Read on Mobile

"Gamgok" May 6th-7th

"Gamgok" May 6th-7th

Next on my itinerary to return to Seoul via the most unnecessarily complicated route was Gamgok, which is located to the north of Jincheon in Eumseong County. Gamgok District (감곡면) is farmland. Peaches are the main crop grown there. Unfortunately the peaches are not in bloom in May so Gamgok looks rather nondescript right this minute. It's the kind of township where solar panels look really cool, simply because they're different from most of what else is available to look at.

"Gamgok" May 6th-7th

Anyway, the reason why I visited this particular random township was because of the Jeong Movie Theater (정씨네). It's not a real movie theater. Gamgok is too small for that kind of thing, or even a DVD Room. But a local family has built a theater in their basement, and rents it out. Their blog advertised that they were offering overnight rooms for vacationers. Funny thing. They made that post in December, yet apparently I was the first person to inquire about it. They were no doubt expecting a normal city person to ask over phone, not a random bedraggled foreigner to show up at their front door after dinner.

"Gamgok" May 6th-7th

...And that's the story of my first Korean homestay. Note- do not try this yourself. Seriously, don't. I'm still kind of shocked they offered me a homestay at all, considering they obviously had not anticipated a situation as ridiculous as a random overly curious foreigner reading their all-Korean language website and deciding to show up on a whim. Still, a fun time was had by all, so feel free to call ahead if you want to do an unregistered homestay in the middle of nowhere.

"Gamgok" May 6th-7th

...OK, OK, Gamgok isn't completely in the middle of nowhere. There is one landmark of note- the Gamgok Parish Church, one of South Korea's Catholic pilgrimage sites. Yes, that's right, there's more than one. The Gamgok Parish Church was the location of Korea's first Eucharistic Congress. Consequently, it's also the site of multiple martyrdoms. As was the habit of many Christians during the Joseon Korea and the Japanese Occupation, the ones in Gamgok found themselves on the wrong side of authority fairly often.

"Gamgok" May 6th-7th

St. Andrew Kim Taegon, for example, was a native Korean priest of impeccable moral character who was executed in 1846 at the age of 25 for spreading the gospel after a lifetime of religious education across Asia. As far as I can tell that really is all there is to the story. It's times like this I have to remind myself that most Catholic saints tend to get that way by living and/or dying the same way that Jesus did. Which is probably why Korea has the fourth highest number of saints of all countries in the world. It's easier to be a martyr when people are actively persecuting you.

"Gamgok" May 6th-7th

 

Next to the Church is a this small shrine, right before the mountain path that symbolizes Jesus carrying the cross. I'm not sure whether to call it a shrine or not- a lot of what's interesting about this Gamgok site is that it's an obviously Christian monument in a country where ancient Buddhist ones are a lot more common. You run into plaques like this-

"Gamgok" May 6th-7th

 

...With about the same level of frequency, albeit only in the general vicinity of the Church. Even though descriptions of these portraits are about as scare as those of the Buddhist monuments, since I know the story of Jesus it's easy to see how this fits in. Which makes me wonder if the Buddhist fixtures are the same way.

"Gamgok" May 6th-7th

Lastly, this is a fishing lake to the east of Jeong Cine. No one was fishing that day, so there wasn't much to photograph aside from all these chairs in the water, for added comfort when fishing. Funny thing- even though there wasn't very much in Gamgok, its sheer simplicity is an oddly strong motivator for me to want to come back. Well, onward to Seoul then.

Article by William Schwartz

"Gamgok" May 6th-7th"Gamgok" May 6th-7th"Gamgok" May 6th-7th

"Gamgok" May 6th-7th"Gamgok" May 6th-7th"Gamgok" May 6th-7th

Source from :Hancinema