Cycling Gangwon's coast: Sokcho to Gangneung

Today, I had the day off and so began what I hope to be several days of cycling and exploring. My goal this week is to get to the Kyoungsangbuk border. I also hope to off a sort of online travel guide at some point, open up a dedicated blogspot page for cycling information.

Today's trip, however, will offer little for intrepid cyclists. The weather threatened rain all day, and in fact rain was forecast for the afternoon. It didn't arrive until evening but the day was at best cloudy and frequently cool.

Most of the ride, I didn't dally for photos, but just got the distance in. Which is too bad, because Gangneung has a few interesting sights that I rode on by.

Anyway, here are a few photos from today plus a handful from previous trips to points along the way. You will notice that my clothing changes, the season changes and even my bike changes from shot to shot.

I know some good alternate routes for the route from Sokcho to Hajodae and may show them the next time I post a map. Most of my trip today was on Highway 7 and most of my pictures from today are of my misadventures resulting from leaving highway 7. There are a few good places to ride through villages to get off the highway but none are very long. That's too bad because the highway lacks a paved shoulder in quite a few places. I felt safe but only because the road was not particularly busy.

Heading south on highway 7 from Sokcho, I stayed on the highway until I reached Naksansa. From the temple, I was able to hug the coastline for about 10 km.

About 2 km from the temple, I crossed the Namdaechun (a river) and a few km after that, I passed Osanri Prehistoric site. Don't bother hunting for it. There is an english sign but it just says that items were found here and taken away. There's nothing to see.



nothing to see here

Beyond that is a sign for a beach. It's a great beach but the road is a dead end.

deadend

If you are feeling real tough and have something to prove, try playing on the meanest volleyball court. Look at those stones!

badass Volleyball court

Eventually, the backroad reaches the highway. In the interests of helping my readers, I tried to stay on the back roads. Here, I cross some drying nets; they're everywhere along the coast. I saw tracks deforming the nets so I felt secure walkng over them.

walking over nets

Here is the first place I had to walk. The trail was passable by mountain bike but not by road bike.

walking through soft sand

Hajodae is a pleasant scenic site, one of the gwandong (8 special sites), my university is named for.

Hajodae

From Hajodae, I stayed on the highway until Dongsan, where I was able to ride through the village for two or more km to Hyu-hyu-am. The villages were nice, but the road is not suitable for speed; expect a sightseeing trip not a race.

Hyu-hyu-am is a hermitage, or small temple based on strangely shaped rocks on the coast. It's a pretty and quite famous site here.

Hyu-hyu-am


Hyu-hyu-am

I then rode on the highway to the interchange with toll highway 50. I followed a new, multi-lane road to the beach and found about 200m of great road. Then...

walking 2

I walked my bike again and reached a paving stone road that went past the Gangwon office of the Sea Explorers of Korea, a Korean version of Sea Scouts. In the early summer, they have a festival weekend where you can play on their toys and boats

Sea explorers of Korea getting help from the old master (me).

The paving stone road continued to Jumunjin and this...

walking 3


After Jumunjin, I stayed on the highway. I rode through Jumunjin and lost two screws on my bikerack. A kindly welder found some screws for me and I was again off.

There were some good sites between Jumunjin and Gangneung but the day was getting colder and darker. The trip from Sokcho to Kwandong University in Gangneung took three and a half hours and was 70km long.

8.8 Billion Won from the Government to rebuild Naksan Temple

From the Times:

The government will spend around 8.8 billion
won ($8.8 million) to restore Naksan-sa Temple,
which was burnt down by last month’s forest
fires in Kangwon Province.

Culture and Tourism Minister Chung Dong-chea
yesterday reported at the weekly Cabinet meeting
that the collapsed temple buildings will be rebuilt
in two or three years.

The ministry allotted 8.7 billion won for the
reconstruction works and 0.1 billion won for the
remolding of the temple’s bronze bell, which was
melted during the blaze. ``The restoration of the
bell will take around six months,’’ the ministry’s
assistant minister Lee Bo-kyong told reporters.

All this is great news for the temple. I am not so thrilled by the suggested policies for fire prevention.

``We plan to allow the temples to deforest areas
within 20 or 30 meters from their compounds to
prevent a forest fire from spreading to
buildings,’’ Lee said.

The ministry also plans to plant trees that are
more fireproof and install or widen roads leading
to the temples to ease access by fire engines.

