The Eastern Area

Dashing waterfalls, lakes, limestone grottos, beautiful beaches, cliffs-all these are the endowment of God. In winter you can enjoy skiing in our snowlands.


Yong Pyeong ski resort, Kyongpodae beach in Kangnung, Soyangho lake in Chunchon, and Mt. Sorak.

Cheju Island

Fresh air, craters, bizarre lava formations, chocolate-colored soil, clean beaches, Mt. Halla, a mill climate, and warmhearted people-this is the image of Cheju island.


Convenient tourist facilities, deluxe hotel, and leisure facilities have helped make the island famous around the world as a tourist resort.
Mt. Halla, Chungmun Resort, Yongduam Rock, Chongbang Falls, and Songsan Ilchulbong Peak.

Gunkanjima, Japan

Hashima Island, commonly called Gunkanjima (meaning “Battleship Island”) is one among 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki itself. The island was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility.


Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 and began the project, the aim of which was retrieving coal from the bottom of the sea. They built Japan’s first large concrete building, a block of apartments in 1916 to accommodate their burgeoning ranks of workers (many of whom were forcibly recruited labourers from other parts of Asia), and to protect against typhoon destruction.

As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960s, coal mines began shutting down all over the country, and Hashima’s mines were no exception. Mitsubishi officially announced the closing of the mine in 1974, and today it is empty and bare, which is why it’s called the Ghost Island. Travel to Hashima was re-opened on April 22, 2009 after more than 20 years of closure.

Caen, France

Vee and I had the fourth of four Easter breaks in north-west France when we visited Caen in 1996. The main themes of the visit were two invasions: the Norman invasion of England in 1066 and the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944.

Caen itself is a very historic town. It houses the Abbaye aux Hommes where William the Conqueror was buried in 1087 (nothing now remains) and the church of La Trinité where Queen Matilda was buried in 1080 (her remains are still there). The Château was originally built by William in 1060 and even the church of Saint Pierre is 14th century Gothic. As a rest from all this history, we enjoyed frequenting a delightful coffee & cake shop called "Roland" on Rue St Pierre.

Since we had taken the car on the ferry journey from Portsmouth to Ouistreham, we were able to do some local travelling. At Bayeux, the saw the tapestry commemorating the 1066 invasion. More than 900 years after it was created, it is still in wonderful condition with 58 scenes and 623 figures occupying a length of 231 feet. As far as the 1944 invasion was concerned, we visited the memorial museum in Caen itself ( which has films on D-Day and the Battle of Normandy); on the outskirts of the town, we saw the famous Pegasus Bridge and the first house to be liberated; and, out at Arromanches, we observed the remains of a British Mulberry harbour and looked around a memorial museum. The other trip we made was out along the Côte Fleurie route to the beautifully picturesque little port of Honfleur.

Český Krumlov, Czech Republic

The Czech Republic contains so many historic towns of architectural interest and I was delighted when, at Easter 2002, our friends Honza and Eva Horváth drove us south from Prague to the south Bohemian town of Český Krumlov near the Austrian border. The name 'krumlov' is old German and means a place on a crooked-shaped meadow, while the Český part of the name was added in the mid 15th century when it was the seat of Vítek of Krumlov. The town dates from medieval times and, until 1938, the population was always a mixture of Czechs and Germans.

Český Krumlov is situated on the hook of the River Vltava and dominated by the castle and mansion on the north side of this hook. The castle was founded before 1250 and, in the course of six centuries, 40 buildings, five courtyards, and extensive parks were created. The old town is surrounded on three sides by the river and contains a host of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings. The town is also noted for a recent addition, the art gallery devoted to the work of local painter Egon Schiele.

On our visit, we had lunch at an excellent vegetarian restaurant called "Laibon".

Machu Picchu, Peru

During a three week tour of South America in 2002, Vee and I saw the legendary Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was inacessible until the discovery of the Inca Trail in the 1940s and even today it is only accessible by train or foot. The whole area is semi-tropical because it is 3,000 ft (900 metres) lower than Cuzco. We travelled by train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes. Here a bus took us up the private road which snakes up the very steep mountain-side to Machu Picchu itself.

Maccu Picchu (Old Peak) is the name of the mountain from which one looks down on the ruins, while the mountain which looms behind them is called Huayna Picchu (Young Peak). The location was revealed to the outside world by the American explorer Hiram Bingham who came across the site in 1911 while actually searching for the last refuge of the Incas at Vilcabamba.

We do not know exactly when the buildings were constructed, but we believe that the first buildings can be attributed to Inca Pachacuti. Equally we do not know how they engineered the stepped and ordered geometry of precisely keyed polygonal blocks and trapezoidal openings. Finally we do not know why the city was abandoned. The three main theories are that there was an invasion from the jungle, there was yellow fever or malaria, or there was a major fire caused by lightning.

Much of the reconstruction is based on Bingham's ideas of how the Incas lived, but some of it is guesswork and some of it is wrong (for instance, the Incas did not have windows in their buildings). Nevertheless, it is a really inspiring place. There is the Temple of the Moon, the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Three Windows, and the intiwatana or hitching post of the sun.

There are three trails to be walked (or rather climbed) at Machu Picchu. One leads to the top of Huayna Picchu, but we were warned that this is a really difficult climb with a vertiginous conclusion and we did not have the inclination (sorry about the pun!) for this. We itinially took the trail to the Puente Inke (Inca Bridge). This was challenging enough, with some really precipitous edges.


We stayed the night at the Sanctuary Lodge hotel, the only hotel at the site. Next day, we were up early to see the sun rising over Machu Picchu. It was too overcast for colours, but it was thrilling to see the first rays stream down the mountainside to illuminate the ruins. We then took the other more accessible trail, that up to the Intipunktu (Sun Gate). This was a longer and steeper climb than the trail to the Inca Bridge, but along the whole route there were fabulous views and the scene from the Sun Gate itself was inspirational.

Terracotta Warriors, China

What puts the Chinese city of Xi'an on the tourist map is the world-famous terracotta army which is, in fact, located some 18 miles (30 km) north-east of the city. My wife Vee & I saw the warriors as part of a two-week tour of China in September 2000. The army was constructed on the orders of Qin Shi Huangdi who reigned as emperor from 221-210 BC. They were discovered accidently by three farmers digging wells in March 1974.

The main hall (No 1) is over three acres (1.26 hectares) in area and houses some 6,000 larger than life-sized terracotta warriors each with different facial features . As we walked into the hall – the first people there in early morning observing the serried ranks of statues some 2,000 years old – it was an awe-inspiring moment.

After visiting the smaller No 3 and No 2 halls respectively, we went into small museum housing two magnificent less than life-sized bronze chariots, unearthed in 1980, and finally watched a 360 degree film on the origin of the terracotta army. What many of us had not realised and what the film made very clear was that most of the statues were smashed by rebels immediately following the death of the emperor, so what we see in the halls today is the result of painstaking reconstruction, a process which is far from complete.

While we were at the museum complex, we met one of the farmers who discovered the army in 1974 and he signed a souvenir picture book for us. After two and a half hours at the museum, we drove off, past the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huangdi. The construction of the mausoleum involved a conscript workforce of 600,000 men. The grave has still not been opened, so new treasures may still be waiting to be uncovered.