Now that the big afternoon events were done we had time to wander around. First we looked around the royal palace which I had been to before. There were traditional buildings with manniquins in the buildings showing scenes from royal life. Then I wanted to do a different part of the wall from what I had done last time.

I walked back to the south gate entrance for start of the wall. From here there is a very long and steep rock staircase as the wall climbs the side of the mountain ridge to reach the ringed summit. Along the top are small watchtowers. Near the top there was a long lookout stretching outside the fortress for about 200m. After this the fortress wall was even so it was easy to walk along.

There was another lookout and gate from where you had a panorama view overlooking the palace and city below. Its actually hard to tell where the fortress walls are as the modern city is built up all inside but you can still make out the perimeter wall when seen from this vantage point. It actually looks a lot bigger than 5.7km if you wanted to walk the perimeter. There was also a giant bell which people could ring and hear the sound echoing around the fortress.

I then wanted to find the giant gold buddha statue that overlooks the palace. Last year I tried to get to it but couldnt. This year as I took a different route to the top I thought I might be able to work my way down to it. The path I took down did go near the statue which is actually in a temple that you cant see from ground level. The path then leads down to the parking lot next to the palace which had been turned into the festival food area.

Next I had to meet my friend for the evenings military show at the other end of the fortress. I hadnt been to this side on my last visit and didnt know there were other buildings at this end. I passed b the fortress museum which was now closed, and crossed the river that disects the fortress from north to south. The river was quite nice with a path and plants along the way. I remember seeing it from the gate wall as there is a waterfall as its comes under one of the lookout gates.

The evenings performance was in the archery area and crowds had already filled the seating area. I found a spot near the front on the grass in front of the chairs. First costumed uniformed marchers entered blowing trumpets and banging drums, like the afternoons parades. I was busy filming and didnt notice their were horses coming. They didnt want to walk straight and needed to be controlled so I nearly got hit sitting on the ground.

Video : Procession Enters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTfiMfIW 2tg

Many costumed students in black robes entered into the main field and stood in lines. They then divided and moved to the sides of the fields to watch the events and wait for their event. It seemed a bit like Harry Potter, all this kids in large dark gowns filing around an archery field in an orderly co-ordinated manner at night.

After an address by the King some horseriders circled the ring and fired arrows into target boards. They also did acrobats on the horses standing upside down or twirling around on the horse. I've seen these shows a couple of times before but not at night. It was hard to take night pics of fast moving objects and many pictures were not clear.

Video : Horseriders Archery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXfnYPis dck

The announcer was explaining the various military drills that were taking place. I think close to twenty drills were mentioned. One of them involved closing the city gates, one was lighting the lanterns. An interesting one was twirling flame lit torchers in the next video.

Video : Fire Twirling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTb5DrOG 3Cg

They they lit torches along the fortress wall which was very hard to film or photograph as it was too dark. Then there was a fireworks show.

Video : Fireworks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUIGMnmF kGs

Next were various military displays. The soldiers marched and lit cannons which shot a stream of fireworks into the air. There was then a grand battle of soldiers and mounted cavalry. After this was more displays of military drills. Then they put out the torches along the city walls, opened the city gates and the two hour show ended. It was a really amazing show, a bit uncomfortable sitting for so long in the cold

Video : Fireworks and Grand Battle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNg_XOy2 CPY

Video : Military Drills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMY7G57q gGY

A group of small children were sitting all around me. The decided to have their own battle and were throwing grass on one another, nudging me as I was trying to film and take pictures. An old man to my right tried to tell the children to calm down as he was being disturbed taking pictures as well. Mother to my left was oblivious to everything going on and never said a word to her kids.

We then wanted to find something to eat so wandered back into the centre of the fortress. By the south gate we found a large market area. Here they had a stage setup with more K-Pop singers. There was also a large indoor food hall with various vendors. It looked good but they were all serving meat so I couldnt eat there. Near the south gate we found a pizza place. We each got a large pizza for 5000w ($4.50) and a coke for 800w (.75 cents) so a good meal.

My motel that I had found earlier was outside the south gate for 40,000w ($35). Last weekend I paid 35,000w for a pink love motel. This one was more posh and classier. For an extra 5000w I could have got a large screen room for 45,000w but I went for the cheaper room. The room had a double bed, couch, massive ensuite bathroom, cable tv, dvd player, fridge, and computer setup. The tv remote control also controlled the lights so you dont have to get out of bed to turn them on/off.

It was a really nice room and I would have like to have relaxed there for a bit longer. Unfortunately I had already bought my return ticket home the next morning and only four KTX trains stop at Suwon for Daegu so I had to take the 8.53 train, the next was after 11am and was a two hour ride.

The festival, fortress, palace, parades, night show were all definately worth it and a fun filled day. This was the biggest parade I have seen in korea but I still think the Buyeo royal parades last weekend were my favourite as they were more historical.

Suwon is worth spending a day exploring either the fortress or the folk village. Here is my blog entry from last year when I went to both : http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-e ntries/londone7/1/1285284601/tpod.html

To get to Suwon from Seoul take Line 1 metro (but not the branch off to Incheon). Journey time about an hour. From other parts of korea their are four KTX trains from Busan that will stop at Suwon, all others are express to Seoul. There are more frequent slower Mungangwha and Seamul trains that will stop at Suwon, or intercity bus. Outside the train station is the tourist info office that can give you maps and directions to the folk village and fortress.