My City, My Town ... Suwon

Other Filipinas
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I live and work in Suwon City, South Korea. It was the old capital of Korea so very long ago. It is very developed, much more than I, and from others people's comments about my photos of the city, had expected. I find it almost to be like Hamilton actually, and Seoul would be Toronto. It's nice, big, clean, busy, and the people are friendly. Although, there are definitely certain aspects of it that I could do without.

One of the most famous sites in Suwon is the Hwaseong Castle, which is almost a 10 minute car ride. I don’t know why it is called Castle when it actually is a Fortress Wall that surrounds the city. The entire circumference of the fortress is 5.744 kilometers. Along the wall are four gates facing in the cardinal directions. There are also five secret gates, two floodgates, four gateguard platforms, three observation towers, one beacon tower, five sentry towers, two command posts, four angle towers, five firearms bastions, two multiple-arrow-launcher platforms, and other facilities. A small part of the southern section around the south gate has been leveled in order to allow traffic to the interior, which is now filled with apartment housing. There is a large bell on the summit that people could actually ring it. While on the path near the wall itself there are plenty of excellent views of Suwon and the distant mountains that surround it. Walking the whole wall takes about 3 hours, but what a nice little walk it is.

Me and my masterpieces. The one on the left is a tiger that resembles Korea and it's landscape, the one on the right is the ancient Hangul charachers
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Suwon is also known for a dish called Kalbi (or Galbi. G’s and K’s are interchangeable here). It is basically thinly sliced beef marinated in some sauce and cooked on a fire that is on your table. We call it “Korean BBQ” in Canada, so here that just makes it BBQ right? J There are actually huge restaurants devoted to serving just Kalbi. The most Famous one is in Suwon, it is a 9 story restaurant that all the Korean movie stars and singers go to when they want to have the most delicious Kalbi in Korea. I tried it, and boy was it gooooooooood! Speaking of food, there are many kinds here in Korea. Plenty of meat for the carnivores out there. However, for those who are vegetarians, which I was for years prior to coming here, there are very little choices here. For a country who says there are lots of vegetarian dishes out there, I have to find these dishes. Everything, I mean everything, is made with some sort of meat. If not meat then seafood. I was thinking about it, and if I had not changed my vegetarian ways I would probably be on the verge of starvation here hee hee. I would only be able to eat the side dishes and rice here. The side dishes being, kimchi, kimchi, and … did I mention kimchi? Kimchi is their national food here. It is fermented cabbage or any other vegetable. It definitely is an acquired taste. Another famous dish, which I don’t think I’ll ever try, is dog and the other dish is manure fed pig…*shudder* But for those who are adventurous when it comes to their taste buds, there are great selections to be chosen and tried from here.

Jinny and I eatting
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There are many things a person can do to keep themselves entertained...you can walk around the town, which doens't take a lot of time, but on the way you may find the most wonderful of sights.  One can visit the different museums here, visit the second largest Church in the world, or try out various kinds of restarants and bars.  One can also participate in what seems to be the favourite pastime in Korea, the noreabang (aka the kareoke).  This isn't the same as the kareoke places we have at home, on no, the Koreans really know how to have a good time when it come to singing :P.  Instead of just having a microphone and a t. monitor in front of a person so they are able to sing to the whole entire bar, people have their own private rooms to sing in here.  They are equipped with a big screen and a few mini monitors so that everyone can follow with the song, a couple of mics, tamborines, and disco lights!  Yes!  That's right, disco lights!  All these are ingredients to make a night out on the town a GREAT night on the town!!!  :)

Suwon's Bell for Good Luck
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Suwon is a nice city, with many forms of entertainment...any one wanna come and visit me here??? :)