Informational handbook

Sample Arrival Card

Flight attendants will distribute arrival cards during the flight to Korea. Upon arrival you will need to give this card to the immigration officer.

Appendix C. Directions to the KAEC Offices

The map pictured below is also available on our website at http://www.fulbright.or.kr/english/pages/maps-directions-e.html

 

Geongdeok is the closest subway station to the Fulbright Building. Geongdeok Station is serviced by subway lines #5 and #6. As you go up the stairs from exit #1, a large street will be on your right and a Dunkin Donuts store on your left. Walk straight down this street through the intersection (there are no traffic signals at the crosswalk). Continue straight down this street, keeping the road to your right, until you come to the 'Mister Seven' bar. This is a blue building located on a corner. At the bar, turn left. You will be able to see the Fulbright Building a short way down the road on your left. Administrative offices are located on the 3^rd Floor. If you get lost and need directions, please call [phone] or 3275-4004.

Appendix D. Korean and American Holidays

New Year’s Day January 1

Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Third Monday in January
Lunar New Year Holiday A 3-day holiday in late January or February
Presidents’ Day Third Monday in February
Independence Movement Day March 1
Buddha's Birthday Late April or early May
Children's Day May 5
Korean Memorial Day June 6
American Memorial Day Last Monday in May
American Independence Day July 4
Constitution Day July 17
Korean Independence Day August 15
Labor Day First Monday in September
Chusok (Harvest Festival) Holiday A 3-day holiday usually in September
National Foundation Day October 3
Columbus Day Second Monday in October
Veterans’ Day November 11
Thanksgiving Day Fourth Thursday in November
Christmas December 25

The KAEC offices are closed for the national holidays of both Korea and the United States. You can ask at the office for a list of the specific dates during your grant period.

Appendix E. Departing For the United States

-CHECKLIST-

_____ I.D. Card. Your Fulbright ID card should be turned in to KAEC before departure.

_____ Passport. Check the date of issuance of your passport to see that it has not expired and is still valid. Otherwise, you may be required to pay a fine on departure, and may not be able to leave as planned.

_____ Visas. Visas should be obtained for the countries you may wish to visit. Visas are required for some Asian and most Middle Eastern countries. U.S. citizens are not required to have visas to enter most Southeast Asian or Western European countries.

_____ Forwarding Address. Leave your forwarding address and email address with KAEC and remember to inform us (forever) whenever your mailing address or email changes.

_____ Housing. Advise the KAEC administrative officer (Mrs. Im) and the Executive Director of your anticipated date of departure.

_____ Final Report. Submit your final report in advance of your departure.

_____ Bills. Pay all outstanding bills, as KAEC cannot do this for you after you depart.

_____ Shipments. If you are planning on mailing things by international mail rather than taking everything with you, make arrangements for the return of your goods well in advance of your departure. Request assistance from KAEC, if needed, in arranging for commercial shipment. If you are due an excess baggage reimbursement when you depart, submit the receipts to KAEC so you can be mailed a check. (Unless, of course, you want Won.)

_____ Farewells. Remember to come in and say good-bye!

Appendix F. Seeing Seoul

Clifton Hood, June 2001

The quantity and quality of English language guidebooks to Korea leaves a lot to be desired. The best I’ve seen is the Lonely Planet guide. The Korean National Tourist Organization’s Korea Travel Guide is helpful.

Two places to get tourist information are the USO, near Yongsan Military Base, and Korean National Tourist Organization, downtown. The USO is more client-oriented (resembling a travel service) and has good tours and pamphlets. KNTO is concerned about promoting mass tourism. It has great free maps of and guidebooks to major Korean cities and a fine website. What’s On Seoul, issued monthly and free and available at tourist information booths, has information on talks, tours, exhibits, and musical and dance performances.
The USO and the Royal Asiatic Society offer tours of the city and the country. Peter Bartholmew’s tours (for RAS) are splendid. His tour of Choson Dynasty Seoul is among the best city history walking tours I’ve ever taken. What I learned from him changed my understanding of the city’s history and taught me about historic preservation in Korea. He’s also not lacking for opinions (a quirky combination of Canadian and Korean nationalism), which makes his tours fun. I also took a tour of Suwon with the RAS (Bartholmew again) that was first rate. The walls and fortresses are intact, as are some temples, and the detached palace is being reconstructed. What’s noteworthy, though, is that this walled city was built in the 1790s – the sheer madness of constructing an obsolescent fortress at this late day says everything about the costs of Korean seclusion. The RAS and USO tours are also great places to meet people.
The USO’s tours of the DMZ are said to be the best on offer. Mine was first-rate, a real eye opener. Be sure to go on a tour that goes to one of the invasion tunnels. The USO also has tours of Seoul and of national parks, Cheju Island, etc. I took the USO tour of Kanghwa Island. We saw reconstructions (by military governments in the ‘70s in an effort to create a usable past) of the fortresses that figured in the mid-19^th c. fighting with France and with the US, and yet more Buddhist temples. It’s a beautiful island, but there’s not much to see.

