Jeju island English speaking tour guide

Jeju island,the largest island in South Korea, has been a country’s favorite holiday destination because of its exotic charm scenery and  tropical climate.  This island is also regarded as Samda-do which means there are abundant of 3 things; stones,wind and women. 90% of Jeju island is covered by lava soil and stones because it is volcanic island and it is located on the path of typhoons, so that we have lots of winds and storms. Women had been always outnumbered men in Jeju island for a long time.

*Notice- This article is written by non-native English speaker.

Jeju island is a volcanic island. The volcano started erupting 1 million 300 thousands years ago and it had kept erupting for more than 1 million years constantly. That’s why this island has 368 craters and more than 120 lava tubes. There is the highest mountain in South Korea called Mt. Halla (1,950m)  which is also a volcanic crater  in the middle of   Jeju island. There are two big cities one is Jeju-si and the other one is Seogwipo-si. 2/3 population in Jeju live in Jeju-si because it is a capital and administrational city and Seogwiposi is more like touristic city. Diverse kinds of tangerines are grown in Seogwipo-si and they are exported to mainland and carrots are grown on the eastern side and potatoes are on the western side.  There are two big industries. One is agriculture and the other one is tourism. Actually In 1960s to 1980s Korea was under the military dictator ship, so that people didn’t have free to go abroad for tour. Instead of going to aboard, people chose Jeju island for an alternative. Since then tourism has started growing up. Now you can’t imagine Jeju island without tourism.

According to legend, Jeju-do was founded by three demigod who came out of holes in the ground and established the independent Tamra kingdom. Early in the 12th century the Korea dynasty took over, but in 1273 Mongol empire ruled by a son of GingisKhan(KubilaiKhan) conqured the island, contributing a tradition of horsemanship, a special horse(Mongolian pony horse and quirks in the local dialect. During the Joseon period, Jeju was used as a place of political and religious exile.
The Japanese colonization period of the early 20th century can be traced through abandoned military bases and fortifications on the island. From 1947 to 1954, as many as 30,000 locals were massacred here by right wing government foreces in events of collectively labelled the ‘April 3 incident’ Recent decades have seen Jeju’s economy shift from mainly agriculture to tourism. In autonomous province, giving it a level of self government that is encouraging further economic development. The World Conservation Congress was held there in September 2012 and ambitious carbon-free eletricity generation ventures are being tested. Jeju has come under fire from conservationists and other protesters for the planned Korean Naval base at Gangjeong on the island’s southern coast.

*Notice-This article is written by non-native English speaker.
 

 
Hi! today I wan to introduce a movie titled ‘Ji-Seul’ directed by O Muel.

‘Ji-Seul’ means ‘potato’ in Jeju dialect. People fill up the stomach with potato when there is only little food around. However, the story of this movie is about the Massacre April 3rd occurred in Jeju island from 1947 to 1950.

Many years have passed since one of the most tragic incident in Korean history swept across Jeju island. Simply known 4.3 Massacre.

 

 
In 1945, The world war 2 was finished won by US and allies.
Thanks to that, Korea became independent from brutal colonization of Japan.
However, as usual, all of the domestic problems started on that point. We became independent but not completely. Korea’s independence had splited into two countries, South and North.
Korea couldn’t afford to set up a proper independent government by ourselves due to lack of experiences and finance, so that South went to under the influence of U.S and North was controled by Soviet Union.

 

 
U.S represented ‘Lee Seung-man’ while Soviet Union made ‘Kim il-sung’ stand before people.
Then Korea was splited by two ideologies ‘capitalism and communism’
Lee Seung-man wanted to own his government without North Korea but he soon faced
huge resistance by people. People wanted an unified independent government not splited one.
It caused lots of commotions in everywhere in South Korea and the people who involved were put down by police and soldiers indiscriminately. And…….Jeju island was the center of the commotion

 

 
The police and Soldiers from main land infiltrated into Jeju island and to start brutal put down the uprising. The killing were committed under a policy of “driving out communists” and It also destroyed the bonds of trust between communities.
Jeju people were too innocent and ignorant to know about ideology, so called capitalism or communism. However, people were just killed by the name of rioters.
More than 30,000 innocent people were killed by the soldiers, who didn’t know the reason people have to be killed. In that time total population in Jeju island was about 120,000.

If you want more information, click here

 
By the way……. this movie is not a documentary on the massacre. It doesn’t show any political color. It Just shows the brutal massacre from the perspective of Jeju local people.
Before enter the cinema I thought this movie is just low budget well-made B movie but 10 min after movie started I was just being absorbed into the movie. The story is really compelling as well as beating sound, unforgettable scenes and music. Most of all the dialogue in Jeju dialect which is humorous in contrasted with the such tragic situation is superb.

 

 
I admire the director’s passion and effort to the movie. Not because it teaches us lesson such as ‘not forget the tragic from the past’ but because this movie shows what happened in that time in our neighbors perspectives.
If my comments still doesn’t appeal to you…… How about this?
The movie ‘Ji-Seul’ awarded a grandprix prize in the Sundance Movie festival.