Korea & Taiwan
Fall, 1984
Korea
In Fall 1985 Korea gave a ten-day visa for casual tourists. We spent several days in Seoul, but there were construction sites everywhere (they were preparing for the 1988 Olympic Games), so we headed south to Gyeongju.
Seoul
We have very few shots of Seoul, even though it was fascinating. In the first shot, I’m standing next to the curious-smelling fuel they used to heat many homes. In the next shot I’m relaxing (somewhat zombified by the city’s jack-hammers!) in our not-very-fancy hotel room. I have to laugh looking at these photos, since they are perhaps the worst coverage of the city imaginable! Still, to me they suggest an intriguing down-to-earth quirkiness, like the expression of the lady & her small bird-like friend drawn on the wallpaper.
Gyeongju
From Wikipedia: “Gyeongju was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla (57 BC – 935 AD), which ruled about two-thirds of the Korean Peninsula at its height between the 7th and 9th centuries, for close to one thousand years. Later Silla was a prosperous and wealthy country, and its metropolitan capital of Gyeongju was the fourth largest city in the world.”
☯️
Taiwan
From Taibei we went south to the central mountains: Taroko Gorge, Sun Moon Lake, & Alishan. Then we went to the historic city of Tainan (with its Confucian Temple) and the big industrial city of Kaosiung (with its great seafood market). Finally, we spent New Years relaxing in the small town of Kending.
Taibei
Above: Palace Museum. Below: Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall & Lungshan Temple
Taroko Gorge, Alishan, & Sun Moon Lake
Kending
These last shots are from Kending, on the southern tip of the island. The friendly woman (in the first shot below) worked at The Foremost, our hotel & restaurant (third shot). She’s one of the many extremely friendly people we met. For instance, people picked us up when we hitched rides, let us stay in unused rooms (once in a monastery and another in a kindergarten), and met up with us later in Taibei to show us around. Unfortunately, we only have one picture of these very hospitable Taiwanese!
I’m not sure where this shot of Ruby was taken!