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PaperclipPerfector
2d ago
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I pretty much agree with this. In the specific case of South Korea, I also think people come away with bad impressions of SK as a worse Japan because they approach it wrong - they typically weight their trip in favour of large metropolitan sprawls such as Seoul and Busan and expect it to feel polished and put-together and historic in the same way that they would expect from Kyoto and Tokyo. This, I think, is the wrong way to structure one's trip there. Korea was downright catapulted into modernity after a long period of poverty, destruction and war during the 20th century, and the modernisation effort under Park Chung-Hee was haphazard and quick - the sole aim was accelerated industrialisation at all costs, without too much regard about how the cities would turn out. SK's metropolises reflect this - many buildings were cheap and utilitarian constructions, and they certainly look it. This was a good move that made Seoul into the "miracle on the Han River", but the result of this is that their large cities have less of a glossy feel than that of Japan's. Outside of the Joseon palace complexes in Seoul, there just aren't too many truly historic things to see within the metropolis proper (though there are a handful of very pretty historic neighbourhoods, such as Bukchon Hanok Village).
This isn't to say that SK doesn't have a historic feel! But you have to look elsewhere outside of the megacities to find that old South Korea. Old villages and temples are everywhere, but they're typically located deep in the countryside, such as the UNESCO-listed Hahoe and Yangdong folk villages which still preserve that old Korean spirit; down to retaining their clan-based social structure. There's pavilions, study halls, traditional Confucian academies for learning and so on, and they often run traditional folk festivals out of these villages. They're not tourist traps or outdoor museums, these are actual places that people have lived in ever since the days of the Joseon Dynasty. These aren't the only ones either, though they're certainly the best known. Stationing yourself in some smaller non-folk-village towns in the countryside and using them as a base to explore a certain area, such as Gyeongju, is also a good idea if you want to see a lot of historic stuff. As noted, the mountain just south of Gyeongju was sacred to the Silla Dynasty and has hundreds of Buddhist sites that can be found just by walking aimlessly through its trails. Bulguksa Temple and Seokguram Grotto, located on Mount Tohamsan, can be accessed from there via a short train ride. I've located so many spectacular historical sites in easy distance of that town in my research (much of which is poorly marked and practically hidden within the mountains). Suncheon and Gwangju are also good jumping off points, I've heard.
I feel like when planning holidays, most people don't really care to do this work. They typically want to situate themselves in a really big and famous city and walk around and explore neighbourhoods without having to research too much, and in South Korea this approach just doesn't work quite as well as it does in Japan since most of its attractions are in the countryside. It also doesn't help that SK seems to want to make everything as hard as possible - in order to navigate and find out bus timetables and train routes you can't use Google Maps, you have to use Naver Maps, which has an awful UI and is in Korean. The only way you can use Naver Maps in English is on the fucking mobile app, and even then using it is still a pain. Granted, they're doing this out of security concerns, but it makes it more difficult to plan one's trip. Many sights are just missing from tourism sites, such as the Buddha sculptures at Gunwi Grotto or the pagoda stonework and statuaries at Unjusa Temple or the views of Boriam Hermitage. I think SK gets shafted relative to Japan despite having an equally large heritage to boast about (relative to land area, at least; SK is a quarter of the size of Japan) partially because of these factors.
With regards to the character of its cities, this seems to perhaps be changing. In 2000 the Korean government began to subsidise hanok projects, and more and more traditional hanok villages have been built in the surrounding areas of Seoul and other big cities (Eunpyeong Hanok Village, for example, was built in 2017). Lots of new traditional architecture is appearing all the time in Korea. A law involving a restoration project for the core historical relics of the Silla Dynasty, named the "Special Act on the Restoration and Maintenance of Core Ruins of the Silla Royal Capital", was passed in 2019, and this will probably make the city of Gyeongju proper have even more of a historical feel. In this sense, it's not too different to Japan, where most of their historical buildings are not, in fact, historical but regardless help contribute to the feel of the city. I guess we'll see how this all turns out.
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