[Suwon City Tour] - Experience Korean Archery at Yeonmudae (Dongjangdae)

 

Yeonmudae  or Dongjangdae (연무대-동장대) is located inside 

UNESCO World Heritage site, Suwon's Hwaseong Fortress.

Dongjangdae, meaning Eastern Command Post, stands next to Dongbuk Gongsimdon. It's facing Changnyongmun across an archery field. The command post is nicknamed Yeonmudae, as the reference to its second function as a training camp. 

  Yeonmudae is situated between Hwahongmun (North gate) and 

Changryongmun (East gate) on a relatively high hill. 

After left Hwahongmun, our tour guide told us that we're heading to Yeonmudae, and we can experience Korean Archery there. Sound interesting and we decided to participate and pay KRW2,000 per person to the guide.

Yeonmudae was used as military observation post and also

military training camp for troops practiced martial arts 

involving swords, spears and arrows for over two centuries.

When the king was in residence in Haenggung, there were two generals
and four soldiers on guard in this command post at all times.
Each officer was armed with a bow and arrow, sword and baton.

 

Yes... Now visitors can experience and learn archery at this
open space field with skillful instructor.

We need to wait for awhile, as the other group of 30 people
was still practicing here.

A set of bow and 10 arrows for firing~!!!

  
Ok, I'm all ready for my first time arrow shooting!


Position myself according to the blue footsteps :)
I want to be as cool as Ki Seung Nyang (Ha Ji Won)
with her archery skill in Korean Drama 'Empress Ki (기황후)'.


 Wow I was so excited and started fun shooting and flying
few of my arrows before instructor coming to me!

And realized that I did it wrongly! Heol~! I totally forgot
everything on what I learned about gravity from school... sigh!!!

The correct way is you need to shoot higher as your arrow is subject to gravity, and will fall downward while traveling from the point you shoot to the target. 

Come, let's check how many bullseye shoots I have...

Wow~ not bad huh... 4 out of 10 arrows!!! 

Actually I just pose as if as I was pulling out these 4 arrows. How cool~! But in reality was I just collecting these arrows so the next group can use them. It's not as easy as I thought. Sob sob ㅠㅠ

So, the correct answer is ZERO! None of my arrows touched this giant bullseye board. Well, some decided to land before the board, and some traveled beyond the board! Clap clap clap!!!

Oh yeah, we need to thanks our tour guide for taking these awesome photos for us~! ^^

Yeonmudae was featured in Korean variety show 1박 2일 (1 Night 2 Days) and Running Man.

 Yeonmudae (Dongjangdae)  

Add: 20, Changnyong-daero 103 beon-gil, 

Paldal-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do (Maehyang-dong).