During our recent trip to the east coast, we travelled to Gyeongju for two nights - the former capital of Korea, when the country was the Silla Kingdom, and now regarded as the cultural capital. I came across an interesting description of Gyeongju: "the area is truly a museum without walls due to the wealth of historical buildings and treasures."
The streets around the centre of the city are lined with cherry-blossom trees, in full bloom. Magnificent!
Again we stayed in a state-of-the-art condo, with magnificent views from the balcony. On Thursday morning when we were leaving, the treetops had snow from the previous night which was very cold. A beautiful sight.
We saw so many places around Gawngju, it's hard to describe them all, other than to say that this place is so rich in terms of all there is to be seen.
We spent quite some time visiting the Bulguksa Temple, built in 528AD. Gyeongju is very much and always has been heavily influenced by Buddhism. Very strong emphasis on the various parts of this temple on Hope.
We then went to the Sokkuram Grotto Shrine, built on the side of a mountain. These temple areas are very hard to desribe, but they are built on a very big site; it takes a good while to get around; and there are all kinds of small temples and buildings, as well as maybe the main temple.
Sokkuram Grotto Shrine is so-called because the focal point is the Main Buddha, in a seated position. Around the temple you see circular things that look like circular lampshades, in yellow and pink/purple, hung around the place in anticipation of Buddha's birthday. Creates a very colourful atmosphere.
Sokkuram is a very peaceful and beautiful place. There are many tourists around, mainly Korean, and many very obviously come here to pray. You see that all the time.
We also visited an area that contains the tomb of a King. There are several "Tomb" areas around the city. They are vast areas (parks) and the tombs are like huge grass mounds (up to 22 metres high, and up to 82 metres wide at the bottom).
