Kayla's South Korean Adventure: DMZ Tour and Bungee Jumping

This weekend I went on an overnight trip with a tour program called Adventure Korea. They took us to the DMZ where the 2nd incursion tunnel is located. Before I go into too much into it, you may wonder what the DMZ is. DMZ stands for Demilitarized Zone. It is the location between North Korea and South Korea, where no one is allowed. It is also heavily guarded on both sides. The DMZ is 250 km long (160 miles) and 4 km wide (~2.5 miles). There are 2 km on both sides of the border for both countries. Then there is also another area called the Citizens Zone, which is also 2 km wide, where no one can enter without special permission. We were able to but we also had to go through several checkpoints. There were minefields everywhere as well. The DMZ is also the biggest tourist attraction for people visiting Korea.

One of the many checkpoints. In those structures, there are explosions. So, if there is an enemy tank driving through, they can stop it.

These signs were everywhere. Photo credit to Alison.

We first went to the Iron Triangle War Place. It is the main tourist office for guided tours for this area of the DMZ. We did the same tour they put on but we were led by the Adventure Korea tour guides. The hall is responsible for preserving the history of national security, and historical places. Near here, we can go down to the Hantangang River. The part of the river we were at is called Goseokjeong. There is a 10m high rock that has a natural cave where the Robin Hood of Korea, Im Kkeokjeong, was thought to hide in.

The Iron Triangle War Place

Robin Hoods hiding place

We then went to the 2nd Underground Tunnel. It was discovered in the DMZ, after a Korean soldier heard explosions below from underground. It took several days to find the tunnel. It is located between 50 to 160 m (160 - 520 f) below ground. The tunnel is 3.5 km (~2 miles) long. We did not go anywhere near the far into the tunnel.

It's a long way

I had to duck a lot. Photo credit to Alison

A sectional view of the tunnel

Our next stop was the Cheorwon Peace Observatory. It is a 3-story building build in August 2007. The 2nd floor is used to lookout into the DMZ. There are even binoculars people can use to look into North Korea and even one of there lookout towers on the other side of the DMZ.

The fence line for the DMZ.

The DMZ with North Korea in the distance. There is even a North Korean watch tower on the left mountain.

We went to the Woljeong-ri Station. It was a the north end of the Gyeongwon train line and used to make frequent stops to the North. There is a sign "The Wild Horse Wants to Run," in reference to the remains of a train that was destroyed by the North during the Korean War.

The old train station

An old train sign

The Wild Horse

We also went to the Labor Party Building which is a three-story building. It was used by North Korea until the break of Korean War. It was destroyed by North Korea, when they were destroying the city. Many people who were here during the anticommunist movement were later tortured and killed. Behind the building lies the remains of the people. Bullets and iron chains can still be found here.

The Labor Party Building. Only the infrastructure remains.

Lastly, we went to Baengmagoji Battlefield. It was one of the hard-fought battlefields during the war. It is also known as the Battle of White Horse. There was a series of battles for dominate hilltop position during the war. The hilltop is called White Horse and is 395 meters (1,296 ft) high. During ten days of battle, the control over the hilltop changed 24 times. Afterwards, the hill looked like a threadbare white horse, hence the name. There is a monument built on a smaller hilltop nearby, which is where we went to. It is dedicated to both the Korean and foreign soldiers who died during the battle. From an aerial view, the monument is supposed to look like a bird, for hopes when there is unity, the bird will be flying into the north. The monument is in three sections. The first is the memorial for the soldiers. The next, is a gallery with the history of the battle. And the last, symbolizes the hands of the Koreans in the air for the hope of unity.

The three different sections of the monument

White Horse hill

After our full day, we headed to Odemi Village where we stayed in a traditional style guest house that is located 6 km (~3.7 m) from the DMZ. We also learned how to make Tofu in a traditional way. We had a a traditional Korean cuisine and then after dinner, we had a huge bonfire.

Showing us how to make Tofu

The next day, we went to Taebongdaegyo Bridge. This is where we bungee jumped off the top of the bridge down towards Hantangang River. The jump was 50 m (164 ft) high. I had bungee jumped in the past before on a bridge that was higher than this one, but this one felt like it was higher. The bridge I jumped off before was in a more narrower valley while this one was more open. I was still able to jump on 3 and it was awesome.

Taebongdaegyo Bridge

Here is my jump.

Me jumping

After we bungee jumped, he headed back to our lodgings and had bibimbap. Something that I found out about the rice in Odemi Village, is that it is the highest quality rice in Korea and the most expensive. We were able to eat the rice with our lunch. The rice did have a bit of a different texture to it, which I liked.

Our group in front of our lodgings.

We had some free time after lunch, where we could bicycle around the town and then we headed back to Seoul. It was a very tiring and busy weekend but I enjoyed it very much. It was also quite peaceful going to this part of Korea. It was much more quiet and relaxing. Seoul is very crowded and people are always in a hurry, while it wasn't like that here. The DMZ has been on my list of things to do in Korea since I've gotten here and now I can check it off.