Boseong Green Tea Fields
Unfortunately we only had about half a day to hang out in Boseong and the green tea fields, but what a relaxing half day it was! We arrived in this small town around 1pm or so and were dropped off at a tiny, run-down bus station. It was furnished with very old Korean men and women sitting around who had the faces of tea farm workers. They had big hats, darker skin, deep wrinkles, and some of the women could not walk upright. A lifetime of working in the fields had given them a completely bent figure, with the upper half of their bodies always parallel to the ground beneath them. It was neither sad nor strange to me really, but definitely fascinating to see such a contrasted Korean from the Seoulites who walk around in heels and are constantly checking themselves in the mirror or any other reflecting object that is close to them.
I just felt warmth standing there at that bus station surrounded by all these strangers. Countryside people are generally simple and kind, I suppose that’s almost a given anywhere in the world (America included). It was almost enough to make me want to move out to this rural stretch of Korea, and I talked about that actually, how nice it would be to live out in the countryside for a while. We all promptly agreed that a year would probably be too long to commit to, haha. Some foreigners do it though….you would walk away having a COMPLETELY different experience than if you had lived in Seoul!
After about half an hour, a local bus headed for the tea fields came and we got on board. We were surrounded by these workers with their giant bags of tea leaves and other food they’d been harvesting. They had so many of these bags with them! It was cute though when the bus came to our stop. We were all sitting in the back, and everyone turned around and started yelling at us and pointing for the door. It couldn’t have been more obvious to them why we had come and what we wanted to see, haha.
So we made our way off the road and into this park. Evidently Boseong has the cleanest air in all of Korea, and just walking around and breathing would make you a believer. I don’t know how many times we commented on how wonderful the air was and how good it smelled! We headed through tall rows of pine trees, around nice little sitting areas where you can enjoy nature, and then you can see the rows of green tea plants just stacked one on top of another.
I don’t know, for me it’s one of those stunning features of Asia that I had always imagined (partly out of shamed ignorance) before I came to this part of the world. Asia is the Great Wall, temples, koi, and green tea fields….right? Of course there is so much more, (don’t forget bamboo! haha) but it was nice to finally see this in person because I don’t think pictures really do it justice. You have to be there to see the enormity of it, and smell it. So, we hiked up a few of the hills and made futile attempts to capture some of the beauty on film. It wasn’t too crowded there either, which was nice. It’s strange to be in Korea at a tourist destination and NOT be fighting the crowds. That being said, this was the weekend before the big Chuseok holiday (Korean Thanksgiving), so people are preparing for that all over the country and will be traveling in droves then.
We marched back down the hill and enjoyed a late lunch of bibimbap made with green tea rice. Ok, bibimbap is one of my all-time favorite Korean dishes. It translates to “mixed vegetables and rice”, and that’s exactly what it is….nothing weird. It’s sooo good (and very healthy for you), and you can add in some spicy red bean paste and mix it all together. I had never had the green tea rice kind, but it was yummy also.
Feeling quite content, it was time to check out the little shops. I picked up some….*drumroll*……yep, you guessed it, green tea!! I prefer iced green tea so I got some packets for that, but also picked up some green tea latte mix which I’d never had, and a bag of some green tea snacks (for my favorite class because I promised them I would bring them back a present, haha). And before I knew it, we were on our way back to the big city where the crowds and streets would soon bring me back to a much faster tempo. It’s so nice to get out and slow down once in a while…this week at work has been far more enjoyable so far because of it. I’m heading off to Cheongpyeong on Friday with Woon Ha, just staying one night there. And on Monday my friend Jesse comes to visit me for a week!! Of course we’ll be doing some super touristy things, around Seoul mostly, so I’ll try to bring the camera and observant mind along with me.
