안녕하세요 - An Nyeong Ha Seyo !!

Day One

Upon arrival at Korea's Incheon International Airport, we were greeted by our Chinese-Korean tour guide Jackie.

Our first destination, is very near the airport, Muuido Island - where we can find the house featured in Stairway to Heaven.

^View of beach in front of the house.

As you can see, the weather was overcast and it soon drizzled.
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Next, we travelled towards the border of North and South Korea. The Odusan Reunification Observatory at Gyeonggi-do, offered a view of the Demilitarized Zone, an area which marks the site of division.

^View across the barbed wires. The concrete stumps on the right marks the old railway which was destroyed during the korean war. On the left is a newly constructed railway, linking North and South Korea.
^ This plaque is actually on the floor of the bridge. The Bridge of Freedom got its name when 13,000 war prisoners shouted "Hurray Freedom!" as they returned home crossing the bridge following the Armistice Agreement in 1953.
^ The Freedom Bridge.
^ At the end of other end of the bridge... fences, barbed wires and guards.
^Visitors tie ribbons and flags, wishing for the reunification of the two Koreas.

^View of the railway within the Demilitarized Zone.

Numerous memorials and monuments are found in the park nearby. Some depicting the sorrows of the Korean people whose families were torn apart by the division of Korea, others wishing for peace and reunification of Korea.

^Various tanks used in the Korean war were also displayed.
^ Due to poor visibility, we were not able to see North Korea, which lays on the other side of the river.
^ We'll just have to settle on a model. As the model indicates, this is the shortest distance to North Korea, 3.2km.



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Next, we proceeded to Gimpo Airport to take a flight southwards to Jeju Island!



^ Upon arrival to Jeju Island, we were rushed to view Yongduam Rock , a volcanic rock formation resembling a dragon's head. Hence the name, which is written in chinese characters on the rock. (see photo above)