The wind on April 5 was wild and powerful. The power driving it is well-understood but not by me and I may confuse the details a little.

Basically, there is a wall of mountains just inland of the coast. Seorak is the most famous of these. Wind coming from the west falls down the east side and spreads out a little. At the base of the mountains, the air compacts again and the wind's strength is multiplied. This is, I think, the mechanism of 'hydraulic jump'.

This powerful wind, which I described here, made my apartment sing and wail and pushed me around as I cycled. I reported (same posting) that the fire had jumped great distances that day. A margin of 20-30m may help in the future, but would not have helped Naksan much.

I am all for planting trees that are more fireproof but not interested in deforesting the margins of the temple buildings. Call me a heretic, but I enjoy the forests as much as the temples when I visit them.

Also, I fear that improved roads would simply lead to bigger parking lots closer to the temples and Koreans have trouble driving without leaning on their horns. Call me a heretic but I enjoy the quiet as much as the temples when I visit them.

Cycling

NOTE: I found this post in my 'drafts' pile, where it had rested for a few years. I don't know why I didn't post it then.

Today, I had the day off and so began what I hope to be several days of cycling and exploring. My goal this week is to get to the Kyoungsangbuk border. I also hope to off a sort of online travel guide at some point, open up a dedicated blogspot page for cycling information.

Today's trip, however, will offer little for intrepid cyclists. The weather threatened rain all day, and in fact rain was forecast for the afternoon. It didn't arrive until evening but the day was at best cloudy and frequently cool.

Most of the ride, I didn't dally for photos, but just got the distance in. Which is too bad, because Gangneung has a few interesting sights that I rode on by.

Anyway, here are a few photos from today plus a handful from previous trips to points along the way. You will notice that my clothing changes, the season changes and even my bike changes from shot to shot.

I know some good alternate routes for the route from Sokcho to Hajodae and may show them the next time I post a map. Most of my trip today was on Highway 7 and most of my pictures from today are of my misadventures resulting from leaving highway 7. There are a few good places to ride through villages to get off the highway but none are very long. That's too bad because the highway lacks a paved shoulder in quite a few places. I felt safe but only because the road was not particularly busy.

Heading south on highway 7 from Sokcho, I stayed on the highway until I reached Naksansa. From the temple, I was able to hug the coastline for about 10 km.

About 2 km from the temple, I crossed the Namdaechun (a river) and a few km after that, I passed Osanri Prehistoric site. Don't bother hunting for it. There is an english sign but it just says that items were found here and taken away. There's nothing to see.


Osanri prehistoric site, nothing to see here.

Beyond that is a sign for a beach. It's a great beach but the road is a dead end.

deadend


If you are feeling real tough and have something to prove, try playing on the meanest volleyball court. Look at those stones!
bad-ass volleyball court

The road runs below the Yangyang airport. Here is a shot from the airport.
Airport view


Eventually, the backroad reaches the highway. In the interests of helping my readers, I tried to stay on the back roads. Here, I cross some drying nets; they're everywhere along the coast. I saw tracks deforming the nets so I felt secure walkng over them.
backroad, beginning of trouble

Here is the first place I had to walk. The trail was passable by mountain bike but not by road bike.
walking 1

Hajodae is a pleasant scenic site, one of the gwandong (8 special sites), my university is named for.
Hajodae lighthouse

From Hajodae, I stayed on the highway until Dongsan, where I was able to ride through the village for two or more km to Hyu-hyu-am. The villages were nice, but the road is not suitable for speed; expect a sightseeing trip not a race.

Hyu-hyu-am is a hermitage, or small temple based on strangely shaped rocks on the coast. It's a pretty and quite famous site here.
Hyu-hyu am


hyu-hyu am


I then rode on the highway to the interchange with toll highway 50. I followed a new, multi-lane road to the beach and found about 200m of great road. Then...
Walking 2


I walked my bike again and reached a paving stone road that went past the Gangwon office of the Sea Explorers of Korea, a Korean version of Sea Scouts. In the early summer, they have a festival weekend where you can play on their toys and boats.
Sea explorers of Korea


The paving stone road continued to Jumunjin and this...
walking 3

After Jumunjin, I stayed on the highway. I rode through Jumunjin and lost two screws on my bikerack. A kindly welder found some screws for me and I was again off.

