Yulhacheon Redux

I'm currently reading Paul Theroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, a 2008 travelogue in which he reprises his 1975 The Great Railway Bazaar. He somewhat ironically comments on the 'danger' of revisiting the destinations of previous travels, and of falling into the trap of comparing how things were to how things are... which of course Theroux then spends much of Ghost Train doing. I had thought of this a little last Tuesday as I explored Yulha 2, continually remembering how it used to be a field, but as I'd never actually explored said field, it wasn't exactly revisiting.

I thought of Theroux a lot today, as I walked north along the Yulhacheon, a stream which runs south out of the mountains into the Yulha area, taking nearly the exact route that I took back in August 2006. Not only was it a different season (meaning vastly different vegetation), but the completely rural area of 2006, while still rural, is now in the early stages of development (land cleared and flattened). I wasn't able to go up into the mountains in the same spot as last time, as there were do not enter signs and active construction equipment. However, I did make it into the foothills, and discovered a different set of tombs than the ones I found back in 2006.

Do not enter - construction zone!

The Yulhacheon

A path up into the foothills

Hillside tombs


A hillside view of the nascent construction

Daegu in the distance (you can even see Daegu Tower) with more tombs in the foreground. Taken at 200mm zoom.

Possible evidence of the Korean 삵 (salk)? At first I thought it was scat, but on closer examination it seems to be a hairball!

I also found this... not the sort of thing one usually finds in Korea.