Written and photographed by Peter DeMarco

Hwasun, a large county about an hour southeast of Gwangju, looks like any other in Jeollanam-do. People call this area the “rice basket” of Korea. Wide-open terraced fields wedged between green rolling hills are all around. Farmers sit on wooden platforms under trees to escape the sun. A lonely car passes slowly down an empty road. It’s the anti-Gangnam, the origin of Korea’s slow movement. For those willing to venture beyond Gwangju into Korea’s deep south, the intrepid traveler will find two of Korea’s hidden stone gems.

Hwasun Dolmen Park: Korea’s Stonehenge | 화순 고인돌 공원

They are nothing more than huge boulders. At first glance, you probably won’t be that impressed. The stones aren’t even propped up to form table-like structures similar to the ones at Stonehenge. But when you imagine people digging the boulders out of quarries, dragging them across the land, and placing them above graves almost 3,000 years ago, it makes you think. After you realize that you are standing in the middle of an ancient cemetery, and you feel the energy from one of the world’s most sacred sites, you begin to understand why this place is special.

A dolmen is type of megalithic (meaning “great stone” in Greek) tomb. There were megalithic cultures all around the world, in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Most people don’t know that Korea has more dolmens than any other place in world. In fact, 40% of all the dolmens in the world are on the Korean Peninsula. Although they are scattered around the country, most of them are found at three burial sites: Hwasun, Ganghwa, and Gochang. All three locations are on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Hwasun Dolmen Park is in the middle of the countryside and runs through a small valley. There is a building at the entrance of the park that houses some excavated burial sites. A dirt road and a walking trail go through the middle of the park. It’s the perfect place to have a picnic, too. Bring your own food and drinks, though.

Unjusa: A temple like no other | 운주사

Like the dolmen park, Unjusa Temple is famous for stone, or rather, for what has been made with it. All around the temple grounds are dozens of stone Buddha statues. These aren’t your typical statues though; they are made from slabs of stone and propped up against the hills. The faces are flat and expressionless. You begin to wonder if they were even made in Korea.

Probably the thing that most people come to see is the massive reclining Buddha carved into the top of a hill. A number of stone pagodas pop up all over the temple grounds too. They are three, five, seven, and even nine stories high. All together there are about 91 stone Buddhas and 21 pagodas. Not much is known about the temple’s history. Who built it and when is still a mystery. It’s an unusual sight and should make the list of any Korean temple tour.

Stay>
Gwangju has plenty of accommodation options. At the top end there is the Ramada Plaza Gwangju (T. 062-717-7000; KRW 200,000). There are a number of motels to choose from just around the bus station. For something a little more interesting, hop in a cab from the bus station and tell them to drop you off next to the Migliore department store in Chungangro (KRW 5,000). It’s the city’s most happening hood, filled with restaurants, shops, bars, and clubs. A block down from Migliore is the Windmill Motel (T. 062-223-5333; KRW 35,000), which has basic clean rooms. If you are coming in by train, the Napoli Motel (T. 062-514-9080) is a couple blocks from the station.

FYI>
www.hwasun.go.kr/2011/en

(Hwasun-gun, Jeollanam-do | 전라남도 화순군)

GO>
Getting to Gwangju: It’s best to make Gwangju your base and explore Hwasun county from there. There are seven trains a day leaving from Seoul Station to Gwangju, and buses leave every 10 minutes.

Getting to Unjusa and the Hwasun Dolmen Park: Take bus 218 or 318 from the main bus station in Gwangju (Gwangcheon Terminal, about 1 hour 30 minutes). Not all of the buses go to Unjusa though, so be sure to confirm with the driver. The same buses also stop at the back entrance of Dolmen Park. If you hike the 2 kilometers or so to the entrance of the park, you won’t find any bus stop there. The only options for getting to Unjusa from the main entrance—where the excavated burial tombs are—are to hitchhike, hop on a passing tour bus, or call a taxi (about KRW 20,000–30,000).

