Jeju Life

Bicycle tour of Jeju’s northeast coast

Jim Saunders — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:34:37 +0000

Off the 1132 highway, a winding coastal road makes for memorable bicycle tour
Story and photo by Marcus Kaulback

Being an English teacher at a hagwon, you don’t get too many holidays. So, when you find yourself being given a full four days off from cultivating future Ban Ki-Moons, you make the most of it. For our summer holiday, my best friend and I thought the choice was never in question: Jeju-do, but with a twist. We were going to spend our days on bicycles and our nights in a tent.

For the bookend nights of our trip, we stayed with our friend, a Miss Anj Schroeder, formerly of Regina, Saskatchewan, now of Shin Jeju. This paid off immediately, as the first morning she showed us a smashing shop from which to rent our cycles. Located in Shin Jeju next to the Hi-Mart at the Nohyeong Rotary, Bike Mart was a perfect place to get our “hogs” from. The selection was minimal but completely adequate for us inexperienced bikers, and the transaction, through our broken Korean and the vendor’s broken English, went swimmingly. To sweeten this already-honeyed business affair, the shop was located on the same road that leads right out of the city and on the 1132, the mammoth road that was to be our trail for the next 72 hours.

Leaving the city behind

We hit the ground rolling and pedaled our way out of the heat of the city and into the heat of the countryside. The buildings of Jeju-si slowly gave way to open fields dotted with greenhouses, and we knew we were on the right track to our first day’s destination: Hamdeok Beach. The ride was quick, easy and uneventful; however, we soon found out that the 1132 is always like this, minus the quick and easy.

We had been told that Hamdeok is perhaps the prettiest beach on the northeast side of the island, and we were not disappointed. Even with the masses of families, friends, and lovers scattered all over the beach, Hamdeok’s enchantment and serenity were obvious. We found a suitable nook away from the beach to set up our tent and laid down to sleep with the sound of fireworks popping in the distance.

The second day

Day two began bright and early with a private swim at Hamdeok’s secondary beach. Refreshed and revved up, we mounted our cycles and readied ourselves for the meat and potatoes of the trip: Gimnyeong Beach, the Manjang Lava Tube Cave, and Seongsan, the easternmost point of the island.

The beach at Gimnyeong was even more breathtaking than at Hamdeok. The absolute absence of people created the illusion that it was our very own private Caribbean getaway. If you haven’t already been there, skip work today and go.

A short way from Gimnyeong, off the monotonous 1132, we found the Manjang Cave. The slippery steps of the entrance lead away from the surface into an ethereal world, made all the more alien by the massive drop in temperature. If you’re looking for an experience completely out of the ordinary, this is it. Leaving the sanctuary of the caves was perhaps the worst part of the entire trip as it signaled a return to the August heat and the dreaded highway. By the time we made it to Seongsan, that town built in the shadow of Sunrise Peak, or Seongsan Ilchulbong, we nearly fell down dead.

Climbing at sunrise

A 4:00 A.M. alarm roused us out of our sleep the next morning, and we dressed in the dark for a hike up the 182-metre high Sunrise Peak. The sweat produced on the way up was blasted away by the life-giving winds at the summit. Within minutes, however, we were drenched again, this time by a cold sweat brought on by the magnificent feeling of being above the rising sun. It was a view as marvelous as any on Jeju.

After being blessed with a few more hours of sleep in the tent, we once again mounted our steeds and headed back to Jeju-si. The trip had been all we imagined, and we were sad to have to return to the mainland. The only thing we were glad to say goodbye to was the lifeless 1132. To anyone looking to do a trip like this, do yourself a massive favour and stick to the quiet, winding coastal roads.

Additional information on Bike Mart: Phone 010-3232-4101 or 064-712-0951.
Proprietor’s name: Park Byeong-Seong.

