About my first trip I wrote the following:

I made a trip the last couple of days to Namwon, Kangjin, Pyongyong, Yosu and Pusan by bus, it was an interesting trip since I discovered a few remarkable things. First: I couldn't confirm Prof. Kim's finding that the people in Namwon had blue eyes nor blond hair. I went to the pavilion (the historic place in Namwon) and was disappointed that the local historians didn't even know that Hamel's companions have lived there. But in Pyongyong I was met by a number of old people (well they were sitting alongside the river and I was walking by). I had to join them, eating, drinking, and they were delighted to hear that I came from Holland.

A number of them knew the fact that Hamel lived there. One of them wanted to show me around. His English was limited to "I am sorry" and he pronounced it as "I am thirty" His dialect hard to understand, for as far I can understand Korean, but I had a good time. He was rather drunk, and I hardly got to see the things I wanted to see, since he was directing me constantly in the wrong directions, but that was all beside the point ;-) For instance he never managed to guide me to the fortress on the other side of the village. He told me that the fortress was on top of the mountain. Which in itself was true, since there was a fortress as well, but that was not the one I was looking for. Obviously he didn't know they were working on the restoration of the other one, at the other side of the village. The man urinated where he wanted. He also farted a lot. He took me, very Asian, by the hand and was all friendliness. When I wanted to go back to Kangjin, he wanted me to stay and sleep in his house. I managed to escape, but I don't think he liked it.

I did notice however that a remarkable number of the people, I met, DID have blue eyes. Well... a blue core with brownish corners. I had fun and felt welcome too. At the end I was brought back to the group of drinking people and had some fun there. Anyhow, in Kangjin I also discovered that in the local dialect Pyongyong is pronounced as Pyeingyeing. Exactly in the same way Hamel wrote it. They change the o with the omicron consistently as ea sound as in Konbae (maybe the result of saying the latter too many times when drinking soju?). After that I went to Yosu, and though there is a possibility that Hamel and his men escaped from there, I support the idea of Ledyard that Shinseong was Sijsingh: (personal e-mail) I will quote Ledyard:

Begin quote:
3. One of the places where Hamel stayed during his years in Korea was at a military base for which Hamel's name was Saijsingh. In my book (p. 70) I said that this was probably a garbled form of <ChwasuyOng>, the Left Naval Headquarters of ChOlla province, which was in the modern town of YOsu. In this I followed Yi PyOngdo and other Korean scholars. However, while later researching Japanese fortified bases during the Imjin Wars, I came upon Konishi Yukinaga's famous bastion near Sunch'On (S. ChOlla prov.), which was on the east coast of the YOsu peninsula facing Kwangyang man, about 30 km. north of YOsu and 10 km southeast of Sunch'On. Remains of this fortress still exist today, and I have visited them several times over the years. The name of the town where this fortress is located is SinsOngp'o. SinsOng means "new fortress," and corresponds very well with Hamel's Saijsingh, which means the same thing but is written with the pure Korean word for "new." It appears that after the Imjin wars the Korean military used it as one of their own bases. Hamel's transcriptions of Korean words into the Dutch orthography of the 17th century are not always transparent, but in no case does he have a spelling as far-fetched as "Saijsingh" for "Chwasuyong." The -singh for K. sOng is found in other Hamel words and appears to reflect his hearing of the sounds. I think it far more likely that "Saijsingh" represents SinsOng and reflects the old Japanese-built base. In any case it was from Saijsingh that Hamel and seven others escaped in 1666.

end quote.

Shinseong can also be pronounced as Saeseong in the Cholla namdo dialect. Also looking at the map, this place is indeed more likely IF the Koreans used it for a while as a fortress.

In Yosu at least I visited the harbor, since if they escaped from Yosu they would have left it from the old harbor. You can see a 3d picture here. You will need a plug-in to see the 3d picture. After staying in Yosu I headed for Pusan to visit my Dutch friend and to take a look at the Weikwan where the remaining eight Dutch people left Korea. You can read more about that over here.

Anyhow all in all an interesting trip. Good that I made it alone, not hindered by the fact that I had to eat, drink and sleep in time. Not to mention the fact that I didn't have to worry about where to sleep etc. The only problem is that it was damn hot.

