Can South Korean Temples, Beaches Tempt Tourists?
G A N G J I N, South Korea, Oct. 16, 2003 -- For centuries, the southwest corner of South Korea was a rural backwater, a place of exile for dissidents. Some of the first Westerners to land on Korean soil — aband of shipwrecked Dutch sailors — were held captive here in the 17th century.
Even in modern times, South Korean powerholders considered theJeolla region to be politically irrelevant, at times troublesome.In 1980, the military crushed a pro-democracy uprising in thesouthwest city of Gwangju. The region was the home base of KimDae-jung, an opposition figure who became president after thedemise of authoritarian rule.
Today, South Korean tourism planners are showcasing southernJeolla (pronounced choh-lah), hyping it as a haven for visitors whocan soak up history, buy Chinese-inspired celadon pottery and spendthe night in spartan quarters at a Buddhist temple.
Officials in the region's Gangjin county are rebuilding a YiDynasty fort that was destroyed in a revolt. There are coasts andforests, tombs and Confucian shrines.
Riding Wake of World Cup
The campaign is part of a broader effort to promote South Koreain the wake of its wildly successful role as co-host of the 2002World Cup soccer tournament. Attractions in China and Japan, fearsof conflict with North Korea, and the South's focus on economicgrowth at the expense of aesthetics, have long sidelined SouthKorea as a tourist destination.
"Korea is frustrated at being unknown," said David Mason, anadviser to the South Korean government on tourism.
Still, Mason said "it's a lot better than it used to be," andcited the availability of tourist brochures in English inprovincial cities, as well as paved roads all over the country.South Korea was far more inaccessible for foreigners when it hostedthe 1988 Olympics, he said.
About 5.3 million people visited South Korea last year, many ofthem on business from Asian countries, but the government wantsmore Western tourists. Over the summer, President Roh Moo-hyundeclared South Korea would be a "cultural super-nation"attracting more than 10 million tourists a year, on a level withThailand.
A Dutch Sailor's Tale
With modest attractions and infrastructure, Jeolla's best hopefor now is local tourism. But it has seized on Hendrik Hamel, aDutch sailor who wrote about his experiences in Jeolla 350 yearsago, as a potential draw.
Visitors can stroll down the low-walled alleys of Pyeongyong, avillage where Hamel and his Dutch companions were held, and inspectan 800-year-old gingko tree where they gathered. As years passed,some married Koreans, made and sold wooden clogs and sang anddanced to earn money.
After 13 years in Korea, Hamel escaped to Japan, and wrote abook on his return to the Netherlands. Some Korean history booksgloss over his captivity, and the Dutch defense minister followedsuit during a trip to Jeolla in July.
"He was a lucky man that he could live here in this beautifulcountry," the minister, Henk Kamp, said at a county fair whilestanding on a replica of the boat in which Hamel escaped. Kamp wasin South Korea to attend ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary ofthe end of the Korean War, in which a Dutch contingent fought.
North of Jeolla, the war has yielded one of South Korea's mostpopular tourist attractions: Panmunjom, the truce village in theDemilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas. An estimated150,000 people annually visit the southern side of Panmunjom to geta taste of the world's last Cold War frontier.
North Korean Tension Hurts Neighbor
Mostly, though, tension with North Korea — now at a heightbecause of its suspected development of nuclear weapons — disruptsthe South's efforts to promote tourism. In 1994, the government inSeoul declared "Visit Korea Year," then watched its plans unravelwhen a North Korean negotiator threatened to turn Seoul into a"sea of fire" during an earlier nuclear crisis.
In 1998, South Korea launched cruise boat tours to a scenicNorth Korean mountain, but the project is mired in financialtrouble and the scandals of its sponsor, the Hyundai businessgroup.
Dho Young-shim, a former legislator who spearheads South Koreantourism planning, said much of the challenge is right at home.
"Koreans do not see the importance of tourism, they lean towardmanufacturing goods," Dho said. "Tourism is not high on the listof Confucian priorities."
High on the list of tourist sites in Gangjin is a museum devotedto a famous Confucian scholar: Jeong Yak-yong, also known asDa-san, which means "Tea Mountain" in Korean. As an exile in theearly 19th century, he espoused clean governance, agriculturalinnovations and other practical activities.
"Make a record of everything," said Da-san, who wrote 500works.
If You Go…
GETTING THERE: Gangjin is a 55-minute flight from Seoul, theSouth Korean capital. CONTACT: For more information, call the Korea National TourismOrganization at (201) 585-0909 office in Fort Lee, N.J., or visit http://www.jeonnam.go.kr/english/jeonnam_introduction/introduction_01.html The Gangjin provincial office is at (011) 82-61-430-3228.