Michael Batson

Looking at the urban industrialised landscape of present-day Korea, it’s hard to see any traces of history.  South Korea has modernized at an astonishing rate, perhaps faster than any other nation in the last half-century. In that time they've gone from exporting wigs to the world's eighth-largest economy. Korea’s answer to development has been concrete and lots of it, ripping away any history least it get in the way of "progress". Why have a temple when you can have motorways, why the need for reminders of cultural past when there tower blocks to be built. But this country goes back centuries and it’s still possible to find vestiges of a rich past. Gyeongju is about 300kms south-east of Seoul.  A day trip can be had from Daegu, Korea’s fourth-largest city.  Bus tickets cost 3700 won or about US$4.  Buses leave every half-hour, are clean and on time.  The Korean countryside is crowded.  With 50 million packed into half of a fairly small peninsula, such farm land that exists is squeezed between highways and factories.  Wide open spaces barely exist.  In winter Korea is bone-dry, rain is scarce.  The land is straw-coloured and parched.  The Hyeongsangang River resembled a stone wasteland with puddles.  Despite this the day I came to town it rained – all day.Near Gyeongju there were more traditional houses – even the motorway services have the sloped roofs with curved beams.  The town is famed for its traditional architecture, the type no longer seen in most cities.