Background

Korea has many islands that are scattered mostly along its southwestern coast line with the nation’s most popular vacation island Jejudo sitting even further out to sea.  Korea’s east coast has almost no islands, but one of the country’s largest and most isolated islands Ulleungdo is increasingly becoming a more popular place to visit.  Ulleungdo Island sits about 120 kilometers off the east coast of Korea towards the middle of the Sea of Japan The Sea That Cannot Be Named:

The island is composed of the remains of an extinct volcano that rose up under the ocean.  The volcano is estimated to have last erupted in 7350 BC.  The volcanic nature of the island has caused it to keep a relatively round shape:

The topography of Ulleungo is extremely rugged with nearly every side of the island being composed of steep rock walls. The interior of the island is mostly rugged hills with very little flat land.  This extreme topography of Ulleongdo is what has caused this island to be relatively sparsely populated throughout its history.  Currently only about 9,000 people live on Ulleungdo with the population steadily dropping as more residents move to the mainland.  However, whenever the weather permits up to 1,000 tourists can visit the island when the ferry boats arrive.

Dodong-ri Harbor

Ulleongdo is not easy to reach because it can only be traveled to by boat from two different harbors in either Mukho or Pohang.  When I went to Ulleongdo I used the Mukoho Harbor. The large ferry boat really isn’t that bad of ride, but if the seas are rough people will get sea sick and it can be a nightmare of a ride.  The ferries to Ulleungdo all arrive at one harbor in the small village of Dodong-ri:

The harbor at Dodong-ri is very small and crowded with tourists coming and going on the ferry boats and local fishermen trying to sell off their catches of fresh fish:

Looks yummy:

The harbor is incredibly scenic because it nestled in between two massive volcanic cliffs that stick out into the ocean like tentacles protecting the harbor:

Here is a crude collage of the above photographs:

Dodong-ri

There is nothing modern about Dondong-ri but I really like the place because people are very friendly and the place has a rustic feel to it.  The city is quite scenicly situated in a valley surrounded by soaring mountain cliffs:

The streets of Dondong-ri are very narrow and I had to be careful that ajushi didn’t run me over as I was walking through these streets:

There is plenty of hotels and places to eat in Dodong-ri due to the tourism trade there, but if you like your fast food you are out of luck because here everything is Korean food and it is mostly of the fresh fish variety.  Since my wife and I both love sashimi we ate lots of fresh fish here in Dodong-ri.

Walking around town you can also find many places to buy some outstanding wood carvings:

Ulleungdo is heavily forested and some of the locals have taken advantage of this natural resources to become master woodcarvers.  Something else worth checking out in Dondong-ri is the Daewonsa Temple that is within walking distance from just about anywhere in Dodong-ri:

It is not all that big but it is a nice little scenic place to visit.

The Dokdo Museum

Since my wife and I used Ulleungdo as our jumping off point to see the Dokdo Islets, we made sure we made a stop at the official Dokdo Museum:

If course the museum would have a model of Dokdo right near its front door:

The Dokdo Museum is mainly composed of old maps hanging up on the wall:

The narratives describing each of these maps seem very convincing that Dokdo is in fact Korean territory, but as others have shown who knows if these maps are legit or not?:

No Dokdo Museum would be complete without telling the story of how Ahn Jong-bok and a few Korean fishermen beat the heck out of some Japanse fishermen living on Dokdo.  Ahn then apparently sailed to Japan and received a document from the Japanese authorities acknowledging that Ulleongdo and Dokdo are Korean territory.  Once again if this story is true or not is a matter of much debate.

The museum also has a display about how Dokdo was used as a bombing range by the US military and apparently old bombing shells still wash up around Dokdo from time to time:

Interestingly enough my favorite part of the museum was actually looking at the many old photographs of Ulleungdo Island they have hanging up:

Like mainland Korea, Ulleungdo appears to have also been greatly deforested, but today the island is covered in thick pine forests.  Overall the museum was mildly interesting, but I couldn’t help but leave feeling I was just exposed to nationalist propaganda instead of a serious historical analysis of why Dokdo is in fact Korean territory.

Anyway we had a more interesting event ahead of us which was to ride the cable car up to the top of one of the high cliffs that over looks Dodong-ri.

Next Posting: Ulleungdo Island – Part 2