Winter Vacation to the Silla Kingdom 20081210

Gyeongju (경주, 庆州) -- the capital of the Silla Kingdom.

Seoul ---> Gyeongju ---> Pusan ---> Seoul

From Seoul Station (서울역)，my friends and I caught a train down to the South West part of the country to a city called Gyeong-ju. The train will depart at 7.40am. However we miss our train because we were busy taking pictures here and there... Luckily the ajooshi let us change our ticket so we take KTX to Daejeon and change train there... NO extra charge... So nice to be a foreigners here... ^^

McDonald's in Korea... Breakfast menu still the same...

KTX (Korea Train Express) is Korea's high-speed rail system with speed 300km/h...

Daejon station

Finally we take on the train we missed this morning and headed to Gyeong-ju...

Gyeongju Station as u can see from the signboard above

Tumuli Park (庆州王陵) , which has 20 Royal Tombs of Silla monarchs in it. The tombs are large mounds of earth which cover the crypt of the monarch, made from rocks and compacted earth.



Although it's winter but the sun still warm... and it's much more warmer compare to Seoul...



At the edge of the Tumulus Park is a very unique structure called Cheomsoengdae (첨성대 观星台). In English it is known as "Star Observation Tower", one of the oldest structures in all of the Korea.

Funny pose in front of 첨성대

After the Tumuli Park, we hopped on a taxi and headed to the Bulguksa, which is about 20 mins outside the town into the mountains. This is a reconstruction of a temple that was on this site built in 528 AD. There are many temples in the complex housing different buddha.

Me, my friends and Bulguksa

Donation from Malaysia visitors...