Palace was the secondary palace used by the Crown Prince and it was also the banquet site for national events and important visitors and would have an amazingly pretty sight when in use. After the fall of the Silla Dynasty it was abandoned and the pond renamed Anapji. It wasn't until the 1980s that pottery fragments with the word Wolji (a pond that reflects the moon) were found and the pond was renamed.The excavations uncovered 26 building sites and gave more of an insight into what life was like in the Silla Empire. 33, 000 cultural assets were found during the excavations, some of which are on display in the Museum.

The pond reflects the history of the Silla empire from when King Munmu first built the pond until King Gyeongsun (r. 927-935), the last king of Silla, invited the first king of Goryeo dynasty Wang Geon (r. 918-943) there for an official banquet. I have seen some beautiful photos of this at night and when I do my overnight stay here next time I am in Gyeongju I will definitely make the effort to come here just to see how it looks because it pretty during the day.

We crossed the road and climbed one of the hills to find the excavation site of Gyeongju Wolseong Palace (Banwolseong Fortress) (Historic Site No. 16).

At this stage there is just a viewing platform and tarpaulin covering the excavation site but there are hopes that one day the government will reconstruct at least some of the site

From here is Cheomseongdae Observatory which is the oldest astronomical observatory in Asia which was constructed under the reign of Queen Seondeok to observe the stars and predict the weather.The 362 stones used to build Cheomseongdae represent the 362 days in a lunar year.

We made our way back towards the bus station to get tickets for our trip back to Busan (this time straight to Haeundae rather than the city centre) but before then we needed to find food (as our snacks at the Temple were a long time ago).

We went in search of food but there weren't a lot of places open around the station (not sure if it was because it was a Sunday or off-season) and the area we had been told was great for food wasn't within walking distance and we'd had enough walking at this stage so we made do with a little restaurant and I had a great dish of tteokboki and ramen which was hot and spicy and filled the spot.

Thankfully the trip back to Haeundae took just over an hour and we were back in time to enjoy another evening wandering the town, watching buskers and enjoying our last evening in Busan (which of course meant a coffee and cake supper before heading back to the hotel for a good night's sleep!!!)

#sOutHkoRea #gYeoNgjU #tEmpLesShrIneSanDchUrcHes #fOod #bUsaN #tOdoLisT