Young Gu’s American style restaurant, Jeju, South Korea

David Holmes — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:37:43 +0000

Decent western food at decent prices
Story and photo by David Holmes

Folks, in Jeju it’s is no secret that American style family restaurants are few and far between. There is unquestionably a culinary void that is often pseudo-serviced by the occasional Western-style Korean restaurants (also known as “fusion cuisine”). You know the scenario: a restaurant looks deceptively good from the outside, but the menu tells a different tale: It speaks of candied yam pizzas, cream cheese stuffed crust, a garnish of sweet pickles and the inexorable side plate of kimchi. Or perhaps you are more familiar with the seafood pastas, complimented by the time-honored California “looks too good to be true” rolls unexpectedly stuffed with sweet mayonnaise, kiwi sauce, pickled garlic and fish and who knows what else. That being said, however, there is a plethora of delicious Western-style restaurants on the island, and Young Gu’s, located in Shin Jeju, is one of them.

A self-proclaimed “American style” restaurant, the menu is both diverse and affordable, combining a mix of traditional Western classics with some fusion-influenced foods. Their forte is pizzas, pastas, salads and steaks, and what you see on the menu is what you actually get to eat. Despite limited English, the staff is always friendly and accommodating, even going so far as to find an isolated place to seat my dog. Service is good, although food is not always served simultaneously. The atmosphere is relaxed, and the music is upbeat. It is a great place for a date or even a night out with friends, and, if you are not up for dining out, they do provide a full delivery service (minimum order around around 25,000 won.) Furthermore, if you are feeling homesick, this could be your culinary and alcoholic catharsis. The restaurant offers a sound compliment of imported beers and cocktails. If you are looking for something exotic, then the curry pizza is the way to go (it sounds wrong, but it tastes so right).

Young Gu’s is located close to the Grand Hotel in Nohyeong Dong in Shin Jeju. (If your back is to the main entrance of the Grand Hotel, cross the street and turn left, it is about a three minute walk.) They can be contacted by telephone at (064)748-0980 or 1577-0982 (for delivery service.) For more information about the restaurant see www.09pizza.com.

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Jeju’s Shamans

Brian Miller — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Jeju’s mythical past still alive and well
Story and photo by Brian Miller

For many in Jeju, this island is a haunted place. It’s home to 18,000 gods, and nearly every rock, tree, mountain, pond and home is claimed by one kind of spirit or another. If you want to communicate with these spirits and gods, you can either visit one of the island’s many shrines, or contact a simbang. The ‘simbang’ (or shaman) is a man endowed with supernatural powers. He’s a conduit between gods and humans who uses his psychic abilities to transmit messages between this world and the next. They perform in ceremonies called 굿 or “gut” (pronounced like “good” with a hard d). There are three levels of simbang. The first level simbangs mainly do manual chores at guts while learning the skills required to perform ceremonies. Once they’ve graduated to the second level, a simbang will be allowed to perform minor guts, but is most often found performing music at the major ceremonies. The greatest of them has attained all the supernatural powers of a simbang. One such man is Kim Yun Su, a simbang of the highest order who lives here in Jeju and can often be found leading major guts on the island.

Shamanism here is seen more as a kind of traditional medicine than a religion. There isn’t a complicated system of beliefs that leads one to redemption and a higher spiritual realm.

In the past, many mental illnesses were treated by simbangs who believed the afflicted had been possessed by angry spirits. In the world of shamanism, sickness is caused by angry gods, spirit possession or by souls trying to leave the body. The simbang can also conduct special ceremonies to predict the future, and a special type of female shaman, known as samsin halmang, assists in childbirths.

The gods can help to influence harvests and weather patterns, but getting the gods help in this is not easy. The gods tend to be a bit selfish and won’t grant your wishes purely out of the goodness of their own hearts. The simbang must therefore act as a human diplomat to the spirit world. He delivers wishes and prayers in such a way as to make the gods think that granting them is in their better interests.

Aside from being a unique cultural experience, a gut is also a great show. There are a lot of people on the island who perform in drum outfits and do so with varying levels of skill. But the musicians who take part in the gut ceremony are highly trained musicians who’ve dedicated themselves to a very obscure and profound form of art. Seeing them play while a simbang’s body is taken to possession by a powerful spirit can be an incredible experience.

