Guard Tower

I was traveling this week on Monday, so I will do the Mundane Monday Challenge on Friday this week. A theme that interests me for this challenge is to photograph man-made objects in the middle of nature. The natural frame gives them a beauty that they do not otherwise possess.

From Seoul yesterday we toured the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). This is a stretch of land 2 km on either side of the border between North and South Korea that is devoid of buildings and military equipment (but there are land mines and tunnels buried beneath).

First we toured one of these tunnels, known as the third tunnel, unearthed in 1978. It was built by North Korea as a way to invade the South and discovered by chance by the South Korean military. No pictures were allowed in the tunnel.

Panoramic view from South to North

A later part of the tour took us to an overlook, where we could see into North Korean territory. Propaganda music played on a loudspeaker as we tourists put coins into pay binoculars and took panorama shots on iphones and androids. This guard tower looks north, as the ivy encroaches.

My teenage kids were there; this tour reminded me a bit of a tour I took of East Berlin and Checkpoint Charlie when I was close to their age, a city divided, before the Berlin Wall fell. Uniformed guards, barbed wire, stories of harrowing escapes and families torn apart.

The piano of unification at Dorasan Station

Strung with barbed wire

The last stop on the tour was the Dorasan train station, built to connect the north and south by rail. On February 20, 2002, US President George W Bush visited the station together with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and gave a speech in support of Korean unification.

“I see a Peninsula that is one day united in commerce and cooperation, instead of divided by barbed wire and fear. Korean grandparents should be free to spend their final years with those they love. Korean children should never starve while a massive army is fed. No nation should be a prison for its own people. No Korean should be treated as a cog in the machinery of the state.”  –President George W Bush, February 20, 2002

But the shiny new-looking station still sits largely idle, waiting for trains and passengers that never come. The tragedy is that while Germany has reunited and inched onward, in fits and starts, into the 21st century, Korea remains mired in the cold-war past. The guard towers, barbed wire, and bunker jokes told by the tour guides have become mundane. Meanwhile grandparents grow old and pass on, never knowing their grandchildren.

The Hope

Thursday Doors: Seoul Walk

I am a few days into a trip to Asia. We started out in Seoul, Korea and will be traveling on to Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, X’ian, and Tokyo. I have wifi in at least some of the hotels, but my posting frequency will be spotty for the next 3 weeks.

I have found that focusing on doors, for Thursday Doors, gives me a different perspective on picture taking. Left to my own devices, I tend to like to photograph trees and other natural phenomena, but focusing on doors makes me think more about people, civilizations, and how societies are structured.

The first installment comes from our first morning in Seoul, walking through streets and alleyways to a small local park called Tapgol Park. The park has some traditional architecture, with walls and gates, separating it from the noise and bustle of the neighborhood:

There was also a thoroughly modern electrical box:

It looks like there might be a geocache under that box (red lid on the right), but we haven’t had great luck with geocaches so far in Seoul. We’ve found one a day to keep the streak alive, but DNF more than we find.

Later, on our way to Changdeokgung Palace, we walked down some small alleyways that were lined with what looked like the back doors to restaurants, a hostel, and some other mysterious wooden doors, with writing.

Back on the main road, we saw a more modern rendering of script on a door:

Let me know if you read Korean! Duolingo Korean isn’t out yet. I love the Korean word for milk, uyu, which looks like two little people holding hands. 우유