Instead of a temple, this time I chose to drag the family to a castle. 먜미성 Maemiseong, or Maemi Castle, is located next to the ocean in Geoje. Parking is up top with a short walk down to the site.
From this point you can see the Geoja Bridge, which connects Geoje with Busan.
Maemi Castle suddenly appears around the bend.
Maemiseong is sometimes called the Castle On The Sea.
The castle isn't actually a castle at all. The name maemi translates to cicada in English, as in the insect. However, the site is named after the 'typoon' Maemi that wreaked havoc in 2003, causing considerable damage to vegetation, crops and structures on Geoje Island. A man named 백순삼 Baek Soon-sam farmed this land by the sea in 대대동 Daedae-dong and decided he could do something to prevent future typoon damage to his farmland and the community. It took Baek Soon-Sam more than 10 years to build the structure.
Just this one man created his castle without a single blueprint. He had no prior experience, he just designed as he went, using medieval castles as his inspiration. He started with concrete bricks. Not being aesthetically pleasing, he replaced the concrete with granite bricks. That did the trick, as this is now a popular tourist destination.
The Castle By The Sea spans 110 meters across and stands 9 meters high.
Baek Soon-sam's castle is currently a must-visit for Insta worthy pics with both locals and visitors. According to Geoje City, the castle had about 400,000 visitors in 2019. The city has since invested money to improve road conditions and parking in the area. Many coffee shops, food vendors and trinket shops have opened nearby. What started as an effort by Mr. Baek to save the neighborhood crops, buildings and people from future storms has ended up bringing big economic growth to the area.
After pictures up top, we went down to 몽둘mongdul beach, which means pebble beach. I would call these rocks instead of pebbles, but potayto-potahto.
We climbed the rocks near the shores and found little tidal pools.
This is sometimes also called Maemi Fortress; from down on the beach, it looks like a big fortress. The top is open and it isn't really a building at all, as you can tell from the first pictures. But it creates beautiful photos, and I guess it's doing its job for protection against storms.
Here are some of the vegetables on the short walk up. Look how big those leaves are. This is exactly what Mr. Beak was trying to preserve. Well done, buddy.
[October 10]
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