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Korean culture advocate with big dreams

Publisher Hank Kim talks about devoting his life to publishing English-language books about Korea

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Hank Kim, CEO and president of Seoul Selection, poses for a photo during an interview with The Korea Herald at his bookstore in Sagan-dong, Seoul, on May 23.(Kim Myung-sub/The Korea Herald)

 

“We don’t have the exact data,” says Jin Young-gyun of the Kyobo Book Center. “There are about 50,000 or 60,000 different categories of books, such as fiction, history, tourism and so on. But we don’t have a category for, say, English-language books published by local publishing houses.”

Kim is more than aware of this. Among some 70 books he’s published since the early 2000s, 40 of them were published out of his own pocket.

“I’ve been doing extra work to do what I want to do, because I don’t make money by doing what I want to do,” he says.

“I’ve been translating, designing business cards and English-language brochures so I have enough money to publish the books I want to see in bookstores. In fact my life would have been a lot easier if I only concentrated on such ‘extra’ work. But that would go against my initial plans and dreams.”

Seoul Selection signed a direct wholesale distribution deal with Ingram Content Group, the world’s largest wholesale distributor of publisher content, in October last year.

As a result Seoul Selection titles are now available for order through Ingram at more than 35,000 distribution channels worldwide. Seoul Selection is the only Korean publishing house with a wholesale distribution agreement with Ingram.

“We were rejected at first with no explanation,” he says. “So we sent them an email asking for explanation, stressing that our Seoul tour guidebook is selling better than the one by Lonely Planet on Amazon, and that we’ve published books that deal with Korea-U.S. relations, such as the ‘Korean War in Color.’ A week later, we got the offer.

The inside view of Hank Kim’s Seoul Selection Bookshop in Sagan-dong, Seoul. (Seoul Selection)

 

Signs posted on a pole outside the entrance ofSeoul Selection Bookshop point out the direction and distance of major international cities. (Seoul Selection)

 

Aside from publishing books about Korean culture and tourism, Kim has been also active in raising awareness on a variety of political and social issues, including North Korea and national security, women who were forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military during World War II, and multicultural families in contemporary Korea.

His interest in Korea’s modern history and politics is obvious in Seoul Selection’s latest and upcoming projects. The publishing house’s recently published English-language novel, “The Voices of Heaven,” deals with a young girl’s experience going through the Korean War.

In 2009, he published “Vietnam Moment,” which is comprised of photographs taken in Vietnam as well as short excerpts from the country’s folk poems, proverbs and idioms, after learning about hardships experienced by mail-order brides from Vietnam living in Korea.

He is planning to publish an English edition of Korean author Moon Young-sook’s teen novel about “Kkotjebi” ― a term referring to North Korean homeless children in constant search for food and shelter ― as well as a book put together by American mothers of Korean adoptees.

“Hank really does have a sense of mission with Seoul Selection,” says Robert Koehler, chief editor of SEOUL, an English-language culture and travel monthly published by Seoul Selection.

Koehler has been working with Kim since 2005.

“He takes on a lot of book projects not necessarily because they are sure moneymakers, but because they are books that need to be written. His enthusiasm for promoting knowledge of Korea is infectious, too, getting those of us like me who work for him.”

Kim’s efforts certainly have been appreciated by expats and English language readers living in Korea. “I think a lot of my foreign customers felt sorry for me, for running this book shop which doesn’t necessarily make you money,” Kim says. “Once one of them put a hand-written note on the wall which read: ‘Buy something! Keep Hank in Business.’ And other customers would write ‘I did’ after making their purchases.”

Kim remembers certain scenes, including the one where one of his loyal customers, an American military general serving in Seoul, stormed into the bookstore completely covered with snow on a freezing winter day. He had walked all the way from Gwanghwamun subway station, in spite of the snow, though he could have easily chosen to hit the Kyobo Book Center ― which is connected by a short underground passage to the station.

“He said ‘Whenever I have books that I need, I might as well buy them here,’” Kim says.

