DMZ Adventures in Korea - Yanggu, Gangwon-do
Visiting the DMZ was one of my goals before I came to Korea: The border just fascinates me and I’m a naturally curious person so I just want to go see it for myself.
Location: Yanggu, Gangwon-do, South KoreaAdmission Fee: ₩3,000 (Includes the 4th Tunnel and the observatory)**Make sure to bring your identification and Passport as they do ask for those at the DMZ checkpoints**
Before you make your way to the basin and the 4th tunnel, you would need to register yourself and your parties at the Yanggu Unification Hall! You will need this in order to go past the soldiers standing guard at the entrance to the DMZ.
At the unification hall, there is also a museum that houses very interesting artifacts from the wars… The museum has the leftover shell casings and mines (alongside with other stuff) from the Korean war.
THE PUNCHBOWL AT HAEAN BASIN & EULJI OBSERVATORY
On the weekend of September 2nd, 2017 (My 2nd weekend as an official English TaLK scholar at Sangnam Elementary School), I visited the DMZ in Yanggu with the other EPIK teachers who are also placed in Inje. The Eulji Observatory is very interesting because we cannot take any picture aside from the designated photo zones, and we were not allowed to take any pictures of North Korea. Aside from this point, this DMZ is still worth a visit because it is the closest DMZ to North Korea. The DMZ is a 250 kilometer-long, 4 kilometer-wide cease-fire zone between South and North Korea. What makes the Yanggu DMZ interesting is that this DMZ is not the normal 4 km wide zone… both North and South Korea moved their DMZ 1km closer to the border, so the Yanggu DMZ is as close as you can get to North Korea without actually going to North Korea
At the Observatory, there is a photo zone where you can take pictures of the Punchbowl at Haean Basin… Before you get very excited, this is still South Korea! [IMPORTANT: No picture taking allowed beside the Photo zones!!] This Basin is so pretty, just imagine, if there are clouds surrounding the basin, the picture would be so aesthetic
The 4th Tunnel
On the same day, we also went over to the 4th tunnel! This tunnel was discovered most recently (1990). As usual, no pictures were allowed… also before you can go into the tunnel, you need to watch an information video about it! The 4th tunnel also has the Statue of the faithful dog, Second Lieutenant Hunt!
Side Note: We visited the 4th tunnel at lunchtime and they were closed… so If you arrive approx. between 12 and 1pm, they will be closed for lunch and you will have to wait.
When you go into the tunnel, they allow you to go into a cart that South Korea built to take a look at the tunnel that North Koreans dug. It was very interesting and as usual, no Pictures were allowed.
No comments:
Post a Comment