You can see the panoramic picture I took at Yosu harbor here, but you need a special plug-in

The second visit

When I went there the second time, by coincidence I met in the bus a girl who was working on the site of the fortress which was to be restored. Since I didn't have the chance to go there the first time, I had to go there, when I visited the village the second time. Well luck was with me. The first day I went to the "cityhall" in Kangjin, where they showed me the statue of Hamel, but for the rest they were not so interested it seemed, so I decided to go to Pyongyong. Over there I was invited and received as a king. Mr. Kang the foreman, showed me around and showed me the video they have been making for the restoration works. The video showed a computer animation of how the village was going to look like, including the fortress, a Hamel museum and a Holland village.

After he showed me the video, he wanted to show me the Ginko tree under which Hamel and his mates supposedly have been sitting. There is a story going around in the village that they did so. Unclear is whether that this is a mouth to mouth history or imposed by later researchers.

I wanted to show him this website too, but found that it was not accessible in the small village of Pyongyong. I promised to send the site on a CD-ROM when I returned to Seoul.

After that he showed me the "Boksu", which are also believed to have been crafted by the Dutchmen. When we came back to the restoration site, he suddenly asked me if I had seen the Chollando ceramics ovens. Of course I didn't, and we went there as well.

After that we had a tremendous good meal at one of the local restaurants in Pyongyong and I decided it was time to visit the old people again. Quite a few of them remembered my first visit and were chatting with and about me. For a short time however, since the pleasure this time was disturbed by one of the local drunkards who insisted that I had to drink Soju with him. So, back to the restoration site. The girl told me the other men were gone, so I decided it was time to go back to Kangjin again, and stayed the night in my motel in order to go back to Seoul a bit early the next morning.

The next morning I woke up because of the telephone. Mr. Kang, he thought it was a pity we didn't meet again the last day, but he sure wanted me to come back. I promised I would.

Back in Seoul the next Sunday I burned the website into a CD-ROM and sent it to Mr. Kang. I never heard from him again, so I am not sure if he received it or not. But he sure will be mentioned in the book I am working on. Take a look at Jan's site for more information.

Third visit

This time I went first to Jinju to see things over there, from there I went to Pusan to meet Jan Boonstra and we had a good time drinking beer at the beach. The next day I first went to look for the fortress Shinseong, I drove through the surrounding, but I couldn't find it. The people in the village nearby had no clue what I was talking about, so I gave up. However I did see a beautiful temple shrine. The function was not clear to me, since everything was in Hanja.

So I went to Naka folk village, according to Jan the most beautiful folk village in Korea. On the way there I saw a traditional Korean funeral. I took some pictures but I almost felt like an intruder, even though I took the pictures with a telephoto lens. Visiting Naka village, I didn't see that much, since it was too hot too stay there long.

Accordingly I went to Pyongyong. The third visit was less spectacular. The villagers obviously had gotten used to me and, since I came by car, there was less contact with the people. They were still happy to see me, but I could drink with me, since I had to drive. Mr. Kang the foreman had received my CD rom but never had the time to take a look at it, but he was happy to see me again. The made considerable progress in reconstructing the fort, but it would be a 10 year project. In the evening I was back home. I one day I went all the way from Pusan, through Kangjin to Seoul again. I only received one speeding ticket, since obviously I didn't see the speed limit sign. Take a look at the pictures below: click on the pictures to see the full version (be warned; they are big)

A view in a street in the village

The tree under which Hamel and his companions sat

Henny under the tree

A wall: the way the stones are laid are thought to be "invented" by the Dutchmen

Map of the village and the plans for the future, including a Hamel museum and Holland village

The walls of the fortress have long been buried under debris and growth, this tree is a good example of it.

The remains of the gate,

A closer look

This picture could have been taken 300 years ago, only the clothes will have been different

The watch tower in front of the gate. Partly restored.

The same tower from a different angle.

Here we see that nowadays different tools are used.

This is a trench, which is dug to find the most relevant remains (van Griffen method)

Boksu also ascribed to Hamel's men.

These statues "protect" the entrance to the bridge.

Mr. Kang the project leader who showed me around and was a very good host and 2nd guide to me.