The cozy book shop was also once adored by South African English teachers working in Ilsan, a satellite city located northwest of Seoul. One of them started holding social gatherings there after falling in love with the place.

International adoptive parents of Korean children also make frequent visits to the bookstore, in their attempt to learn more about Korea.

“I met one of the adoptive mothers about 10 years ago,” Kim says.

“She was here in Korea to buy hanbok at Namdaemun market for her little kid. She happened to visit the bookstore during that stay, and would come here every time she makes her visits to Seoul. And she is one of the mothers who are organizing an English language book about Korean culture from the perspective of international adoptive parents.”

Kim has also written a book about Korea in English. Last year he released “Ask a Korean Dude,” a collection of his monthly columns published in SEOUL, in which he answers all kinds of questions from foreigners about Korea.

“Hank has done more to help promote the understanding of Korea overseas than any government agency,” says professor Robert J. Fouser at Seoul National University. “He is a true 21st century national treasure!”

Korean-born American author Maija Rhee Devine, who published her first novel “The Voices of Heaven” through Seoul Selection, says he makes a strong impression.

“I found him to be a very frugal, humble, down-to-earth person who hates anything that’s pretentious,” she said. “Recently I asked him to autograph his book ― ‘Ask a Korean Dude’ ― for me and he humbly refused. It really surprised me. He doesn’t like to promote himself. I once asked him if he was a Buddhist and he said he’s not.”

Devine says while she is touched by Kim’s enthusiasm for his work, the two share different views on Korean culture and international politics.

“I think he has this tendency to romanticize Korean culture a bit,” she said.

“His approach is ‘We have a lot of great things to show, so we might as well promote the good.’ He’s also defensive of Korea’s position in international politics, especially with Japan’s war crimes. I, on the other hand, try to remain objective.”

“I am not saying Korean culture is the best culture in the whole world,” Kim said.

“I am saying our culture should be regarded with as much respect as other cultures are. We have the collective experience of all kinds of human sufferings: We’ve gone through colonization, war, poverty, forced migration to Kazakhstan and Mexico. And I think that very collective experience is the strength of Korean culture and literature. And I think our history including industrialization, democratization and the sex slaves during World War II must be shared with our neighboring countries in Asia. They are not just a collective Korean experience, but also an important history of Asia.”

Kim’s dramatic career shift ― from a journalist of 14 years to a Korean culture advocate ― was prompted by widespread lack of knowledge among English speakers about Korea and what was going on there.

In 1999, Kim, visited the British Embassy in Seoul as a reporter. Speaking to the English staff working there, he was stunned to learn that none of them knew about “Shiri,” the Korean film that was breaking box office records at the time.

“It was very shocking,” he says. “The film had already been watched by one quarter of the whole population. The whole country was buzzing about it. And yet these men just had no idea.”

In 1995, he was taking time out from his job to pursue a master’s in journalism and public affairs at American University in Washington. There, he met David Kim, the current Luce Scholars Coordinator for the Asia Foundation who was then working for the Korea Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotional awareness of Korea-U.S. relations.

“He asked me if I knew CNN in 1994 had set a satellite dish on the roof of the Press Center in Seoul, thinking there would be a war,” he said. “I was shocked that I had had no idea about it, though I was working as a reporter in Seoul when that was supposedly happening.

“I thought war could happen any minute on the peninsula. And in order to secure peace in this country,” he continues. “I thought, we need as much foreign investment as possible. And to attract foreign investment, you need to promote culture, I thought.”

Kim says he dreams of establishing an English-language internet radio station one day ― one that features cultural issues and happenings in Asian countries.

“Asian countries also have a lot of differences to celebrate,” he said. “I have no idea when it will actually happen, but if it happens, I’d like to focus on the diversity of Asia and its cultures.”

Seoul Selection Bookshop

Located near Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul Selection Bookshop is the place to go if you are looking for English-language books about Korea. The cozy store offers books, Korean DVDs with English subtitles, traditional Korean music CDs, and all kinds of second-hand books in English.

