20170811
Kangwhado is a island located in the West sea of korea 2 hours distance by car from Seoul.
The Island is not far from the land. Now the Island is connected with bridge. You can get there easily by car
Kangwhado is famous for its history especially in Nation Defence and its academic background including literature and philosophy. And this island has long history from prehistory. You can look around lots of dolmen here.
At first the Kangwhado is the west fortress of capital Seoul. So In Koryeo dynasty(918AD-1392 AD), when Mongolian had invaded Koryeo, government escape to the Kangwhado island. The Mongolian forces could not cross the sea between the land and the island, even though they could hear and see the Koryeo army. Mongolians had no experience in the sea battle and it was incredibly difficult cross the sea due to muddy tide land.
In Choson dynasty, the Kangwhado was west defence post to protect Seoul against the threat from the sea, mainly from Japan. Because of this circumstances, there are lots of facilities relating to the National Defence.
I couldn’t have a trek with my mom for a while, so we with my mom had ran to the Kangwhado island.
The first thing we saw was a King’s Archive in Choson Dynasty. As I wrote, Kangwhado was considered very safe place to protect the Documents and Books.
But in 1866 AD, the French fleet invaded the Kangwhado for Imperial purpose. At that time the French navy took the important books and documents and burnt the Archive building.
Later the local government rebuild some buildings, but most of them were still underground.
In side of the building, the king’s march miniature was made from books which had been confiscated by French navy
My mom looking at the miniature
close shot
Finally through long diplomatic contact, the books had return from France to home.
Next to the Archive, there were a local government office. We walked to the office.
the front board of the building
Model was made inside the building
The commander of Kangwhado island.
Thank you for reading.