Friday, April 20

Friday brought our move to our sixth set of hosts in Cheonan.

After the now-normal set of picture taking and embraces, we hopped on a bus and off we went.

The Cheonan group seems very well organized.  They presented us with a complete schedule for our five days with them.

Our first day was a visit to Nuri Peace Park, which we learned meant that we were visiting the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.  This was a fascinating and sobering experience.  As you might imagine, military presence was quite high, though many of the Korean servicemen seemed to occupy themselves largely posing for pictures with tourists.

We visited the northernmost train station in South Korea.  You can take this train through North Korea to China and Russia...I don't think I'd want to try that.

Next stop was an observation station overlooking the DMZ.   No picture taking was allowed from anyplace you could actually look over the DMZ.  From the observation station you can see the 4 kilometer DMZ (2 km - 1.2 miles - on either side of the actual border) and a number of structures on the North Korean side.  Apparently the North Korean government erected several tall "apartment buildings" with lights in different rooms on different floors to make it appear there is a functioning town to those on the south side - incredible.

Next we visited a museum that outlined the history of the DMZ and the results of the Korean War.  We then walked down a tunnel, one of at least four dug by the North Korean military to facilitate an invasion of South Korea.  Most were built in the 70s and 80s, but rumors persist of new tunnels being built today.  North Korea denies digging them, but the evidence is clear that they did.

This was an amazing,eye-opening trip.  We've visited a number of temples and historical museums, but this trip really gives huge insight into the Korea of today.

Our three-hour drive back to Cheonan encountered bad traffic, partly the result of a bad accident on the freeway.  We were thus a half-hour late for a Rotary meeting.  The club(s) waited for us, and we only had to introduce our teams, not do full presentations.

Dinner and moving in with our next homestay families finished the day.  This group of Rotarians seems to be a relaxed, fun group.