~Day 4 Hwaseong Fortress & Suwon World Cup Stadium, Suwon

Hwaseong Fortress (华城)

In the early morning, we were brought to Hwaseong Fortress (“Brilliant Fortress") in Suwon (水原), 30 Kilometers from Seoul. It was built from 1794 to 1796. King Jeongjo, the 22nd king of the Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910), constructed the fortress complex to honor and house the remains of his father Prince Sado who was forced to commit suicide by being shut in a rice chest by King Yeongjo. Still, it is a well-preserved architecture of the Joseon Dynasty built of stone and oven-baked bricks.





On the fortress…


Suwon World Cup Stadium

Next, we proceed to Suwon World Cup Stadium (“Big Bird Stadium”), which seats 43,288, opened in May 2001. It’s known as “Big Bird Stadium” because its roof was designed by the inspiration of a bird in flight. Besides that, the seats are inspired by Hwaseong Fortress. The following 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan matches were held in the Suwon World Cup Stadium. It was the 'highest scoring' stadium of the tournament, averaging five goals per match. The stadium is currently open to visitors.


3 mascots of 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan


Orange(Ato), purple(Kaz) and blue(Nik) (respectively) futuristic, computer-generated creatures. Collectively members of a team of "Atmoball" (a fictional football-like sport), Ato is the coach while Kaz and Nik are players. The three individual names were selected from shortlists by users on the Internet and at McDonald's outlets in the host countries.

The soft green football playing field



Paranoma view of a quarter of the football field

~Day 3 in Everland, Yongin (2/2)

After long hours of bus journey, finally we reached Everland, a theme park in Yongin (suburd of Seoul). Everland is South Korea’s largest theme park. It’s operated by Samsung Everland, which is a subsidiary of the Samsung Group. For my opinion, it’s similar as Disney land in architecture, scale, themes and general atmosphere.

I believe kids will definitely love this place, we felt very happy and excited like a kid when we stepped into Everland. We were like dreaming in the fairy tale world, as Enchanted Movie. :P


There are different theme applies to different season period, we were in “Happy Halloween Party” theme for the period of September 5, 2007 to November 2, 2007. Every corner in Everland had been decorated with Halloween’s atmosphere.


There are some attraction points in Everland, such as some American & European adventure games, Magic Land, Aesop’s Village, Zoo-Topia and Global Fair.

Double Rock Spin at American Adventure


I never tried on this as I couldn’t stand for the spinning rotation. However, I tried for the roller coaster at American Adventure too. Imagine how excited it is when taking roller coaster at night time with only 3 of us (Ice, KS and me). It made me think of the movie, Final Destination III at that moment, but finally still tried to take this challenge. Wow, it was so scary and excited to play this dangerous game under the cold wind.

Next, would be the skyline ride (like a ski lift) to get from another section of Everland.


In Zoo-Topia, we were taken into the Jungle by a bus. The trip showed us the genes combination of tiger and lion, named Tigion or Liger. Too bad that I couldn’t take any picture of them as it was during night time. But, my previous blog showed that.

Zoo-Topia Entrance


Everland Moonlight Magic Parade, the parade of night in all type of splendid colors. The mysterious world of magic along with thousands of light.

while we were waiting for the perade…






Follow by Everland stage performance


Lastly, the most precious moment finally came to the show, the fireworks…