Muju Taekwondowon Promotion Tour!
Anette
6:49:00 PM
In July 2013 the new Taekwondo head quarters is going to open in Muju, and in order to promote this project the TPF (Taekwondo Promotion Foundation) have been arranging trips for foreign students in Korea to come and see the building site.
I was one of the lucky foreigners who got the chance to participate in a two-day trip, which in addition to Muju also took us to the city of Jeonju. Two of my friends, Tanya and Maya, also had the chance to join the trip, and on Sunday we all met up in Seoul. TPF had arranged two busses for the trip, with a total of about 40 foreign students joining in.
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| This is how the Taekwondowon is going to look like when it is finished. |
After an couple of hours in the bus we arrived in Muju, where we got a guided tour of the Taekwondowon area. The architect had made a design that focused on harmony with the surrounding nature, and at the same time the placment of the buildings are meant to symbolize the different stages in the Taekwondo graduation process: The first area you come to when you arrive stands for the white belt, then comes the area symbolizing the yellow belt, and it continues like this to an observatory on the top of the mountain symbolizing the black belt. The different areas also have different purposes, as they focus on spirit, mind and body. The area has buildings for training, games and exhibition, but also a center for research on Taekwondo and buildings for accommodation. Here are some pictures from the construction site:
However, as the construction is to be finished next year there is still a lot of construction left to be done. I think it will would have been more interesting to see the construction at a later state, but then again I suppose it is a good reason to come back later to see how the project ends up.
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| At the beginning of the trip we got some information about the project |
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| In front of the main Taekwondo building |
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| The bridge symbolizing the black belt stage |
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| Still a lot of construction to get done |
In addition to seeing the construction site of the Taekwondowon, we also visited a place called Bandiland (bandi, 반디, means firefly in Korean) where you can mainly see a large collection of butterflies from all over the world. In addition to the butterflies, they also have other insects and some fossils, and in addition to this there is also a cinema where they show a 3D video which I'm sure must be popular among the kids. After a guided tour of the center we were escorted to our hotel, where we were assigned rooms for the night, and spent the evening partying with the other participants.
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| Posing by a Bandiland statue |
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| Some of the poor butterflies.. |
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| Group picture taken in Bandiland |
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| Muju has some great facilities for skiing |
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| Ready to practice some taekwondo |
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| Kick! |
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| From the Taekwondo-show |
After a great weekend it was time to go back to school in the GIP, and with only a couple of weeks left of the semester it means that I should also get back to my studies now. Ciao!
