Hwaseong Fortress

Yesterday, with my sister visiting from the States, we took a day trip up to Suwon to take a gander at the Hwaseong Fortress. Being January, the weather was bitter cold. It was so cold we only spent about an hour moseying around before it was too cold for the little ones who did not want to keep their mittens on. And it was nap time (well way past nap time) for little man. We parked near the Changnyongmun Gate and looked at it. We went out the gate and took some pictures of the outside of the wall, then we walked along the wall some, pretending to defend it from enemy invaders. We saw a watchtower and command post too. Also near Changnyongmun Gate, there is an archery field. You can pay to practice with a bow and 10 arrows. We were going to do it, but it was a 20 minute wait until the 4pm session (they only allow you to practice at set time periods (every 30 minutes I believe). We did get to see some professional archers showing their skills on our walk back to the car. they were shoot at 150 meter targets (a man told me). The ones you can pay to shoot at are much closer, (maybe 30 meters?).

The upper part of the inside of the gate:

 "Did you get those bad guys Daniel?"

The outside of the fortress wall. This is near the intersection of highway 1 and highway 43.

There was only 1 way to get to the actual gate, you had to go into the curved area and then turn left. Great way to hinder people from "storming the castle."

 This is the side view of the gate from up on the wall:

The view of the Changnyongmun Gate from Command Post across the road.

We saw a crossbow platform:

The watchtower:

The open field is the archery area. The professional archers shot from the building in the distance to the 3 targets in the lower right corner of this picture. The targets that you can pay to shoot at are the 3 square figures near the building in the distance. You shoot from the building as well.

Views from along the wall:

The Command Post:

This is a map of the 8 historic trails you can walk along in Suwon:

This is a map of he trolley you can take that goes along part of the fortress. It starts in the lower right corner of the picture, where the red circle is. It was not running when we went, but it looked like a fun little tourist attraction to ride on. 

You are suppose to pay 1,000 won for adults and 500 won for children to view the Fortress. We didn't know that until we saw this sign on our walk back to the car after leaving the Command Post.

I would definitely recommend stopping by Hwaseong Fortress if you are ever in the area. Don't go on a bitter cold day (at least not when you have little ones in tow) because the wind can chill you to the bone at times. This would be a perfect place to visit during the warm days of spring, or the cool days of fall. We shall be back again (when it warms up) to tour the entire fortress.