#hanji paper

On the agenda  for the day; visit a traditional paper factory and make paper, have lunch at a traditional restaurant, go to a mask museum and decorate mask keychains, and then spend the rest of the time wandering an ancient village frozen in time.

First came the paper factory. Korean traditional paper is known as hanji paper, made from the paper mulberry and, unlike other asian paper techniques, is unique in that the plant fibers are undiluted by other materials. The process remains mostly unchanged from the way Koreans have been doing it for thousands of years, with the exemption of metal presses and hot water dryers instead of stone and wood.

The paper is incredibly thin and light, and the people making are so quick you would think the paper would tear. We also got a chance to practice making our own, so make sure to check my Youtube video to see that in action! This place did not give me the impression that it was easy to find or visit by foreign tourists, which made the experience that much more special.

After the tour of the Hanji factory, we went to lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant. We all removed our shoes at the door and sat on the floor at low tables, and let me tell you...just thinking about the spread makes me salivate.

It was communal style, with everyone at the table sharing the dishes in the center but keeping their own bowl of rice. And the views that accompanied dinner were almost as delicious as the meal itself. Almost.

Next was the mask museum and keychain making, but honestly I was most anxious to walk around the village. Hahoe cultural village is a UNESCO world heritage sight whose residents have all agreed to continue living the traditional way in traditional homes, which, given Koreans’ love of high rise apartments and the fact that many of these kinds of villages were decimated during the Korean War, is an impressive fact.

We only got to spend one hour here, and I seriously feel robbed. The village is on the bank of a river with twisting, wandering pines separating the village proper from the park-like walk towards the water, Stone cliffs rise from the opposite side, providing an epic backdrop to small tiled homes surrounded by low walls.

It felt like a storybook almost, with cicadas singing in the heat and small paths meandering through rice fields. Flowers grew in unexpected places and blew in the summer breeze, and people were sitting out on their porches, lazily fanning away the heat and commenting in Korean about how many people had just descended on the village. Honestly even if my experience with EPIK is terrible (which I doubt will happen)  it was still worth it, if just for this trip and the experiences I had during orientation and the friends from all over the world I made.

Until the next adventure,