Yanghak Valley

Tucked away behind I-Dong and the massive concrete square that is E-Mart is a valley where for the first time during my two years in Korea I found man made natural beauty not overrun by concrete walls or lime green running paths (which are nice in certain contexts) or overly aggressive pruning.  Yanghak is a place that was made and then left to be nature.  There's a small pond and a couple of bridges, there are flowers that have been planted and maintained, there's even a small restaurant or two, but with the wood paneling on the sides, they blend quietly into the beauty of the place.  It's a park, but it doesn't feel like a park, it feels like something you might have just found in the wild.  Birds chirping, frogs resting on lily pads, pink and white and purple and yellow flowers all around, bees buzzing overhead.   Yanghak is a great place to go when the overwhelming grey-ness of Korea has got you down.  As always, here's 10 pictures and some foolish comments.

The Temple

We can see this temple from our house.  It's massive and bright red and for Buddha's birthday they cover it in lanterns.

Birdie

One of Korea's little birds.  

Farming, Korean Style

Yanghak valley is another one of those places that is a community farm.  If there's spare land here, they're growing something on it.  We see peppers, lettuce, squash, pumpkins.  Hopefully some of that fresh stuff ends up on my plate somehow.

Pink

The pond is full of these giant pink flowers.   Really pretty as the sun goes down.

Four-Leaf Frog

I'm fairly heavy-footed walking around so I usually hear the splash of the frog or the chirp of the bird flying by before I can get a picture, but with this little guy I got lucky.

Pohang

Thank you Pohang.  Our city actually does a really nice job of trying to make Pohang nice.  There are flowers everywhere all year round.

Waiting for Prince Charming

One of the walking bridges and my wife.

White

I'm not sure if this is one of the pink flowers turned white or a whole other type of flower, but it's beautiful.

The Vine

Look at this vine!  A really nice touch here and it shows that Yanghak Valley was planned out and will remain for some time.

The Spiders

Oh wow, look at these beautiful flowers, come on, smell them....oh god it's on my face, get it off.