There were some good sites between Jumunjin and Gangneung but the day was getting colder and darker. I will take further pictures on the return trip later this week. The trip from Sokcho to Kwandong University in Gangneung took three and a half hours and was 70km long.

Book Review: Guns, germs and steel

I read 'The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers' a few years ago (actually because some guy in the Interchange (ESL) book said it was easiest to read in a foreign country). In it, Paul Kennedy explained the reasons for the course history took over the last 500 years. Specifically, he described two main forms of power, economic and military and the need for a careful balance of the two. It was not an easy read for me but large portions of it were interesting and convinced me to research further.

A much easier read was Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond. The two works are similar in that they try to answer why some nations and peoples have been more successful than others. Diamond's book, though, finishes where Kennedy's starts and starts ten thousand or more years ago.

The first subject Diamond discusses is that he is not interested in racial arguements. Over the past few hundred years, Europeans have been more successful, but not because they are white or special. Indeed, he suggests that, on average, the New Guineans may be more intelligent than Caucasians.

He gave three criteria for a region's success. availability of suitable agricultural crops, availability of suitable livestock, and the general axis of the continent. The latter affects the spread of agricultural crops and technological information.

The first two surprised me but he explained his reasoning clearly. Very few plants are all that useful as food items for humans. Many of the best ones were originally found in the Mid-East. I think that's right, he describes it as the Fertile Crescent. Few large mammals are useful for human transportation or farm power either. Most such animals (horses, sheep, cattle) were found...you guessed it, in the Fertile Crescent.

The axis arguement was harder for me to swallow. North and South America are relatively narrow, east-west and the north-south axis is not useful for transferring argiculture nor ideas. The Fertile Crescent is part of Euroasia, the largest continuous east-west space. The central idea of same latitude/same climate is a good start but hard for me to accept. The east-west axis in Canada or the US is about 3000 km, more than most tribesmen or neolithic travellers would think of going. It took me a while to accept that different cultures could cycle information East and west without much travel by individuals. Next, his examples of north/south obstacles seemed solid and believable. The desert region of Mexico and the so very-narrow bottleneck of Panama prevented Northern temperate crops from reaching Sourthern temperate regions and South American pack animals (llamas) from reaching the north.

The examples I connected with best were his island examples. His descriptions of various Polenesian islands and their measurable differences were compelling and showed real differential success.

It's time read his next book, 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed' which covers similar ground but from more of an environmental perspective.

Is BoA an ambassador? The new Empress?

She may be a great singer; I haven't listened to her music so I can't say. I know she is very popular, but this popular?

The Chosun has news of a possible romance in their National/ Politics section. Is this national news?


National News

Clicking on the link has a bigger National/Politics icon.


National News?

trouble for young men with dual citizenship

Many Koreans are concerned about the harsh conditions their conscripted soldiers endure. The young men of Korea, around university age, must do somewhat more than two years of military service. They typically do so unwillingly so 'encouragement' while in uniform is extreme. That is to say, cruel and unusual training techniques are not, in fact, unusual.

Naturally, this makes families even less willing to have their sons do military service and has spawned an unusual kind of travel option; travel, typically to the US, to give their child dual citizenship. When a male with dual citizenship is in his late teens, he then chooses whether to keep his Korean citizenship and do military service, or apply to give up his Korean citizenship.

The Korean government is now fighting back and next month may not accept the applications to renounce citizenship.

Today, a huge number of men have applied to renounce their citizenship before the new law takes effect.

From the Times:

Hong Joon-pyo, representative of parliament, is upset:

``The nationality affairs office should conduct a
strict examination on nationality abandonment,
and should not approve the cases suspected to
be for avoiding military service,'' Hong said.

``I'll initiate another bill to treat children who
give up Korean nationality as foreigners and to
deprive them of rights to have education and
medical insurance in Korea,'' he added.

I've known of the problems with military service for several years now but they didn't particularly concern me.

I have heard from some Koreans of terrible treatment their brothers endured while in training. I let it go because Koreans need to solve their own problems while we Canadians have problems of our own.

Then I married a Korean. Her brothers didn't mind military service so much; they found it easier than farmlife.

Well, I'm suddenly concerned again. I will be the father of a boy this July. I need to find out his citizenship options and I hope he has options.

I'm not against military service but I hope that if my son does his service, it will be his choice.

Maybe they ARE the Evil Empire.

