DMZ Tour Lunch + Gyeongbok Palace

Itinerary

1. DMZ Tour Meeting Point – Exit 7, Seoul City Hall Station

   Located in the heart of downtown where Subway Lines 1 and 2 intersect, the station offers excellent access to major tourist attractions and smooth transportation even during morning hours.Address: 110 Sejong-daero, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea (Taepyeongno 1-ga 31)

2. Imjingak Park

   Imjingak, located 7 km from the Military Demarcation Line, is now at the forefront of tourism related to the Korean War. It was built in 1972 with the hope that someday unification would be possible. Three-storied Imjingak is surrounded by several monuments, Unification Park and North Korea Center. 400 kinds of photos and documents showing the stark reality of North Korea are displayed in the North Korea Center of Unification Board. Outside Imjingak, there are 12 kinds of tanks and crafts on display that were used during the war. Mangbaedan Alter, which stands opposite of Imjingak, is famous for the place where people from North Korea visit and perform ancestral rites by bowing toward their hometown every New Years Day and Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). The Bridge of the Freedom, South Koreans crossed when they came back to their mother country from North Korea, stands behind Mangbaedan Alter. In front of Imjingak is the Gyeongui Train Line which was destroyed during the Korean War in 1950. It has been under construction since 2000. Every year many events for unification are held at Imjingak. Imjingak is now one of the famous tourist spots for foreigners in Gyeonggi-do because it is possible to visit without going through any security check points

3. The Unification Bridge

   The bridge is more like a symbolic bridge built back in 1998, wishing unification between two Koreas. It was built by Hyundai Business Group of South Korea. Underneath the bridge you can see a river which is called Imjingang, coming down from North Korea. The bridge also has a nickname which is the “Cow Bridge”. The founder of Hyundai whose name was Jung Juyoung crossed this bridge and went to North Korea back in 1998 with precisely 1,001 cows. Since then, we have been calling it the cow bridge. Of course all the cows he took with him were part of humanitarian donations for North Korean people.

4. ID Check

   If you look outside, you can see some soldiers wearing a green color camouflage uniform. They are South Korean soldiers or ROK soldiers currently serving their mandatory military service for 21 months. All men in South Korea have to serve the military mandatorily for 21 months, but it’s not required for women. I also served for 26 months a long time ago right after college, and it was longer than right now. Military service is getting shorter and shorter. However, the situation is a lot more terrible in North Korea. First of all, it’s mandatory for both genders, men and women. Men have to serve for 10 years while women serve for 7 years, but this is just for normal kinds of soldiers. For a special forces like Marine Corps and Airborne, they have to serve for 13 years. 

5. DMZ theater and exhibition hall

   It’s a unique museum within the civilian control line. The museum, on which the nation and provinces had spent 44.5 billion Korean won, officially opened on 08, 14, 2009. DMZ Showroom displays leaflets used during the 6.25 Korean Civil War, military letters, bayonets, empty cartridges, pottery found in DMZ, taxidermied birds and etc. DMZ Video Room features three-dimensional moving pictures. By watching them, you can easily understand how Korea got divided.   

6. The 3rd Tunnel

   Right now, we are going to the very first place which is the 3rd infiltration tunnel. We found this tunnel based upon some information we got from a defector from North Korea. His name was Kim Buseong. After he defected to South Korea, he told us that he was a measuring engineer for this particular tunnel, which means he was related to this tunnel somehow himself. So he was able to provide us with some reliable information particularly about the location of this tunnel. With all the tips we got from him, what our government did was to place 107 PVC sylinder pipes along the expected invasion route to South Korea, and we filled all the pipes with water. And then 3 years later in 1978 water erupted from one of those pipes because of pressure from dynamite explosion. They used so many dynamites as a major tool to dig this tunnel. If dynamites explode, this creates pressure which pushes water out of the pipe. And then what our government was trying to do next was to place 5 additional pipes nearby the place where water came out in order to confirm the exact location of this tunnel. Later in the middle of making 5 boreholes for those 5 additional pipes, we just happened to penetrate this actual tunnel. We were confirmed that there must be a hollow space under the ground by noticing that the water keeps sinking down through one of those pipes. This is how we found this tunnel.   We’ll stay here for 1 hour, so please come back to this bus by 11:00.  We are going to watch a short movie first. Please follow me off the bus and into the theater.   This is where the tunnel lies. Before we actually explore it, let me tell you in more detail about this tunnel looking at this picture here. First of all, the total length of this tunnel is 1635 meters, but the majority of this tunnel stays in North Korea and only small portion of it stays in South Korea. This is the border called MDL and this side is North Korea and this side is South Korea. As you can see, 1200 meters of this tunnel stays in the North and the rest stays in the South which is 435 meters. After we found this tunnel, what our government did was to install these three blockades in order to prevent North Korea from using this tunnel again. Because of all these blockades, tourists can explore this tunnel only from the beginning to this 3rd blockade. The distance between these two is 265 meters. All these blockades are really thick concrete walls with a small opening and door on them. Through the opening on this 3rd blockade you can see another blockade which is supposed to be the second blockade. This 3rd blockade is very close to the border, only 170 meters away from the border. Once you reach this 3rd blockade, you are standing only 170 meters away from the border in the middle of DMZ. Once again this tunnel lies 73 meters under the ground which is as high as 25-story building. We have to go down this deep using this walkway tunnel built by South Korea for tourists. The length of this walkway tunnel is 358 meters, but the only problem with this walkway which will make you do good exercise is the slope. It’s sloped 11 degrees, so walking down is very easy but walking back up will not be as easy as it might look and will be the most difficult part of this tour. Most of the time you walk through the tunnel, you have to bend down or bend over a little like this because the top is quite low. Because of this, if you have any knee, back, or heart problem, or particularly claustrophobia or asthma or high or low blood pressure, please do not join us. You can just wait outside. Inside this building, they have many cabinets prepared for you.    You are required to leave your bag and camera in the cabinet before you actually go in. Taking pictures is not allowed in the tunnel. If you are done with that, I need you to wait here in two lines. Let’s go in. Please grab one of these yellow helmets and put it on. This is very important to protect your head.    This is the end of this walkway tunnel, and this is the actual infiltration tunnel dug by North Korea. This is the specific point where this walkway tunnel penetrated this actual tunnel and this is the point where they ended up when we found this tunnel in 1978. All those holes you see on the rock walls are dynamite holes, facing the South and marked with yellow color paint. If you look up here, you can see two boreholes. This is the borehole which happened to penetrate this actual tunnel. From this, we knew the exact location of this tunnel. This is another borehole made by South Korea to bring down a camera to observe this tunnel. From this point, we will walk 265 meters up to the 3rd blockade. Please be careful from here and stay down.    Finally, this is the 3rd blockade. This is as far as we can go toward the North. Through the opening here, you can see another blockade which is the 2nd blockade. So once again all of you are standing only 170 meters away from the border in the middle of DMZ. If you look up, you can see this black color thing. This is the coal which was put manually by North Korea to make this tunnel look like a coal mine. I want each one of you to check out this 3rd blockade before you go out. I’ll see you on the bus.    Did you enjoy this tunnel exploration? This must have been very good exercise for you. For a long time after we found this tunnel, North Korea denied that they dug this tunnel. They even argued that we dug this tunnel. However, we have found some clear evidence that proves that they are the one who dug this tunnel, not South Korea. We discovered that all dynamite holes on the rock walls are facing the South, and additional evidence is that the actual tunnel is sloped 0.003 degrees toward the North. Can you guess why they did this? They did this for automatic water drainage. There is a water tank between the 2nd and 3rd blockade. After all, North Korea confessed that they dug this tunnel but even after that they kept telling us that this tunnel is not for infiltration but just a coal mine. However, coal is not produced from here. This whole area is a granite area which does not produce any coal.    We found the first tunnel in 1974, second one in 1975, this third one 1978, and the fourth one in 1990. Since we found the fourth one in 1990, we have not found any additional tunnels, but we are still in the process of looking for tunnels that might be somewhere out there, using all kinds of modern technology.