Coffee and other drinks are also available. The store is open from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Monday to Saturday. It is near Anguk Subway Station Exit No. 6. For more information, call (02) 734-0506 or visit www.seoulselection.com.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)

Courtesy of Osong

The Chungcheongbuk-do town of Osong hosts the Cosmetics & Beauty Expo, Osong Korea 2013. The expo seeks to create a converged and complex cultural and economic effect focused on the beauty industry, including cosmetics, through a comprehensive approach blending industry, culture, and environment. The expo will feature a body painting show, beauty shows, performances, exhibits, and plenty of hands-on programs. There’s lots to see and do nearby, too.

EAT>
There will be plenty of places to eat at the venue itself.

SEE>
The Korea Silk Museum offers an interesting look at Korean sericulture.

DO>
Stroll around scenic Cheongnamdae Presidential Villa, Korea’s equivalent of Camp David.

STAY>
Like many small towns, you’ll find small motels and inns around town. There’s a wider range of accommodations in nearby Cheongju.

FYI>
T. 043-249-4519, www.osongbeautyexpo.kr
(655 Yeonje-ri, Osong-eup, Cheongwon-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do | 충청북도 청원군 오송읍 연제리 655)

GO> There is now KTX service to Osong from Seoul and Yongsan Stations.

크게 보기

National Library of Korea | 국립중앙도서관

A ten-minute walk from the bustling Express Bus Terminal and Central City shopping mall will lead you here. It houses over 7 million volumes, manuscripts, and periodicals, including over 840,000 foreign books and a vast digital archive. It would be nice to visit the library and spend some time reading before going on a trip out of Seoul.

EAT>
Central City is home to a myriad of fine restaurants, and there is a large food court on the basement floor of Shinsegae Department Store.

BUY>
Central City is much like a city within a city, bringing together Shinsegae, Youngpoong Bookstore, Central Terminal, the Cinus theater complex, and the JW Marriott Hotel.

SEE>
Seoripul Park, which flanks the library, is connected to Montmartre Park across the street through an overpass structure called the Silkworm Bridge. Southern Seoul used to be a hub for silk production in dynastic times.

FYI>
www.nl.go.kr (Korean, English, Japanese)
(San 60-1, Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul | 서울시 서초구 반포동 산60-1)

GO>
Express Bus Terminal 고속터미널역 (Line 3, 7, 9)

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ⓒ Seoul Selection

Hongdae | 홍대

Stop hibernating—it’s time to kick into action. Its creative energy, artsy community, and bars and clubs are all legitimate reasons for conquering the night at Hongdae. Hit up your club of choice by purchasing a Club Day bracelet for KRW 20,000, which will get you into each of the 20-plus participating clubs.

EAT>
Bonjour Hawaii (T. 02-336-5406) is a unique brief getaway from quirky Hongdae—a nice place to lounge around with friends and Tiki drinks.

BUY>
Unlike the other stores handling mostly “hippie” merchandise, Platform Place and STYLE NANDA, for men and women respectively, carry pricier import brands and fashion items like shoes, casual wear, books, bags, and cosmetics.

SEE>
Meander around the campus of Korea’s hallmark fine arts college, Hongik University. On-campus art exhibits and other activities are worth checking out.

FYI>
Tourist Information Center: T. 02-323-2240, 02-3153-6740
(Seogyo-dong, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul | 서울시 서대문구 서교동)

GO>
Hongik Univ. Station 홍대입구역 (Line 2, A’REX Line)

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A view of the Hangang River from Ttukseom Resort. Photo by Arnab Sen.

As competition in the dating market heats up, many men are opting out

The Dong-A Ilbo, one of Korea’s largest newspapers, recently relayed the tale of Mr. Lee, a shy 28-year-old man who, at first glance, seems to be living the dream. He’s got three girlfriends— one is an English instructor at a kindergarten, one is a graduate student studying art, and the other works at a foreign financial firm. All of them look like models. He takes them out to clubs, art galleries, and film sets, depending on what each one is into.