I turned on my computer today and MSN messenger popped up, as it always does. It showed I had two new messages and I clicked on them...to find this:

Review and sign the Agreements
Your MSN account is governed by the following agreements and statements, which are collectively referred to as the Agreements:

MSN Service Agreement
MSN Privacy Statement

Click each link above to open the Agreement in a new window, and then print or save a copy of the Agreement. If you accept all of the Agreements, sign them as a group by typing your e-mail address in the box below exactly as shown, including punctuation. If you do not accept the Agreements in their entirety and without modification, click the Cancel button to discontinue sign-up.

brianetcetera (at) hotmail.com ______________________________
- I changed '@' to '(at)'

By typing my e-mail address in the box above and clicking the Accept button, I am entering into, and agreeing to be bound by, all of the Agreements. I understand that I am creating credentials that I can use on other sites in the Passport Network. I am consenting to receive all information from Microsoft in electronic form only. I also agree to receive targeted advertisements and periodic member letter e-mail messages from MSN. I understand that if I do not accept the Agreements in their entirety without modification, I should click the Cancel button to discontinue sign-up.

That would be fine if I were signing up for the first time but I have used hotmail for eight years. I had to agree simply to recover the emails and other information I stored there. How can they expect me to agree to new conditions after I had already accepted conditions eight years ago? It's time to get more use out of my gmail account.

One thing I have to consent to is recieving targeted advertisements. I would actually like targeted emails. I am an english speaking Canadian living in rural South Korea. I am not interested in penis enlargement, nor in home ownership. Dental care would be nice; here. I would even be willing to fillout a survey regarding the ads I would like to get, and just as much, ones that would be useless.

Nucs in Canada?

I was listening to CBC radio, Canada's national broadcast company and heard something about Nuclear weapons in Canada. I found this on their website.

FT. LAUDERDALE, FLA. - An American veteran who
says he guarded a secret stash of nuclear weapons in
Newfoundland claims his government would rather see
him dead than admit to violations of international law.

Almon Scott, who worked as a guard at the Argentia
military base between 1963 and 1965, claims that
years before Ottawa allowed nuclear weapons on
Canadian soil, he was guarding them at a secret
weapons lab in Placentia Bay.

This article caught my attention and I'm still not sure what upsets me, or what upsets me more, about it. Disliking America (the politics, not the individual people) is easy these days but can I summon up the energy to be angry with the government of 40 years ago? I think I can find the energy to be upset with my (the Canadian) government for being involved in some fashion or another.

Finally, the remark "...years before Ottawa allowed nuclear weapons on Canadian soil..." bothers me. I didn't know that we ever did that.

I know the Kiwies require American (or those of all nations) ships to be certified Nuclear weapon free before entering it's waters. They used to accept the old "neither confirm nor deny.." comment but I think that stopped in the early 90's.

Is that what the "nuclear weapons on Canadian soil" comment signifies? That aircraft carriers and such might have nuclear weapons but did not have to report them after 1965? That would be barely acceptable. I can only hope that we never knowingly had nucs in Canada. That would be end of my last bit of political idealism.

Mine is not an anti-military viewpoint, merely an anti-proliferation one. Canada needs to increase it's military and it's support of the military it currently has. I don't know about British subs so much, but a fleet of new helicopters should be only the start. Actually, I was a Tom Clancy fan and read the book and saw the movie for 'Run Silent, Run deep" so I want the subs, too.

Well, time for some research*, were there once nucs on Canadian soil and did the Canadian government know about it?

*Not by me, of course.

Tour de Korea

The Tour de Korea started today with what I guess was more of a parade than a race. The distance was 1.4km. Tomorrow, Sunday, the competitors race 167 km to Chuncheon.

Here, courtesy of Oranckay, is a short description of the race:

Prologue 2005. 5. 7Seoul- 1.4 km

Stage 1Sunday May 8
Seoul Songpa to Chuncheon, Gangwondo 167 km

Stage 2 Monday
Chuncheon to Yangyang160km Arriving in Yangyang around 1:45pm

Stage 3 Tuesday
Yangyang to Eo-seongjin- 4 laps 160 km

Stage 4Wednesday
25 laps (Criterium?)

Stage 5 Thursday
Yangyang to Wonju166 km

Stage 6Friday
Wonju- Hanam 231 km

He has a more extensive description, in a HWP file.

