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Popular tourist stops include the Jeju National Museum and the Jeju Folk Village. Outdoor types are drawn to the striking Mt. Halla, Cheonjiyeon Falls and Jungmun Beach, while golfers revel in the Seogwipo and Jungmun golf courses. Jeju is also a top honeymoon destination for Korean newlyweds.
Since the island's convention center opened in 2003, Jeju has become a popular site for both domestic and international gatherings. The center hosted the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting in 2004, and the APEC finance ministers' meeting in 2005. The Seogwipo Sports Center, where the 2002 World Cup games were held, is located there, along with facilities for golf, wind-surfing, hunting, horseback riding, fishing, and ballooning.
Jeju Island was first made known to the outside world by the Dutch sailor Hendrick Hamel, who was shipwrecked there in 1653, along with 35 shipmates. The men were held for 13 years in Korea before escaping to Japan and then making their way back to the Netherlands. Hamel was the first Westerner to write about Korea. The island now boasts a Hendrick Hamel Monument in the form of a Dutch ship, built where his ship came ashore.
Though beautiful today, Jeju also has a tragic history. Under Japanese occupation in the 1930s and 40s, the island was a frequent site of strikes and uprisings. After liberation in 1945, it became a base for communist activists. In 1948, just ahead of South Korea's first post-colonial elections, an uprising broke out on Jeju Island. On April 3, hundreds of communist activists attacked and killed local officials and ransacked police stations, prompting a merciless response from government troops, who turned against the local populace.
Those who sympathize with the insurgents blame U.S. and rightwing Korean leaders for the slaughter - others blame the communists for setting it off. About 30,000 people were killed in fighting that continued throughout a period of instability until a new Korean government took power in 1949.
For a taste of those rough days, hardy visitors can crawl through Donggwangri cave, a narrow tunnel of about 30 meters long, built by the insurgents of the 1940s.
In July 2006 Jeju became a self-governing province, with control over policies regarding taxation, tourism and visas.
Another interesting feature of the island is its women divers. Since ancient times Jeju women have made their living by diving in the sea to gather seafood. The number of divers, once the symbol of the strength of Jeju women, is dramatically decreasing, largely because women have more job opportunities now due to better education and a more diverse economy on the island. Most mothers do not want their daughters to follow them into this strenuous and inherently dangerous profession.
According to a government survey in 2003, there were about 5,600 women divers in Jeju. Every year, they hold diving competitions and other events, reflective of the communal nature of the profession.
Despite the advent of modern life, the Korean people keep many of their traditions alive. They have managed to strike a good balance between a new lifestyle and their traditional culture.
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(Zhang Quanyi is an associate professor at the Zhejiang Wanli University in Ningbo, China, and a PhD candidate at Shanghai International Studies University, studying policy making and collective identity. He is currently a research fellow at the School of International Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, under a grant by the Korea Foundation. ©Copyright Zhang Quanyi.)