7. Dora Observatory

   Dora Observatory, or OP Dora is the closest observation post to North Korea. From the observation platform, North Korean scenery is visible, and so are the outskirts of Gaeseong City, the 3rd largest city of North Korea. Especially, you can view the Gaeseong Industrial Complex operated by both Koreas. If you use the binocular, a statute of Kim Il-sung can be found near the Gaeseong City. You can also observe a fake North Korean border village. Within DMZ of North side, there’s a small village called “Propaganda Village.” On a clear day, you can view through binocular that it is actually a deserted town. Like a multi-million dollar Hollywood filming set, some lights flicker on and off at set times to create the illusion of people living there. 

8. Unification Village

   The village in DMZ as an eco-friendly village with its nature-given setting and rich farming land is the only place in the world, access to which is controlled by the military. Especially, cold soybean grown in its fertile land rich in protein and calcium is known as nutritious choice food. It has gained so much popularity as the village’s indigenous product that it is the most favorite souvenir of those visiting the village.   

9. Lunch

10. Amethyst or Ginseng Center

    The colour of Amethyst is as unique as it is seductive, though in fact this gemstone of all gemstones is said to protect its wearer against seduction. Korean Amethyst is extravagance in violet since it has been formed from granite stone base since 5000 years. Moses described it as a symbol of the Spirit of God in the official robes of the High Priest of the Jews, and the Russian Empress Catherine the Great sent thousands of miners into the Urals to look for it. It was said to protect crops against tempests and locusts, bring good fortune in war and in the hunt, drive out evil spirits and inspire the intellect.  Ginseng is renowned for its effectiveness as a great healer for living ever so young.Especially if you eat ginseng when you lose your energy, it really helps to regain energy.Korea is acknowledged by the world because of the quality of ginseng as if it is the birthplace of ginseng.You can experience various kinds of ginseng products like gingersnap, extract, ginseng preserved in honey, and other great quality of products made in Korea.

11. Gyeongbok Palace

    Gyeongbok-gung Palace is one of the oldest of the five places in Seoul. It is such a great and magnificent building as a representative of Joseon Dynasty. It shows off the beauty of its construction.Through this, it can be a representative tourism spot for foreigners to understand the tradition and history of Korea.This tour course takes around one and a half hours; you will see remarkable pavilions like Kyunghoiru and Hyangwonjung, and beautiful/classy wooden and stone structures as Kyungcheonsaji 10-story tower, you also will see Kyotaejeon and Kangnyungjun places where you can experience the life of noble people with a guide.   The choicest tour place for foreign tourists. Gyeongbok-gung Palace is the starting point of 500 years of history in Joseon Dynasty. You will defiantly enjoy the stroll around the place feeling the quiet and peaceful mood.It can be a representative tourism spot for foreigners to understand the tradition and history of Korea.If you want to know the history of Korea properly, you should visit this place.

12. Insadong

    When foreign celebrities visit Korea, they always stop by this area; the closest Korean styled avenue, this is Insa-dong. Not only hundreds of art galleries are there but, dozens of traditional handcraft shop, antique art markets, and traditional tea houses. Because of the development of modern civilizations, many foreign Coffee shops and restaurants have launched around the place, yet this area unconventionally use Korean on their gate signs.

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