I made it to 4 of Seoul’s 5 palaces. That may be overkill, but I enjoyed them all. Asian palaces are so different from European ones, though, that it’s wise to acquire a context by going on an RAS tour or reading a good guidebook ahead of time.

The area around Toksugung Palace has lingering evidence of the early western presence in Korea. It’s a beautiful neighborhood. The Seoul Foreigners Cemetery is intriguing for the same reason – and moving, too. I liked the Seoul Union Church’s building; its modern architecture made a real statement.
I think the War Memorial is a must – it’s as much a museum as a memorial. It vividly tells two stories: Korea’s traumatic 20^th century history and the process of the ROK’s nation-building. There are good exhibits on pre-20^th century history, too.
The Seodamun Prison Halls are fascinating, less for an understanding of Korea’s history than for an understanding of memory, of how Koreans comprehend their history – as one of struggle, suffering, victimization, consensus. Go during the week, when hundreds of students troop through, and you’ll get the picture. (A careful reading of the brochure reveals that the prison was under Korean management [after 1945] for longer than it was under Japanese control. This is completely ignored in the historical presentation, which is a story of Japanese oppression. The prison’s probable use by Koreans to punish Korean dissent is not addressed).
The Seoul Art Gallery is small and not particularly distinguished. However, it’s worth a stop if one’s in the neighborhood. I thought the paintings were beautiful – and, because they combined eastern and western artistic elements, intriguing. In the same complex, the Seoul Metropolitan Museum – a city history museum – is scheduled to open next year.
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Toksugung Palace features drawings and paintings done since Korea opened to the outside; the quality isn’t high, but it’s interesting for the insight it offers into how western art overwhelmed Korean art and then how some artists attempted, with varying degrees of success, to fuse the various traditions. The Royal Museum, also in Toksugong, has good if outdated exhibits on the architecture of Seoul’s palaces and court dining, palaces, music, and so forth. Unfortunately, few captions of the captions there are in English. The two museum buildings are also noteworthy – for being western structures in a traditional palace. (The National Museum was closed during my grant period).
The Namskanol Tradition Korean Village could be skipped – it’s a kind of third-rate Colonial Williamsburg, though it may be better on weekends when there are special events. The nearby Korea House is a good place for gifts, though pricey.
The Korean Film Archives, in the Seoul Art Center, sponsored a series on Korean films for foreigners during my grant period that I heard about from Horace Underwood. I saw two films – and I’m glad I did. They gave insight into Korean literature/sensibilities/self-images. The National Center for Traditional Korean Performing Arts, also in the Seoul Arts Center, stages special musical performances every Saturday at 5pm. Essentially they offer a sampler of various kinds of opera, court music, folk music etc.; the menu changes regularly. Most of the people in the audience are either school kids there on homework assignments or tourists. I thought the performances were very good and well worth seeing. The Calligraphy Hall and the Art Gallery (in the Seoul Arts Center) are worth seeing on a trip to see a film or an opera there. Don’t make a special trip. Seoul’s art museums leave much to be desired; anyone with a serious interest in Asian art should go to the Shanghai Museum, to my mind one of the world’s best museums.
Insadong is worth visiting and worth returning to. The Gana Art Shop, on Insadong, is one of my favorite shops in Seoul – with good porcelain and some nice ties. There are also great tea shops and good restaurants there.
The Tongdaemun and Namdaemun markets didn’t do much for me – they’re just too big. I’ve always liked markets in smaller cities and towns. Lots of visitors love them, though.
The Yongsan Electronics market was amazing. Some Fulbrighters went there regularly to buy stuff, but I made a single visit and wandered around. Here were the latest high-tech goods, sold in a traditional market setting. Its size is remarkable. There was also something about seeing Koreans strap a few hard drives to the back of their motorcycles and blast off!
My students and I saw a baseball game – Samsung vs. LG – at Olympic Stadium. It was fascinating to see how the game’s different here and to watch the Korean fans – and it was a great game, too. Go Samsung!!
Most guidebooks equate the historic and the cultural with the authentic, a limited point of view for a world city that’s growing as much as Seoul is. Similarly, staying in the historic center can be misleading – Seoul’s also a modern city & in ways the skyscrapers downtown don’t convey. I recommend going to Apgujeong & Cheongdam on the south side of the river – this is where status-conscious young wealthy people go to shop, party, be seen, drop huge wads of won, etc. It’s where all the trendy shops are, especially on Rodeo Drive. This is the part of Seoul that most resembles Tokyo and Osaka. Is it the future?
Myeongdong was a good neighborhood to wander through. It’s a blend of small, narrow streets, some traditional shops, and the latest western brand name shops.
I think Itaewon’s the most overrated place in Seoul. This sleazy bar/nightclub/sex club neighborhood involves the worst kinds of Asian-American encounters. And anyone who thinks he’s getting a bargain should take a closer look – most of the merchandise is shoddy.
Daehango, where Seoul National used to be, is a great street – I think I liked it so much because of its similarity to a western boulevard, with its wide sidewalks, low-lying buildings, and shade trees. I never went to any of the theatres there, but I went to coffee shops there a few times.
The Munmyo shrine on the campus of Songkyunkwan University is interesting. I saw a few Confucian shrines outside of Seoul, but Munmyo was larger and had better architecture.
A friend and I went to the Cherry Blossom festival on Yeouido. It was beautiful. When TV helicopters came over low, the trees started snowing cherry blossoms and little kids chased them down – enchanting. It was also fun to see how Seoul residents enjoyed the day – enthralled by being so close to nature, taking photos of everything and everyone in their family groups. A few months later, I returned to Yeouido and went to the observation deck on the 63 Building, Korea’s tallest structure. The pollution was bad, but there was still a good view of the urban development on the south side of the river that’s otherwise hard to get a fix on (since tourism focuses on the old sections) --- and that’s responsible for much of the pollution. When I was there, the observation also had stunning return photographs – showing a scene in Seoul early in the twentieth-century and then the same place today. I also took a pleasure boat ride on the Han River, which left from a terminal near the 63 Building. The Han doesn’t have a picturesque riverfront – except for the skyscrapers on Yeouido, it’s mostly lined by the ubiquitous apartment buildings. But the day I went was hot and muggy, and the boat ride offered relief from the heat.
Namsan Park is lush, beautiful, and worth a trip. It’s also a good place to fill one’s annual quotient of mountain climbing – in an afternoon. I went there on Korea’s Memorial Day, and was fascinated to see how Koreans’ use of an urban park on a holiday was both similar to and different from that of Americans. I also made the obligatory trip up the Seoul Tower – and was rewarded with a better view of urban pollution. Namsan is also interesting for the sculpture. One of the things that struck me about Korea was – compared to China and Japan – the relative lack of statuary here. You do see it every once in a while – e.g., the statue of Yi Shun-Shin near Kyobo – but it’s remarkable how little there is overall. I saw more sculptures on the Yonsei campus than anywhere else – and I ascribed that to the western influence on Yonsei. Namsan, though, is an exception to my generalization – lots of statuary in the heroic mode.
It’s too bad Fulbrighters won’t be able to get on the Yongsan anymore. I didn’t have much reason to go there, but others, especially the ETA’s who are in small, isolated villages, did value their trips as a chance to decompress. For my part, I acquired a deeper appreciation of the US military by being in Korea. I’ve had more contact with military personnel in five months here than I’ve had in my lifetime in the US. For public relations reasons alone, the decision to close Yongsan to Fulbrighters ought to be reconsidered. Fulbrighters could be considered `opinion makers’ -- the sorts of folks the DOD needs to reach. A sergeant I met on a tour, who clearly has experience with military bureaucracy, dismissed the security concerns by saying: “I don’t think too many of you are Communists.”