I love cycling but I am not racer. I've done the distances these racers will do and over the Rocky mountains of British Columbia, so the difficulty might have been the same. Of course, I was never as fast as these guys are.

I once did a sprint triathlon. The distances were 750 m swim, 30km ride and 7.5km run. I ruled on the swim, coming out of the water 5th in a field of more than a thousand. I started the bike portion and pedalled hard...Then I started looking around. I'm really more of a tourist cyclist. Anyway, the ride was a series of alternating hard pedalling and scenic pedalling. My run was okay.

I have to be away on Tuesday but I hope I can watch some of the racing in Yangyang between Monday and Thursday.

Not good news for an expecting couple

I mentioned it once in passing but in case you didn't notice it, I will be a father in about two months! I'm very excited and somewhat busy learning what to do with babies.



I sure hope we don't use this hospital!
From the Korea Times article:

toys?

Photos of newborn babies being treated like
toys by three female hospital staff members
have been distributed over the Internet,
outraging the general public, especially
mothers and pregnant women.

The newborn babies in the photos are allegedly
abused by nurses, including one that has been put
in a plastic bag. The photos are being circulated
throughout various Internet communities.

Police have obtained the photos and launched
an investigation to confirm the authenticity of
the photos. A preliminary investigation has
revealed the identity of one of them as an
auxiliary nurse and police plan to question her,
they said.

Posted on an Internet homepage of the auxiliary
nurse over the past six days, the photos
contained scenes of three people in nurses'
uniforms treating infants inappropriately.

The article didn't mention where the photos were taken but does describe a clinic in Daegu.

I'm pretty sure our mountain wife clinic (San Bu-in Kwa: for someone with marginal Korean skills it's an easy joke) is a good one but let me tell you, expectant parents have enough concerns already!

May 3 bike trip.

On Tuesday, I went on my longest bike trip here in Korea. I rode from Sokcho to Eo-seong-jin and back. Eo-seong-jin is hardly a speck on the map but it's a place that I used to volunteer at the local school. The school is reminiscent of pioneer era, one-room schools with a total of 40 students.

Anyway, I rode to the school, about 40km away, and back. In Yangyang I stopped and went for a swim in it's new pool.

Last week, I was comfortable with 1500m but on this day my legs started cramping up after 500m. With a lot of stretching, I managed 750m.

With that discomfort in mind, I decided to take it easy on the last 20km home. I pedalled along easily until I passed Sunrise Park. At Sunrise Park, I stopped at a red light beside a dumptruck. I knew it would hurt but my fun side insisted I stick close to the dumptruck and draft behind it.

On green, I started slowly and stayed just to the side of the truck and immediately behind it. Soon, I was cruising at 50km/hr. I was pedalling harder than before but not hard enough to go 50km/hr by any stretch. The plan fell apart when the truck went up a hill.

Already working hard, I suddenly lost the truck's help and had to climb the hill on my own. Atop the hill, I carried on a little further and stopped at a supermarket. After I walked 10 steps, my thighs trembled on the edge of cramping. I walked through the market, leaning on my shopping cart with a wierd grimace on my face.

The next day I was fine, except for a bright red sunburn on my forearms.

coming up next week: I hope to make it to Gangneung to teach on Wednesday.

Phone Order Brides

This sign has a few public service announcements. The top (White on a Red Banner) warns you to be careful of forest fires.


Phone-order Brides!

The main message is the offer to help you 'marry a Vietnamese Virgin'. I think the offer is only for Korean men but maybe there are male virgins in Vietnam for Korean women. I very much doubt that the offer is valid for people of alternative lifestyles.
Although the word directly translates to 'virgin', I think a better interpretation for meaning would be 'maiden' or 'young lady' or 'unmarried female'.

This and That

It's been a while since I last posted and all I really have ready is another bikeblog so here are some interesting things I read and heard today.

First, and news only for my mother and others not in Korea, are some articles about Koreans saving their used toilet paper. Okay, they don't save the paper, but they throw them out with the garbage instead of flushing them.

I think modern sewers and plumbing can handle toilet paper but older systems cannot so Koreans were instructed to not flush TP. Yes, that's pretty disgusting. Jeff-in-Korea has more, including comparisons to US sanitation) and GI Korea makes an Iraq connection.

Second, last year there were links to a video showing a teacher beating a middle school student. I can't find any now. Perhaps the teacher should have known that 'Children's biggest fear is having their cell phones taken away'.

