Namhansanseong

In the winter of 1636 King Injo retreated into this fortress with the Qing army behind him and held out for forty-seven days. In early 1637 he walked down and bowed in surrender at Samjeondo. The walls have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014, and they still feel like they remember how that winter ended.

I walked them on a bright February day with snow in the shade. A cat sunning itself on pine needles, the long wall bending over the ridge, Sueojangdae — the western command post — in its old greens and reds, then along the wall down to Jihwamun, the South Gate.

History is hungry work, so the day ended in Buldang-ri with a pot of baeksuk and a bottle of Namhansanseong makgeolli. Heritage, properly digested.