Buan, Jeollabuk-do, is a place surrounded by the sea on three sides, blue mountains, and wide fields.
During the reign of King Yeongjo of Joseon, Park Mun-su, a secret royal inspector, described Buan as “rich in fish, salt, and firewood, making it a good place to pay homage to one’s parents, so it is called ‘Saenggeo (living) Buan.’” This means that it is a place where people can live comfortably. From the Byeonsan Peninsula, which was created when the Noryeong Mountain Range reached the western sea, to the Oebyeonsan Mountain, which embraces the sea, to the Naebyeonsan Mountain, which has waterfalls and lakes in the mountains, each has its own charm that captivates people. We meet the story of Buan, which has beautiful scenery embracing the sea, mountains, and fields, and the people who live there.
This week (August 12th – August 15th) at 7:20 PM, the 4-part series ‘Falling in Love with Byeonsan, Buan’ will air on EBS 1TV.
The sea turned into land, Gyehwa reclaimed land
Gyehwado Island, located 4km from the northern tip of Buan’s Byeonsan Peninsula, was turned into land through the largest reclamation project since liberation.
The area that used to be the sea in front of Gyehwado Island is now a wide reclaimed farmland. A large amount of rice is produced every year in the Gyehwa reclaimed land that changed the map of the west coast.
Yangji Village, which holds the last remaining port in Gyehwado
Yangji Village, located at the eastern foot of Gyehwasan Mountain. It was originally called Gwangdang, meaning a village filled with sunlight, but it was given the name Yangji Village by the Joseon Dynasty Neo-Confucian scholar Jeon Woo, who came to the village and taught his students.
The Gyehwa Port in front of the village was once a golden fishing ground, where people made a living by catching fish in the sea and digging for lilies and clams in the tidal flats. However, after the reclamation project, it changed into a farming village. In Yangji Village, the residents are carrying out a village project to increase their income in addition to rice production, which is making nurungji with rice from the reclaimed land. Every morning, they gather at the village hall to make and package nurungji.
Gyehwado, where Master Jeon Woo Ganjae trained his students
At the end of the Joseon Dynasty, I will not set foot on land ruled by Japan. The last Neo-Confucian scholar of the late Joseon Dynasty, Mr. Jeon Woo Ganjae, left the government and came to the island. The place where he taught his students and ended his life was Gyehwado. Mr. Jeon Woo Ganjae, who was determined to regain national sovereignty through Confucianism. It is said that about 3,000 people came from all over the country to learn from him. After Mr. Jeon Woo Ganjae passed away, those who gathered to inherit his ideas and the residents of Gyehwado gathered at the shrine ‘Gyeyangsa’ built by his disciples to hold a memorial service.
Food that reminds you of the island of Gyehwado, lily porridge
Lily porridge is considered one of the nine representative foods of Buan. In the Buan region, it is called ‘saenghap’ because the shell is hard and does not spoil easily.
Ms. Lee Hwa-ja, who was born and raised in Gyehwado, said that after she left her hometown after getting married, she started making lily porridge, a food that she used to dig up and eat on Gyehwado. What is different from what her mother used to make for her when she was young?
They say that they are recreating the taste of that time by boiling whole lilies with their shells and adding only chopped clam meat. Let’s meet lily porridge, a food that reminds us of the tidal flats of Gyehwado, and the story behind it.
Reporter Park Yu-mi Photo = EBS Hometown Republic of Korea
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2024-08-14 13:10:41