Beyond Seoul

Kyongju is wonderful. The setting is beautiful, the tombs are fascinating (though not much info is available on them, given the state of archaeology here), the temples are fascinating, and the other remnants of Silla are equally intriguing. It was great to be a smaller Korean city for a change. At one dig, I ran into some archeologists who showed me around and explained their project. I was there just when the cherry blossoms were coming out – beautiful. KNTO’s Let’s Go Kyongju and its map and Lonely Planet’s Korea were all I needed to get around

Busan doesn’t warrant a special trip, but it’s not far from Kyongju. It makes for an interesting contrast with Seoul – both are international cities albeit in much different ways, with Busan a port rather than a government/corporate center, tougher and more masculine, more Japanese-influenced. I stayed at a yogwhan near the express bus terminal. I suggest avoiding that area and finding a place near the train station or downtown. The express bus station isn’t convenient to the subway system (it’s a kilometer away), there aren’t many good restaurants there, and it’s also a red-light district.
Inchon is an hour away via subway. Inchon’s the least appealing Korean city I saw – ugly, dirty, sprawling. It’s a port/industrial/resort city that’s a strange and unappealing combination of Bayonne, NJ/pre-pollution control Pittsburgh/Wildwood, NJ. The best reason to go there is to take a ferry to one of the islands in the harbor. From Inchon station, it’s two kilometers to Wolmido, the ferry terminal and `resort’ area. I walked but there are buses (confusing) and taxis too. Freedom Park, with monuments to the signing of the Shufeldt Treaty and to Douglas MacArthur, is on a hill behind Inchon station, through Chinatown.