My brilliant Korea

In South Korea the cherry blossom is out, as if in preparation for the Queen's arrival next week. JOHN BELL finds a country in a jubilant mood

OF course you'll know about Korea. Take those cradle-to-grave industrial giants - the chae-bol, as Koreans call them: Hyundai, Sam- sung, Daewoo, with their factories and workers who would take a pay cut rather than a day off.

Add to this industrial image a sprinkle of a forgotten war which nearly 50 years ago bequeathed an armistice, not a peace, to this small peninsula and perhaps, with South Korea co-hosting the 2002 World Cup, a dash of football and there you have it, the Republic of Korea as seen by the British. Wrong, big mistake. Perhaps that's why only 50,000 British people visit every year and most of them on business. Even the Queen, when she and Prince Philip touch down in Seoul, the sprawling capital of 11 million souls, on Monday, may land with a heavy heart. She'll have read her itinerary with its selection of factories, dinners and educational establishments but at least she's going shopping. She'll give the touristy It'aewon market a miss and head for the delights of Insadong. In this quiet street, the shelves are full of handmade mulberry paper, calligraphy brushes and the simple Korean ceramics so beloved of the nearby Japanese that, on their frequent and uninvited visits to this country, they fell in to the habit of kidnapping the potters. Rather surprisingly, Koreans have cornered the market in peace. Sitting cross-legged in the Yet Ch'at Chip - the Old Tea House - with a cup of citron, plum or duble (sic) harmony tea, the sound of birdsong and flute broken only by the crunching of rice cakes, you know that this is the true picture of Korea, a nation where the heritage of 5,000 years clamours to be heard. In the Hahoe Folk Village, near the southern provincial capital of Andong, Ryu Sun-Woo and his wife Kim Hae Young are waiting to introduce their royal visitor to the calm of Korea. The chair was delivered last Saturday. With three dynasties only brought to an end by the Japanese annexation of this country in 1910, Koreans know how to treat royalty. "It's our tradition," says Mr Ryu, "that we sit on the floor. The monarch was the only person allowed to sit on a chair." Mr Ryu will sit in his simple living room and explain that his ancestors have lived here for five centuries and that this is not a "folk village" in the European sense. These ancient houses weren't gathered up to create a tourist attraction and there are no tours, merely a request that visitors show respect. Two hours' drive south of Andong the cherry blossom joins the azaleas and forsythia covering the mountainsides of Kyongju, the museum without walls, a city which stopped being the capital of Korea over 1,000 years ago. My driver looks at the blossom and uses up 60 per cent of his English. "Just like Christmas, Mr John" - and it is. It's to Kyongju, the capital of the Shilla dynasty, that every schoolchild must come to learn, to wonder at the royal tombs which dot the city and be proud of this country's history. Accompanied by a horde of chattering 14-year-olds, I hike to the Sokkuram grotto to admire the simplicity of the image of Buddha, look over the mountains to the Eastern Sea and love the painted pagodas of the Pulguksa temple. Walking done, I sit under one of a myriad blossoming cherry trees, amazed that this city survived war and occupation while just 50 years ago the invasion from the north came to a halt almost within hailing distance. The sound in this park is like the dawn chorus as young voices await the highlight of the day, the class photograph. They rush the photographer, as it's Saturday night and they want to get home for the soap opera. EastEnders or Coronation Street? Not quite, as here the tale of King and Queen is that of the Yi dynasty in the 17th century, and the stars are the Royal Palaces of Ch'angdokkung and Kyongbokkung back in Seoul. The children can't get home quickly enough and the convoy of coaches stretches into the distance. On the side of each one is written in English: Hyundai Modern High School. I climb back into my Hyundai bus to travel to my Hyundai Hotel to watch a basketball team sponsored by - I can't write it again - on the television. Mr Chung, the company's boss, is shown in every newspaper doing the impossible. At 83, he's just sent cattle to his starving North Korean homeland and started to build cruise ships so that those from the South may visit the new resorts the company is building in the North. Those same Koreans cannot board the tour bus for which foreign visitors pay GBP 30 to drive 54 kilometres north of Seoul to watch the tall US marines face down their northern foes at the border village of Pan-munjom - followed by lunch. Maybe, and within the long lifetime of my friends from the Modern High School, Panmunjom will become the museum which, in practice, it is, and Korea, the Land of the Morning Calm, will find the peace which, for 5,000 years, it has longed for. WAY TO GO John Bell flew to Seoul with Korean Air (0800 413000), which has five flights a week from Heathrow. Special-offer fares are available at GBP 399 return until 30 June. KR Tours (0171 499 7611) has a 10-day tour, taking in Seoul, Andong, Kyongju and other highlights, from GBP 999, including accommodation, some meals during tours and return flights on Korean Air. Other tour operators featuring South Korea include Premier Holidays (01223 516252), Dream Journeys (01784 449832), Reliance Tours (0171 437 0503) and World Dreams (01483 726699). Further information from the Korea National Tourism Organisation (0171 409 2100).

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