What would be the harshest punishment to junior
and senior high school students today? Confiscation
of their cell phones, rendering them helpless to send
SMs to their friends or post their digital school
pictures on the Internet.

Third, while reading the above articles, I was listening to CBC Radio and listened to reports of a Rubella outbreak. The outbreak is currently centered near an highly religious area of Ontario. I think one of the denominations is the Church of Dutch Reform, which is against vaccinations so schools and such have been closed try to stop the spread. If you know about Rubella (I had it a as a child as did most of my friends), the problem is, you can spread Rubella before you are symptomatic- before you are covered with red spots.

From the Toronto Star:
The outbreak started in late April at Rehoboth Christian
School in Norwich, where about 60 per cent of the
elementary and high school pupils haven't been vaccinated.

More than half the school's 561 students have been told
to stay home in an effort to contain the spread of the disease.

Many students in the school belong to a religious
denomination that doesn't officially endorse or
object to vaccinations.

But many members of these and other religious
denominations in this part of the province choose
not to vaccinate their children.

Smitherman said he will stress to community and
religious leaders on Friday the benefits of vaccination.

Premier Dalton McGuinty has also urged Ontarians
to take advantage of free vaccinations to prevent
spread of the disease.

Seven other pregnant women are being tested for
rubella, Sider said in an interview.

Rubella is a mild virus in children and adults,
but poses the greatest risk to pregnant women
because it can infect a fetus in the early stages of
development, causing miscarriages and birth defects.

Sider said the outbreak is not yet under control,
and there are concerns it could spread to parts of
the province where residents have not been vaccinated.

A visit to hunjangui karuchim

Antti Leppanen has a wonderful site that I don't visit enough. I went there this morning and found:

An article on big-box stores squeezing out the smaller shops.

Taebaek marketplace trader:"65% of the population
in Taebaek are families of small and medium
businesskeepers (chungsosanggongin). It is usual
that with one huge retail establishment seven
marketplaces (chaeraesijang) disappear. 65% are
making a living in small shops (kumôngkage) and
marketplaces, so what happens when E-mart
comes? We are going to make this known at the
Shinsegye [owner of E-mart] headquarters."

I include this here as it specifically discusses Taebaek, which is in Gangwondo. Also, I think I noticed a few stores closing with the opening of Sokcho's E-mart. For what it's worth, I feel bad for the small shop owners but I like my western food that I can only get at E-mart.

In the quoted section above, I see "marketplaces (chaeraesijang)". That's an entire market, right? Not just a supermarket or single store?

The second article I looked at eased my concerns about understanding the Korean language as it seems Koreans have the same difficulty.

Three of four have according to the survey difficulties
understanding documents which contain information
and techonology needed in a new workplace (we're not
told what kind of a workplace). The proportion of
people who have trouble understanding texts needed
in everyday life like medication dosage is 38%, way
higher than the OECD average of 22%. The survey
looked at people's understanding of documents like
employment applications, tax forms, traffic
timetables, maps and the like.

The percentage of people who understand complicated
text containing information of the latest techonology
is no more than 2 or 3 in Korea, one tenth of what it
is in Norway, Denmark, Canada and so.

Apparently, a part of the problem is use of hanja or of words with Chinese roots. I'm reminded that in Quebec, French is the official language and must be used in formal documents. Engineers often hunt desparately for an appropriate French word then put the English one in brackets next to it so others can understand.

Bamboo frame bike

I found this bike on the Japundit's blog. The original site is here.


Bamboo bike

Forest fires are a wake-up call: Defend Dokdo or King Munmu will be angry!

My university is funded, or founded, or otherwise connected to Myoungji. Seoul has a Myoungji elementary, middle and high school and a university. There is also Myoungji construction. Today, I found an artcle by someone from the Myoungji Education Foundation. So much for disclosure.

The article is titled "Lessons from the Forest Fires" and anyone who has seen my blog knows this is a subject of interest for me. The article discusses the Naksan fire and was in the Joongang Ilbo a day before Yangyang experienced it's second major fire of the year.

I was expecting suggestions on fire fighting, maybe some critism of the fire fighters or of smokers or farmer burning refuse.

Instead, it is a strange and mystical account of how the burning of Naksan is related to Korea's ownership of Dokdo.

