Jeonju City Trip

I went to Jeonju City today, which is the capital of North Jeolla, a province in South Korea. I first heard about Jeonju from a Korean who suggested a returning tourist to visit the place so as to confirm the buzz about this city’s special flare in serving authentic and delicious Korean food. The suggestion was not liked I guess, because the trip never pushed through. I was nevertheless given a chance to do a walking tour of the city and invited myself in. I personally wanted to have a feel of how it is like in South Korea’s smaller cities in the provinces.

Jeonju City is historically remarkable because it is the birthplace of the well-known Joseon dynasty. I personally know not much about this time in Korea’s history, except that this is when the Hangeul (Korean alphabet) was created. I am guessing that the city has been a focal administrative hub, since this is where a particular Korean dynasty was born.

As to being the “representative town of best Korean food”, it is primarily because Jeonju is where the famous 비빔밥 (bibimpap), a bowl of rice topped with vegetables and mixed with chili pepper paste, originated. My day actually started with an early lunch in a ‘bibimpap’ restaurant and I have never really seen those many side dishes in my entire life. There were fourteen different small plates, all lined up on our table-- I counted it. It has of course been an early observation of mine, back in my first few months of stay here, that Korean restaurants are really generous with side dishes, filling up tables with small round plates, much so that there hardly are spaces left where one can place his real meal. I even pity restaurant crews for a surely laborious dish-washing.

‘Bibimpap’ has personally been a favorite Korean dish of mine, so there weren’t any problems with eating my lunch except that I was expecting it to taste anything close to locally authentic, and it didn’t. I can even say I’ve eaten more delicious bibimbap’s in Seoul. Not that it tasted bad, it just tasted normal. It must’ve tasted just normal because I purposely wanted it to taste special, giving pressure to the ‘bibimpap’ as having come from where it originated. I guess when a delicious dish gets popular and spreads around, there are efforts to make it equally delicious in all places. And so a dish tastes all the same wherever, eventually.

The cloudy weather in the early afternoon then provided for a relaxed walking tour of the city. The city's basic infrastructure does not really fall far behind from how they are built in Seoul. Of course, there aren’t any skyscrapers and tall buildings, but Jeonju already has second class hotels (notably the Core Riviera Hotel), and is able to manage their own art and cultural centers. Now when the gap of a small city in the province and the capital city’s level of industrialization is small, it must be telling much about the whole country’s progress.

The residential houses are a mix of the old and the new, but I must say that the rustic smell of Joenju still prevails.

I found some of Jeonju's cars very cute, teehee.

Now what I personally find interesting with Jeonju is how this small city has been layered with different religions/quasi-religions throughout the times. There exists in the city a Confucian school that houses Chinese and Korean scholars. I was told that Koreans have also been strong to Shamanism (a quasi-religion on calling to the spirits of the spiritual world), prior to being introduced to Confucianism.

                                                   
Yet in the same city, the Jeondong Cathedral exists, and it is a confirmation of the entry of Catholicism in Korean history. The religion is pretty strong in Jeonju, so I would then almost assume that conflicts have risen back in the days when Confucianism was present and Catholicism tried to get through.

                                        

True enough, stories have it that inside this famous fortress called the Pungnammun, Catholics were persecuted because of their refusal to renounce such religion at the height of the conflicts. Hmmm, why does this sound so familiar to me? Teehee.

                                                                                         
On to the lighter side, further walks eventually led me to Jeonju City's cultural street, like how Seoul boasts of Insa-dong except that there aren't much foreigners here. It's cute to see traffic build up and for the city to promote taking photos...

                                                                                    
Of course, there are hanok's, mini-temples, accessories shops and dress boutiques that I sure have seen versions of in Seoul. But the ones that are here all had that "sepia" feel in me, which in a way is very county-like...


 
Of common historic interest in Jeonju City is a taesil pagoda found inside its main park, which I came to see as I continued walking. The monument is formally called, "The Taesil and the Monument of King Yejong the Great". King Yejong is of course the son of the famous King Sejong, the Hangeul-maker of the Joseon Dynasty. King Yejong had a rather short term in ruling the dynasty since he was considered physically unfit to do the job. He died at a young age of 20. Now I caught on a funny story behind this structure, that it was previously called "The Pregnant Room of King Yejong". Haha. It literally makes sense, if you think about it.

All-in-all, Jeonju can be a cool stroll. Quite relaxing, really. The place can even give you the privilege of experiencing a taste of its royal stance in Korean history. For those who are up for more adventure though, Jeonju may be a little boring unless it's a food adventure that you want to try out it in the place. I mean, the city can always live up to its being the "culinary center of Korea" to anyone. The city just tried it with me. And well... it tried.

http://www.jeonju.co.kr