A man I saw in Kangjin with gray blond hair.

The old bridge to the village and fortress.

A closer look at the bottom of the bridge.

Another example of a wall.

A local old house.

A street in the village.

A better view at the map.

The old people were very happy to see me and pose for me.

Later in the day.

I never understood why I had to see these tombs, but I suspect that my guide wanted to show me his ancestors.

Hobby of someone in Pyongyong

My 1st guide in Pyongyong

My 1st guide and his house.

Again a wall in Pyongyong, with a pattern only found in this area.

These are not really good quality pictures since I had to take them under bad circumstances and they are pictures from pictures.

Excavations.

Sign near the restoration site.

Remains before the restoration

Statue of Hamel in Kangjin province hall it's a replica from the one in Groom..

Unfortunately they had put it in a glass cabinet, so it was hard to make a reasonable picture.

View over pyongyong.

The second meeting with the elderly people in Pyongyong.

Same spot a little bit later.

A panoramic overview of the remains of the castle and the restauration works.


The above pictures are panoramic views of the fortress taken at several times. From left to right, the oldest and right the most recent, I took the two on the left from pictures hanging in the office of the construction company.
	left and right: a view from the top of the wall.
The pictures below are not taken in Pyongyong, but at "Korean Hollywood". A place where they shoot films and the village was recently completed for a movie. It looks however completely authentic and it gives a good idea of how Hamel and his men would have lived.

Fifth visit

My fifth visit to Pyongyong (nowadays written as Byeongyeong) was less spectacular. I went there, since Seoul land, an amusement park south of Seoul in Kwachon, wanted to make an exhibition about Hamel, in the light of the Hamel year (in 2003 it was 350 years ago that the men stranded on Cheju-do). We went by airplane to Mapo, rented a car and went to Kangjin first. We made a quick visit to the City hall, because they wanted to borrow some items for the exhibition. A Dutch canon, a statue of Hendrick Hamel and some other things (all gifts from the city of Gorkum). After that we went to Pyongyong, to see the tree, and the boksu. The boksu are claimed to have been made by the Dutchmen, or at least inspired by them. Unfortunately the original ones were stolen and these are replicas.
I wanted to visit the Waborankae museum, since I am in touch with the owner, but we had never met. It's a small private museum which is stashed with local antiquaries collected over the years, among others a pair of original namakshin. Namakshin are wooden shoes, which were used to be worn by the local people. The special thing about them is that they are made of one piece of wood, like the Dutch wooden shoes. Mr. Kim the owner of the museum, was very happy to meet me, unfortunately our visit was too short, but I will meet him again with the opening of the exhibition

My 6th visit to Pyongyong (Byeongyeong)

My 7 th visit to Pyongyong

This time I went and took my family, since I have been there many times, this time I spent most of the time with my family in the waborankea museum. The owner has become my friend and we stayed there for a couple of days. One thing struck me when I visited the fortress. The works have progressed a lot since I haven't been there for two years, but the progress made me realize that there were many more remains left than I ever could imagine. They were just too well hidden under the soil. The fortress was abandoned in about 1895 and in 100 years a lot of big trees have grown on these walls and the trees themself have become a treasure. I am also not sure if they plan to leave the trees and parts of the old ruins there as they are, or if they are going to demolish the trees and make everything like new again.

The pictures here show the museum, the walls of the fortress and the new bulletin board with the plan of the fortress. I just hope that they didn't give up the plan to build a museum for Hamel since everything is now just about the fortress.

The pictures here, include pictures with my family. Especially to show how big the walls and trees are, but also because it's a convenient way to show my friends in Pyongyong what kind of pictures I made and there are pictures of them and their grandchildren I want to share with them.

Alex in front of the wall.	Benjamin near the water mill near the museum.	Benjamin and Alex in front of the wall. The signs say that these were original rocks.	Tree on the wall.
Another beautiful tree on the wall with my family in front of it.	A part of the restored wall.	The waborankae museum	A naughty boy near the new statues in Waborankae
A naughty boy and a naughty girl.	Sure, be beautiful for the picture.	New map of the fortress.	Grandchildren
Me and my limb.	Together near the wall.