Cheonan, Part 2: Independence Hall

In the last installment, we went to Cheonan to see the big Buddha. After getting back to the express bus terminal, we went looking for the bus to the Hall of Independence, which is the biggest reason why tourists come to Cheonan (although I should note that on this cold and blustery day, we were the only tourists we encountered anywhere). As our guidebook had been wrong about the bus number to the Buddha, we were not optimistic that it was correct about the bus number to the Hall of Independence. Nevertheless, we saw the bus pull up, so we went up and asked, and sure enough, it was the wrong bus. Now it was time to pull the old ask-a-native trick, so we did the same thing as before. After a few false starts, a woman with excellent English asked us what we were looking for. We told her, but unfortunately, she was unfamiliar with the Hall of Independence (or, at any rate, with the particular bus number). Not to be deterred, she asked a group of teenagers standing nearby if they knew anything in Korean--and, as luck would have it, they did, and the bus had just arrived. So we thanked them profusely, and hopped on.

We had been on the bus for about 25 minutes when we started to get worried. We were definitely outside of the city now, and the weather was turning nastier. We weren't the only ones on the bus, however, though, so we just waited--and then we saw the sign (in English, even!) for the Hall of Independence. The bus even turned into the parking lot--but it never stopped. We left the parking lot, and turned away from the Hall of Independence. There was a stop another 5 minutes along, and we got off there, then trudged back (apparently, we were supposed to push the button for the bus to stop--since this was only my second local bus ride in Korea, the first one being to the big Buddha, I didn't know that). It was a good 10 minutes from the bus stop and through the parking lot to the entrance gate. The entrance gate is sort of like entering a theme park: there's just acres and acres of space (in this case, empty space) between you and the main attractions. As we entered, the attendants smiled at us, surprised to see foreigners coming to the museum.

We arrived at the first main sight: the wings (see below for the picture). These wings represent the Korean spirit, soaring the heavens, and they are quite striking and very tall.


After the wings archway, we had a long walk to the next area, which was a diorama area. More on that below, but here is a view looking back towards the arches, far, far away:



In order to understand the dioramas, I should explain the point of the Hall of Independence. You might think this is similar to Independence Hall or the Liberty Bell in America, but you'd be wrong. No, this museum is basically a "remember the Japanese invasion" museum--as well they should. The Japanese clearly did some pretty terrible things when they invaded in the early twentieth century. Here is a diorama scene of the Japanese soldiers executing Koreans:


After the diorama areas (which were pretty cool), then there was another pavilion, with the Korean flag hanging inside. But we weren't to the actual exhibition halls yet. No, those were still farther away. When we finally arrived, there were 7 exhibition halls. Unfortunately, it was now almost 4pm, and the museum closed at 5pm, so we went very, very quickly through the museum. The first exhibition hall was all about the cultural treasures of Korea, and included a replica of the Turtle Ship, which was used in a battle against the Japanese invasions in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. That was awesome (picture below):



Also in that hall were tons of models of various pagodas and palaces, a replica of the inside of the burial mounds, traditional clothing, weapons, and lots more. The coolest thing we saw, however, was the singijeon (also called the hwacha). Funny you should ask what a singijeon is, because just a few weeks prior, we had been watching the Discovery Channel and we learned all about them. On the show Mythbusters (our favorite DC show, and also usually playing about the time we feel like a little bedtime TV) did a show where they built one, and tried to make it work--and guess what, it does work! It was a really awesome episode. Anyway, what it does is fire off up to 200 flaming arrows all at once, although, if you're interested, Wikipedia has more detailed accounts here and here. The picture from the Hall of Independence is below:


So far, that's all really cool. Unfortunately, in the early 20th century, the Japanese invasion succeeded (after hundreds of years of trying), and the rest of the exhibition halls were devoted to the invasion and the aftermath. That part was much sadder and much more serious, and we don't really have any pictures from that portion. This whole part is a big "never again!" reminder for all Koreans. Unfortunately, we didn't really have to the time that we really should have to go there. Overall, the museum was really incredible, and greatly exceeded our expectations. It was really incredible experience, and I would highly recommend that anyone who visits Korea should come here.

As we left the the museum, it was lightly snowing and we hustled back to the bus stop in the parking lot. Luckily, we didn't have to wait long before a bus showed up, and we headed back to the bus terminal in Cheonan. We bought our tickets home, and then went for a lovely dinner at a nice Vietnamese place before piling back onto to the bus. The ride home was uneventful, and we were happy to arrive back at home and go to sleep, satisfied with our wonderful adventure.

- Carissa