Seeing a private gut, however, can be difficult. They’re held according to the needs and schedules of the adherents and are usually closed to the public. Yet there are several public guts in Jeju that are open to the public and are well worth a visit.

The Yeongdeung gut is perhaps the most accessible gut on the island. It’s held to celebrate the arrival of Yeongeung, the god of wind. On February first of the lunar calendar, he arrives at the harbor in Jeju-si with the god of the northwest wind. Together, they tour Jeju before leaving again on the 15th day of the lunar month of February. Guts are held to celebrate both their arrival and departure.

Ib-choon gut is currently scheduled for February 3-4 (lunar calendar), but islanders are petitioning local officials to have the gut changed to a more convenient time.

Singwasaejae is a gut held to pray for bountiful harvests in the new year. Though the exact dates vary from village to village, these guts are held in villages across Jeju between the 1st and 15th days of the first lunar month of the year.

Several other large, public guts are scheduled to be held throughout the year, but, as of yet, no solid dates have been set for them. To learn more about these guts as further information becomes available, please contact Brian Miller at baraka49@yahoo.com

Alddreu Airfield harbors occupation memories, Jeju, South Korea

Jim Saunders — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:07:06 +0000

Pastoral present belies airfield’s dark past
Story and photo by Jim Saunders

Winding down the window of the car, we shouted across to the farmer tending her field in the late afternoon sun. “Which way to Alddreu Airfield?” we asked. Straightening up a little and turning to look at us: “You’re in it!” came the reply. “And, to see the hangers, you have to keep following this road straight!” she added while waving the tool in her hand a little. We looked around slightly incredulously. Fields of crops stretched in every direction with only Sanbangsan standing tall in the near distance. We started off again down the single track road in amongst the fields with dried mud kicking up from our car’s tires. A few minutes later, the first of the remaining structures from the airfield appeared- reinforced, concrete aircraft hangers, overgrown with long grass swirling in the light breeze.

Nineteen of the twenty hangers built by the Japanese during their occupation of Jeju Island remain today. However, the hangers are only a small left over of a much larger site that began its history in 1937. Initially constructed to provide a base for bombing runs to mainland China the airfield expanded to include various facilities such as artillery stands and bomb-storage sites. According to one source, there were also underground bunkers that historians suggest were used for meeting rooms for army officials.

Later, as the tide of the Pacific War swung in favour of the Allies, Jeju became strategically important for the defence of the Japanese home islands. Between 1943 and 1944 the airfield was further enlarged to include the hangers that remain today, along with the arrival of a 70,000 men garrison (although the maximum number stationed at the airfield never exceeded around 2,500 according to figures from the Jungang Ilbo).

Of the three airfields built during the occupation (the two others being Jeju International Airport and a ‘lost’ field in Jocheon), Alddreu will be preserved for the future, as each of the hangers are now registered cultural heritage sites. According to further reports, Seogwipo City is planning to develop the area into a major theme park which will include a museum. Construction is scheduled to start in 2009 and last through 2015, the total budget for the project is forecast to be 59.1 billion won.

Unfortunately, the darkened history of Alddreu continued after the war and mixed with the events of 4.3 (the Jeju Massacre, 사삼, in which twenty-five to thirty thousand people died). As the site of the island’s largest arsenal, detonation of munitions by American forces left a deep crater- a crater that would then be used as an execution for about 250 people. The site has only recently been memorialized with a wooden walkway surrounding the crater and explaining events.
Alddreu today is a field with crops in which even the recently re-laid car park for visitors has been reclaimed by farmers. As I climbed up close to inspect one of the hangers, a man in his tractor ploughed his field right in front of me. I slapped the concrete a little. These were built to last and, though their original purpose is redundant, they will continue to sit as a lasting testament to Japanese occupation.

Getting there and visitor information: The airfield is located on the southwest tip of Jeju. Private transport is advised. Head for Sanbangsan and continue on towards Moseulpo Port. There are a lack of signs, so it’s probably best to stop and ask locals. The best place to explore the area from is the car park and nearby information boards. This is also very close to the site of the arsenal, which is linked to 4.3. Expect over an hour drive from Jeju City to reach the area.

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