Gyeongju: The "Museum Without Walls"

On Monday, we decided as a family to drive up to Gyeongju.  We invited everyone to join us, but they all had soccer games and other commitments that took them back home, so we left after breakfast and drove about an hour northeast to Gyeongju.

I heard about Gyeongju from my friend Cristin (who I went to Vietnam with).  She loved the city and said it was a really neat place. Gyeongju is known as the "museum without walls".  The entire city is made up of these huge burial mounds of royals.  The city itself was the capital of the Silla dynasty that lasted about 1,000 years.  There are so many extensive historical remains in the city; it has the most tombs, temples, pagodas, and ruins then any other place in South Korea. It's one of the few cities that still has the look and feel of Korea before the Japanese invasion.

The first thing we did when we got to Gyeongju was go to a bike shop and rent some bikes for the day.  The city is so large and there is so much to see, but there isn't anywhere to park.  So, the best way to get our family around without having to walk a million miles was to rent some bikes.  It was only 5,000 won to rent a bike for 3 hours, so we found the perfect bikes and took off.

Our first stop was at the Cheomseongdae Observatory.  This is the oldest existing astronomical observatory in Asia.  There was a picket fence about 20 feet from the observatory, so we couldn't get close or see much.  But it makes sense, something that old would probably fall apart if people could walk in it.

We enjoyed riding around the paths, squeaking our horns to get pedestrians to move, and cycling by mounds after mounds of tombs.  The weather was sunny, but not too hot.  Since we had the wind from the rush of our bikes, none of the kids complained once.  We enjoyed our afternoon around the spectacular outdoor museum.

After riding around for almost 2 hours, we parked our bikes and enjoyed the Korean randomness.  In the middle of one of the paths were some sculptures and picture spots.  We were able to transform into grasshoppers and butterflies.

And Korea picture spots wouldn't be complete without a huge heart.  We were able to show our love of Gyeongju sitting in a heart and showing our little Korean finger hearts with our thumb and pointer finger.

We got back on our bikes and made our way to the Silla Great Bell.  I learned that this bell is a reproduction of the King Seongdeok Divine Bell, also known as the Emile Bell.  The Divine Bell is 1,200 years old and is said to have the deepest and richest sound and can be hear 40 miles away.  For the safety of the bell, it isn't rung anymore, so the Silla Bell was made to recreate the Divine bell and it's rich sound.  We weren't able to see the real Divine Bell while in the area, so we settled for it's double.

We made our way back to the bike rental shop and were so grateful for the fun, educational and historical day spent in Gyeongju.  If time permits, we defiantly want to go back, because there was so much we didn't get to see.