Cheonghak Dong Village – A slice of traditional living
Cheonghak Dong Village is located at the southern point of Samsanbong Peak near Jirisan Mountain. It maintains the traditional style of daily Korean life even to this day . ‘Cheonghak’, a community where a crane of blue feathers lives is a really beautiful translation. Cheonghak Dong is one area that was left almost entirely untouched throughout much of Korea’s violent history. It is an inland village where electricity only 20 years ago was non-existent. Over 200 residents of this community maintain the custom of wearing hair in a knot, wearing Korean traditional clothing, and doing farm work in the traditional way.
Chung Hak Dong Village is modelled upon Joseon Dynasty’s lifestyle. The building of Chung Hak Dong were built in the era of the Joseon Dynasty so you can see the history of it all really well in this village.
The village provides an experience that is hard to come by when you spend so much time doing jobs and being busy bees so this village gives off a different feeling to not only to foreigners but to even Koreans. You can actually learn and experience for yourself how people in the Joseon Dynasty lived. From clothing to eating and sleeping, you live day by day just like those who lived in the era of Joseon Dynasty. Also there is some time set aside to learn Chinese character,what types of games Joseon people played, and a history lesson too for all. Kids and Adults.
Through this experience, you can learn and pick up many interesting tidbits about Joseon Dynasty and also give yourself a break from your constant phone usage and time off from access to the internet and focus on yourselves in the present. A chance to think and look back on yourself. This is one of the reasons why Korean moms send their child to Cheonghak Dong who are addicted to something. It is a opportunity to reset oneself and start anew.
There is plenty on the curriculum that Cheonghak Dong offers everyone. There are two main curriculms both of which you can participate in. The cost of each curriculum is different so make sure to check what each one offers and if it suits what you are looking for.
Making your way to Cheonghak dong is not that easy honestly, as it involves an intercity bus from Seoul to Hadong, then you must take a regional bus from Hadong to Cheonghak dong, so prepare to walk for the last bit of the journey as the bus driver might only take you as far away the roundabout.
A visit to Cheonghak dong is an exercise in submitting to the universe. There are few explanations and little of signs to help you out, also travellers keen to explore are largely left to unperturbed if they wanna stroll around by themselves. The village is smaller than you might imagine, the main road is guarded by two massive wooden guardian statues, and a few streets of one storey hanok houses. At first glance, Cheonghak dong didn’t overwhelm me with tradition – throngs of men in hanbok-style dress didn’t come down the street driving horse carts, and I didn’t glimpse women with long plaits coming in with bundles of rice in their hands from the fields like you might witness in the movies. Instead, Cheonghak dong was more subtly attuned to the old-fashioned: there were traditional houses, but modern dress; shops selling dried herbs and ancient philosophy books, but satellites hanging on windowsills.