Tonight! 7:30 pm, in the 2nd-floor Resident’s Lounge of the Somerset Palace, downtown Seoul – Prof. David A. Mason (me) and Roger Shepherd will speak on “The 2007 Baekdu-daegan Expedition”. I will quickly intoduce what the Baekdu-daegan is – its features, cultural history and significance for Koreans, then turn it over to Roger who will show great photos and tell fascinating stories from the 10-week trek that he and Andrew just finished on Saturday (the first complete walking of this 730-km trail by non-Koreans!). We can promise that this won’t be boring! Free for RAS members, w5000 donation requested from others.
Sunday Nov 18th: Yongmun-sa Temple at Mt.Yonmun-san Park Hiking Tour – The “Dragon-Gate Temple” is impressive enough in itself, but it seems dwarfed beside the huge 600-year-old Gingko tree that towers over it. This famous tree is 170 feet tall and 54 feet in circumference, and guards the entrance to the 1200-meter Yongmun Mountain (one of Gyeonggi-do’s highest peaks) where we will walk up the long scenic valley to a high hermitage.
Sat-Sun Nov 17-18th: LAND of EXILE TOUR: Southern South Jeolla Province – Korea’s deep-south is an unspoiled part of the country that once served as a place of exile from the capital for dissident scholars, as well as unwelcome “foreigners” as Hendrik Hamel and his fellow Dutch sailors (who lived down here for many years, in a village we will visit). The famous Neo-Confucian scholar “Dasan” Jeong Yak-yong, considered a father of the 18th-Century Shilhak philosophical movement (pragmatism, innovation and introducing some western thought) lived in pleasant exile here, and we will visit his charming home and pavilion deep in a bamboo forest. Celadon kilns of Gangjin and other interesting sites will be explored.
Sat-Sun Nov 24-25th: Inner Seorak and South Sorak Rhapsody Tour — A weekend spent enjoying the grand natural beauty of the less-visited northwestern area of South Korea’s greatest national park, Seorak-san. On Saturday we’ll walk up a long beautiful Inner Seorak valley to the legendary Baekdam-sa (Hundred Pools Temple) and admire the scenic forests, steams and ridges. Then on Sunday, we’ll visit the beautiful South Seorak area and hike to its best-known waterfall (one of Korea’s highest) and see former President Rhee’s retreat-home.
Sunday Nov 25th: Cheorwon County Tour – this is a trip to the northern border region of South Korea, where we can see some of the remains of the conflict that divided the peninsula and visit an observation tower to peer across the border to the closed North Korea. During this time, many different birds migrate from China, like cranes and some other wild species of birds.
More Info (including map to the Somerset): 763-9483 and http://www.raskb.com/
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One Comment
We had a really good lecture last night, me talking for about 20 minutes and then Roger showing his amazing pictures and telling his stories for over an hour. The room was packed, and the audience appreciative, plenty of interest in the Baekdu-daegan. Roger may have been the first person in our 107 years to ever give an official RAS Lecture in t-shirt and hiking boots… and a thick New Zealand accent with slang that sometimes had half the audience wondering what they were hearing…
Unfortunately it was not digitally videotaped or otherwise recorded. Ya just had to be there…