Hahoe Folk Village

Last weekend Sara and I were on a mission to do as much as we could on our road trip to the northern reaches of Gyeongsangbuk-do.  We saw temples, we walked in the rain, we ate samguypsal, and we visited the traditional folk village of Hahoe in Andong.  When people say "traditional" village, Hahoe is what I picture.  Rock walls and straw roofs, a journey five hundred years into the past.  The town was formed in the 16th century by a clan that's occupied it ever since.  Oh yeah, it's a 16th century village that people still live in today.  While the tourists wander through the narrow streets and photograph the golden roofed houses, the people of Hahoe go about their business, farming and ... I don't know, watching satellite TV and playing Anipang on their Galaxy 3's.  Barring the fact that their wasn't a GS25 to be seen and tourists roam the streets whenever, it actually seemed like not such a bad place to live.  Kind of like a communal farm.  Though on this day the inhabitants of the city were scarce and the tourists many, making it difficult to get a sense of what life would be like living in a 16th century farming village today.  Despite the fact that the place was lousy with tourists I was able to get a whole series of pictures with no people in them.  A minor miracle.  As always, here's 10 pictures and some foolish comments.

I especially like their scarecrow.  He kind of looks like me.  Also, this appears to have an address which means it's like a registered place.  You could mail something here if you wanted to.

Dark tile, wooden doors, waist-high shoots of drying grass.  Best traditional folk village ever.

I really wanted to take the plastic of the tractor and take pictures, but every time I do something like that a whole bunch of people stare at me.  

This is my favorite shot of the day, though as I approached the big wooden doors to get a closer shot Sara had to remind me that their were people living in there.

We finally had some sunshine.  Summer is coming!

I really should have read some signs.  This is probably an important person's house.  It looks like an important person's house, doesn't it?  

The fact that the village is home to actual people made me wary of just wandering into every courtyard and open door I saw. 

See, there's one of those signs I should have read.  It's probably in English and probably very interesting.  Oh well, next time.

There was supposed to be a four hundred year old tree somewhere.  This might be it, though there was some confusion on our parts.  It looks four hundred years old.

If there are houses and five feet of free space, you will see kimchi pots.  Lots and lots of kimchi pots.  I bet that's some tasty kimchi.