King Munmu was the greatest ruler throughout
the thousand-year history of the Silla Dynasty,
and he asked that his ashes be thrown in the East
Sea to defend his country forever, even after his
death, and Venerable Euisang established Naksansa
temple to defend the East Sea with the help
of religious power.

A political leader and a religious leader of the Silla
Dynasty devoted their body and heart to the
defense of the East Sea, wishing a lasting peace
in their fatherland at a time when Korea's first
unification was achieved with greatness.

There are strong winds and high waves in the
East Sea near Dokdo islands, between South
Korea and Japan. Now Naksansa temple, the
watchman of the East Sea, has been burned
to the ground. Can we not see the historical
providence and lessons in these events?

Although I cannot read much Korean beyond street signs and books for very young children, I have read a fair bit in English about Naksansa. Buddhapia has a good description of Naksansa as says only that Euisang went to the East coast to find the Bodhisatva of Mercy.

I am fully aware that the legends that attach to historic events are larger-than-life and written according to the sensibilities of the contemporous times. Still, finding the Bodhisatva of Mercy seems more reasonable than using the Bodhisatva of Mercy to defend the country.

"Defending with Mercy" sounds sufficiently mysterious and abstract to to be a line in a Kung-fu movie. Maybe some people really talk this way, I sure don't.

Anyway, if you want to read about how forest fires are part of the design of nationalistic demi-gods, give it a read.

Don't call him "Sunshine"!

Yi Sun Shin was born on April 28, 460 years ago. He was an interesting man who sacrificed everything to defeat the Japanese after they attacked Korea in 1592. He recieved no thanks during his lifetime and was jailed at least once.

His main failing is embodied in the modern expression, "Those who don't play politics suffer for it". - Actually, I don't know if that is an expression, but I'm sure I've heard something like it.

I read Nanjung Ilgi, Yi's war diary (in English), and perhaps becasue of an over exact translation, he comes off as a whiner and mama's boy. Note to my Korean readers who would otherwise hunt me down and have me deported: I'm blaming the translation or the problems with a modern westerner trying to understand 16th century Korea. Anyway, he is always, "I miss my mom", "My stomach hurt so I slept all day", "I miss my mom"...

This picture is from the Times:


April 28th parade for Yi Sun Shin

More wild winds, More fires!

Yangyang had another fire today and as with the Naksan Fire, the winds today were crazy.

Yonhap News:
The fire was moving fast toward the east coast town
of Jumunjin after burning its way through a house, a
public health center and eight other buildings, officials
said.

About 1,600 people, assisted by four helicopters and
dozens of fire engines, were battling the blaze but
encountered difficulties due to strong winds of up
to 25 meters per second, officials said.

The Nomad linked to me because I was able to visit the scene of the previous Yangyang fire but this one is quite a bit south of me and I won't get there until Saturday, if then.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Nomad, and I'm sorry to let you down.

Whistling in the dark. The bright lanterns being put up for Buddha's birthday make a strong contrast to the hectares of black trees around Naksan's still-gleaming Bodhisatva of Mercy. 

close up of Naksan's giant Bodhisatva altar. Only the altar sustained any fire damamge. 

So embarrassing... a flat tire after 30km, I was almost home. I had to let 2 busses pass because they were too full. 

Not my car, by the way.

4-Wheelin'? No, a result of last week's Yellow Dust (황사).

Taxing bribes: Korea's solution to corruption

Saturday's Korea Times reported that the income tax laws are being revised to "levy taxes on bribes that are found to be taken."

I started by simply being a little shocked by the article (but only a little, I've been here a while) and it took a while to find my specific concern in the article. It's in the "...that are found..." part.

I guess I thought if the politician were found to have taken a bribe, he or she would be criminally punished and the real problem would be learning about the bribes in the first place. I hope there is already some form of punishment for officials when they are found to be taking bribes; is this just another, additional punishment?

From the article:
Under the revision, politicians and public officials
who receive money as bribes or for influence-peddling
are subject to pay income tax on the bribes.

Currently, bribes for politicians and officials
are not the subjects of taxation.

``The current law is so unfair in that ordinary
people are subject to pay taxes on bribes they
take, but politicians are not,'' said Rep. Song
Young-gil of the ruling Uri Party who served
as a member of the subpanel of the National
Assembly's Finance-Economy Committee.

The Supreme Court has already ruled that
bribes and income from influence-peddling
are subject to taxation, despite confiscation
or penalty tax, he said.