There’s just one catch—none of these girlfriends are real. They are online personalities Lee met through a cyber dating service. The women at the service look and act like real girlfriends whose moods change depending on the date location and topic of conversation. The service uses lesser known actors for its video services. And business is good— about 40,000 users signed up within just 10 days of the service’s launch. About 80% of them are men in their 20s and 30s.

At Afreeca, a popular personal Internet TV site, there are men spending hundreds of thousands of won for online women to call out their online nicknames on their video channels. These “BJs” (broadcasting jockeys) earn their keep by getting men to send them “star balloons,” online tokens that cost 70 won each. The most popular women can earn millions of won a night. One of the best has 50 million viewers.

The smartphone has also made online “dating” easier. Korean app developers have come up with many adroit messaging apps with which the lonely can connect with members of the opposite sex, real or not. Apps like Doki Doki Postbox, Whispering Sailors, and Fav Talk bill themselves as online pen pal services connecting users with similar interests such as K-pop, but in fact, the desperate use these to communicate with multiple members of the opposite sex. This has also led, unfortunately, to the appearance of cyber con artists who make their living financially exploiting lonely men online.

Enter the Herbivores | 초식남

Why is it that more and more men are avoiding real-world relationships with the opposite sex in favor of online relationships?

According to experts, this is connected with the rise in Korea of the chosiknam, or “herbivore man.” The term was first coined about 10 years ago in Japan, where this phenomenon first appeared. Tired of the uber-competitive nature of Japanese society, where men were expected, in the words of Slate’s Alexandra Harney, to “live like characters on Mad Men, chasing secretaries, drinking with the boys, and splurging on watches, golf, and new cars,” the bulk of Japan’s young manhood decided to opt out to pursue their own hobbies and, more importantly, not pursue women. Instead, they found their satisfaction elsewhere, such as anime and pornography. Japan’s political and media establishment was horrified, blaming the trend for Japan’s plummeting birth rates.

It wasn’t long before this trend arrived on Korean shores. As in Japan, Korea’s herbivore men are the product of Korean society’s notorious competitiveness, especially in the dating market, where women value—some argue excessively—a man’s job, education, and family background above all else. Feeling unable or unwilling to play the game, many men are opting out, content to pursue online sources of romantic satisfaction. Some would be unable to perform even if they found themselves with a member of the opposite sex—in 2009, at the start of this phenomenon, a urologist wrote in the Weekly Dong-A magazine that more and more men in their 20s were suffering from sexual dysfunction that presented itself only—oddly enough—-when they were in the presence of a woman.

Korea’s gender imbalance plays a role, too. As of 2010, there were 113.7 men for every 100 women in the 20–24 age bracket. For those aged 25–29, there were 103.8 men for every 100 women, and for those aged 30–34, there were 102.0 men for every 100 women. As if the

dating market weren’t tough enough.

Dried Fish Women | 건어물녀

Women, too, are experiencing romantic—or unromantic, as it were— trends of their own. As more and more women rise to prominence in the workforce, some are abandoning love and marriage all together to focus on their careers. These women are called “dried fish women,” or geoneomulnyeo. Like the herbivore man, it’s a term that came from Japan, where this trend began. Polite, smartly dressed, and good at their jobs, they let themselves go on the weekend, too tired to dress up, clean their home, or go out. Content with a can of beer and some dried fish snacks, the love of their lives is most often their pets. When they’re not sleeping, they can be found watching TV or reading comics. If these women marry, it is often in their late 30s.

Suffice it to say, neither of these trends have helped Korea’s birthrate, which—despite impressive improvements over the last three years—is still one of the lowest in the world. A 2011 poll by international pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly found Korean couples were the least sexually active in the world. With young men and women now swearing one another off, it does not bode well for the future of Korea’s aging society.

Written by Robert Koehler

Seoul in the pre-dawn hours, seen from Mt. Ansan. Photo by Robert Koehler.