Blue Crane Village

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Perched high in the mountains an hour above Hadong, caught somewhere between the United Kingdom and modern Korea is the small folk village of Cheonghak-dong. Roughly translated as the “Blue Crane Village,” it may well be the last real folk village left in Korea. Some 50 or so people still live a traditional lifestyle. For many years it was a religious community known as the Village of Taoist Masters. Although life is traditional it’s not for show. Along with the thatched roofs and traditional clothing you will see cars trucks and even a few cell phones. It’s a nice ride up the mountain, and an interesting place to walk around, but the real gem is the temple just over the ridge.

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Thru a few wooden gates and one stone gate is one of the most fascinating temples I’ve seen. The pavilion sits at about 800m, and the Temple houses portraits of the historic patriarchs of Korea. It is protected by carved totem poles and lined with rock alters, (including one of my own).

Thru a few wooden gates and one stone gate is one of the most fascinating Temples I have seen.

Dan and I left Jinju about 10 am for the short ride to Hadong, and once there we walked around the open market before we boarded the bus for Cheonghak-dong. After the hour drive we started to get off when a Korean woman traveling alone ask to join us for the day. Her name was Annie, and the trip was much better with a native speaker to explain things to us. We wondered the village and then headed for lunch at this famous resturant on the way to the Temple. After some looking and a few questions we found out the resturant was closed. We ate at the next place we came to, and went to the temple.

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The Temple was great, and we had a lot of fun. After a few hours at the Temple we headed down to the junction to catch the bus. But the bus didn’t come. We found out the bus didn’t come that way, and so we hitched a ride down with a couple who had two young daughters. We had a blast talking to the girls in English.

We finally made it to Hadong and caught the bus back to Jinju.