So, 'ordinary people' have to pay tax on their bribes already. Does this include professors, for example? (By the way, I'm clean by ethical choice and by circumstance; who'd want to bribe a conversation instructor, when the university pumps up the marks already?)

It was explained to me once that bribes are very common here and called 'Lunch money' or 'apple boxes' (사과상자). Actually taxing the bribe reminds me of the first time I saw the word 'kleptocracy'. The author had to pay a bribe, so he asked, and got, a receipt for his expense account.

I really can't say whether taxing bribes is a step forward or not, but I guess it evens the paying field between politicians and 'ordinary people'.

Finally, a minor quibble, a small editing flame:

Meanwhile, an ad hoc advisory committee on
political reform under the National Assembly
speaker said that it is considering revising the
Political Fund Law to allow individuals or
supporter groups to donate up to
300 million won ($300 million)
to a lawmaker a year.

I'm very excited to hear that 300 million won equals 300 million dollars!

I thought the restaurant chain would be more excited (I'll never attempt to photoshop again...until I learn more than three features). 

The story I missed- defecting fisherman

If anyone reads my blog on a regular basis, they might've rushed here after hearing about a Sokcho fisherman defecting to Norht Korea. Let's see why I should have posted on the subject:

It happened in Gangwon Province and my blog's title includes the word 'Gangwon'.

It happened in Sockho and I live in Sokcho.

My wife is a member of the Korean Coast Guard and the person involved was a fisherman and he left Sokcho by boat.

My only excuse is my special source in the Coast Guard office (Mrs. Gangwon Notes), is in Pusan for training and has been for three weeks.

From the Korea Times:

A South Korean fisherman, who crossed the eastern
sea border in the East Sea aboard a vessel into the
North last Wednesday, was transferred to investigators
on Monday for a joint investigation of his defection,
government officials said.

The fisherman, Hwang Hong-ryon, 57, resident of
Sokcho in Kangwon Province, was picked up by the
country's maritime police at around 3 p.m. near the
Northern Limit Line in the eastern waters from North Korean authorities.

Two 250-ton patrol ships were sent the area to receive
Hwang and pull his ship, named Hwangman-ho, to
Sokcho, the officials said.

``I'm happy to be back,'' Hwang said after arriving
at the port around 5:40 p.m. ``I was so intoxicated
when I went over to the North.''

If I can add anything of substance next week, I will. Until then, check the Marmot.

Complaints about firefighting

The Joongang Ilbo has a short article about angry residents of Yangyang county complaining about firefighter negligence.

As you may remember, the fire was almost out around 11:00am, Tuesday, April 5. Apparently, the helicopters then went to a different fire (I believe in or near the DMZ) and everybody relaxed...just in time for the fire to spread wildly and burn Naksan temple, and, more importantly to the residents involved, 200 homes.

The residents blame the helicopter crews for leaving and the crews blame the on-the-ground fire fighters and the wind.

A spokesman for the Korea Forest Service stated that helicopters are only used to combat the major fires and once they were knocked down, the helicopters were needed more in Goseong. This makes good sense to me. Even a slow moving helicopter can't be expected to have the accuracy needed for small fires. That is when the team of "up to 6,000" firefighters on the ground need to hunt and knock down any hotspots.

Forest fire fighting would seem to be a simple (but dangerous, I'm definitely not saying it isn't dangerous) job. You advance in a line and any place that is too hot to touch needs to be soaked.

It isn't. I was a junior ranger for The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in 1984 and we were constantly reminded about a group a few years previously that had been well equipped and sent to fight a fire and most of them died. Equipping people without training them is almost useless.

I don't know how to fight fires. I don't know if Oranckay does, but he does echo the complaints of the Yangyang citizens who lost their homes.

Seeing the firefighting skills of the soldiers on
television was also depressing, though
obviously every little bit helps. However little.

I guess I agree that someone made a mistake. I saw bus loads of soldiers and many water tankers just parked at Naksan National Park's parking lot. Scores of soldiers were sleeping. I don't blame them for sleeping, they'd been fighting the fire since 11:00pm the previous night and aren't expected to post themselves. However, someone should be held at fault, or at least have really learned something about fires. To be generous, the wind was crazy that day; it shifted around and was ferociously strong. I saw firefighters at two fires with several hundred metres of untouched ground between them; it looked like the fire was really jumping.