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The economic boom of the past two decades and the apparent tranquility of life in suburban Seoul and rural Korea make the possibility of war inconceivable for most visitors. Indeed, it's hard to believe that - after almost 50 years of ceasefire and a Korean War truce agreement - the threat of an all-out war still exists, although tensions have decreased with the recent thaw in North-South relations.

Spring and autumn are lively seasons in Korea where almost every weekend there is a festival going on somewhere in the country. Some, such as the Andong International Mask Festival, are larger affairs that attract people from all over Korea. Others, such as the Tea Festival in Boseong, are local affairs that you might come across while traveling the countryside. Visiting a festival is a great opportunity to see just how downright sociable Koreans can be. Despite all the pushing and shoving, and those stony Confucian faces encountered in the city. Koreans can party with the best of them. While attending a festival , it's likely you'll be offered a sip of soju from some grandfather's bottle, or maybe a brightly dressed ajumma will ask you to sit and enjoy a plate of gimbap.
Please click this link VISIT KOREA to know more about Korea.

Photo credits: http://socius.or.kr/2007/09/16/andong-international-mask-festival/

Most people given the choice would never opt for the fan as a summer cooling system, yet even a cursory look at the history of the fan in Korea arouses some nostalgia as we discover that it was an article, beautiful, graceful and even dignified and mysterious.

The devotees of the fan have mostly disappeared from our midst in these days of electric devices for beating the heat, but when you consider that bamboo was used for the ribs of the traditional fan, and that an item often appearing on the agenda of the royal court was the sever devastation of bamboo groves, you have some ideas of how many fans waved in Korean hands.

Painting fan leaves has always been regarded as a branch of the fine arts in the Orient. Korean fans were first painted during the 13th century and by the 15th century the exchange of calligraphically or painted fans were very popular among members of the aristocratic class. Many were carefully kept rather than put to practical use as they were considered too precious. Their subjects featured various aspects of Korean life.

Photo credits:
http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/frary/pic8.htm

Korea’s typical family was neither a large nor a nuclear one but a combination of two. Women usually lived in an inner house, or the main building of family, and men occupied the outer house of a family’s male master, or sarangchae, which was for receiving male guests or used as a study. Quite often children lived and studied in sarangchae and female guests were entertained in the inner house.

“A boy and a girl should not sit together after they have reached the age of seven” was a common law in old Korea under the influence of Confucianism. Even marriage could not excuse lovers from such firmness, since Confucius and wife should be kept properly distinctive.” Thus came the Korean style male space, the sarangchae, available to almost each and every house in old Korea, where the head of a household not only did his “high” business but also managed the necessities of life.

Photo credits:
http://arosebud.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/korea-holiday-trip/

Fashions come and fashions go, but the true elegance endures forever. If you doubt it, you only have to walk along any street in Seoul and watch the kaleidoscope of fashions Korea’s modern generation in wearing. Along with everyday grab, you can see such chic foreign labels, or reasonable copies thereof, as “Umberto Severi,” “London Fog,” or “Yves Saint-Laurent.” And in the midst of the throng, you will see a Korean lady strolling along confidently and sedately, clad in a hanbok. She is not about to give up the traditional dress of her ancestors with its dignity and grace, every feminine sense tells her that her beauty was never more alluring.

Foreigners are always charmed by the sight of Korean women in their voluminous long skirts, chima, and short jackets, chagori, both of pastel tones billowing gracefully in the breeze like butterflies floating near the earth.

In Korea today tourists are able to buy those beautiful traditional dresses readymade in arcades and department stores.

Photo credits:
http://www.imeem.com/groups/ms0xAVzv/forums/tfYGAoBk/FWuU8lZi/culture-of-korea/

The most famous of Korea’s hundreds of temples is pulkuk-sa.

Standing on a series of stone terraces on the western slopes of Mt. Toham, the temple complex commands a fine view of the many peaks of Mt. Namsan.

Traditional tile roofs make the temple buildings look as if they are about to take wing, and superbly complicated Tabotap and Sakya Pagoda spring high among the roofs and are reflected in a pond.

On the hill behind Pulkuk-sa is the Sokkuram grotto, hand carved from solid granite centuries ago. The statue of Buddha carved inside is said to be one of the best examples of Buddhist art in Asia and among 73 figures seated facing east to help defend the Silla people against pirates who infested the East Sea.

A temple annex several kilometers beyond was built by Kim Daesong and has become a major pilgrimage site for practitioners and students of Buddhism.


Photo Credits:
http://www.postech.ac.kr/LiMAT2001/Acceptance.htm

Kimchi is a mouth-watering side dish that made the Korean food well-known around the world. It is doing for Korea what Scotch did for Scotland, what pizza did for Italy and what the hamburger did for the United States. In the past few years, the world has given rare reviews to this staple of the Korean diet.

Next to boiled rice, kimchi is the main part of a Korean meal. It is spicy and fiery, yet earthy and cool.

Attesting to its popularity is the fact that modern English dictionaries carry the world “kimchi”, which is defined roughly as “a fermented vegetable pickle seasoned with pungent garlic, hot chili pepper, ginger, fish and various other seafood; it is the national dish of Korea.”

Even though the Chinese and Japanese also eat marinated vegetables, kimchi is exclusively Korean. Unlike the Chinese and Japanese vegetables, kimchi is extremely seasoned with spices and condiments, such as chili pepper, garlic, shrimps, hairtail (Trichiuridae haumela), anchovies, oysters, razor clams and also fresh fruit. The Chinese pickle a long, stalk form of cabbage in rice vinegar and the Japanese make takuan, pickled radish, without using spices or condiments.

In this age of instant food, Koreans can buy ready-made kimchi in cans, vacuum packs or jars, instead of going through the laborious, time-consuming process of making it. There are even kimchi factories that can produce a winter’s supply of kimchi to suit any individual’s palate.

Any trip to Korea would be incomplete without a taste of kimchi, but the unaccustomed foreigner should have plenty of water on hand to douse the fire that will erupt in his throat. To visit Korea without savoring kimchi would be like going to Switzerland without eating cheese or like touring Russia without sampling vodka.

Photo credits:
http://www.markfitzhenry.com/korea/march09.php

This country offers myriad of unique sights waiting for you in the “Land of the Morning Calm”. Experience for yourself a country where they live life in a different rhythm. Korea.

Photo credits:

http://www.paulnoll.com/Korea/Maps/Korean-map-Korea-all.html

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/followup-procedure.htm