Contributor
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.
Once again, it is ginkgo season in Korea, and there are various websites touting the best places in Seoul – and across the country – to see this iconic tree in the beauty of its stunning autumn colors. Considering there are more than 102,700 ginkgo trees in Seoul, it should not be that difficult to find the perfect one for an Instagram picture.
Anna Northend Benjamin’s observations and venomous pen were not confined to just Korean women; she also commented on the lives of Korean children — more specifically, boys.
Described as "a dowdy female newspaper correspondent," Anna Northend Benjamin traveled extensively throughout East Asia and Russia documenting her experiences and observations. She was blessed with an amazing gift of writing, though, depending upon the reader, her harsh opinions could be seen as a curse. Despite spending less than a fortnight in Korea during the summer of 1900, she wrote enough about the Hermit Kingdom to rankle Horace N. Allen, the conservative American minister to Korea.
In 1900, Anna Northend Benjamin, a popular American photojournalist, declared: “We may say without hesitation that the lot of the Korean woman is the most pitiable, just as the position of her people is the most deplorable, in the Far East.” She went on to add, “In the lower classes she must work, work, work. In the upper classes she must be entombed.”
Following the establishment of the Imperial Korean Customs in 1883, international smuggling has been a problem in Korea. Chinese and Japanese junks frequently attempted to avoid inspections, passengers aboard the handful of steamships hid goods among their luggage, and perhaps even more egregious were foreign representatives who used their diplomatic immunity for their own gains.
The General Sherman, an American merchant ship, sailed up the Taedong River in August 1866 — right up to the very gates of Pyongyang. Ostensibly, the ship’s mission was one of peace: to establish trade and open the Hermit Kingdom to the rest of the world. However, the expedition ended disastrously. The General Sherman was destroyed, its crew slaughtered and its anchor chain became a symbol of defiance against foreign intervention. To this day, North Korea cites the General Sherman incident as an example of early unwanted American adventurism on the Korean Peninsula.
For many, sea travel is viewed as a romantic adventure, but in the 19th century it was a necessary evil, filled with danger and uncertainty. This was especially true in August 1889, when the waters around the Korean Peninsula, Japan and China were plagued by a series of powerful storms.
Homer Hulbert is arguably one of the most beloved early Westerners in Korean history. He came to Korea in July 1886 as an American educator (a task he performed admirably) and went on to write prolifically about Korea — subsequently educating his fellow Westerners of the peninsula’s culture, history and charms. Of course, his efforts weren’t always appreciated, even by his own government; he was occasionally dismissed as troublesome and “going native.” Hulbert was, right up to his death, a champion of Korea’s right to self-government.
In 1907, Thomas Sammons, the American consul in Seoul, described six of the most “notable hot springs” on the Korean Peninsula in a report to the State Department. According to him, five were in the north and only one was in the south — Onyang Hot Spring in South Chungcheong Province.
Over the past couple of decades, saunas (jjimjilbang), spas and hot springs have become popular attractions for foreign tourists. North Korea has a large number of hot springs, and many of them have interesting histories centered around healing. One such place is Jangdol Hot Spring, which traces its history back to an ancient legend involving a skylark (jangdolsae) with a broken leg that landed near a hot spring and was quickly healed.