“Nothing is static. Everything is evolving. Everything is falling apart.”
Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club.
Nothing is static, fictitious character Tyler Durden says in the novel Fight Club. Certainly not in Seoul, a city whose internal cogs move so fast it doesn’t know how to slow down. So to for the country’s seasons – distinct, yet vastly over-proportioned in the extreme ends of Summer and Winter. Spring doesn’t last long.
The first warm winds of the year allow various aspects of Korea to bloom. The first empty rice wine bottles of the season sprout all over the peninsula’s convenience store patios. An unveiling of the lower halves of the nation’s young females mirrors the covering of all things flesh-related in the old. Floral arrangements are furiously installed in urban green spaces as buds begin to emerge. One flower explodes into the urban scenery like a ticking time bomb of exquisite beauty: The cherry blossom.
Mount Ansan, in the North East of Seoul, hosts a cherry blossom festival, where although the trees have been meticulously plotted, the vast floral ocean is so engulfing once in it’s midst that man’s involvement only enhances the revitalizing white waves of wonder.
Korea doesn’t posses the most fertile soil in the world, so nature is given a little helping hand. The entrance of the mountain has been sculpted to be a perfect leisure experience. On your way into the area, classical music emanates from fake rocks through internal speakers, an epic, man-made waterfall descends from great heights at designated times and everything is in it’s right place.
Between the numerous academies, themed entertainment venues and closely monitored weekend activities, the emergence of young lives in Seoul seems much like that of the start of the trail – too engineered. Where are the groups of kids roaming around town? Of course, they’re doing extra homework for their extra English class. Still, when you see happy families hanging out on the mountains, sometimes literally, the children seem as happy as they would anywhere else in the world.
The colors will undergo many changes throughout the year now until they supernova into the declining stages of Fall. “A moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection”, says Tyler in Fight Club. The exquisite appetizer of the blossoms must be appreciated in their brief moments of existence. We might not be in the same place or even alive to experience them next time, such is the impermanence of their, and our own lives.
Nature offers no guarantees.
They descend as rapidly as they emerged. The soft, snow white confetti sprinkles down onto the hard concrete and we’re reminded once again nature can be a cruel mistress, offering us her most fruitful charms for but a fleeting moment before wrapping herself up that old familiar green robe.
Tyler Durden preaches: “You are not special. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else.” In a country overflowing with anti-wrinkle creams and infatuated with surgery that pursues perfection, maybe we can learn something from these elusive flowers.
Our own perceived skin-deep beauty is as the rest of nature – transient, ephemeral, prone to displays of brief magnificence yet in a constant state of flux. Seeing examples of this in the natural world to reflect upon can be a good reminder of our inevitable mortality. Although, much like the chameleon, and indeed the blossom that evolves and dissolves just quickly enough to spread its seed, the self-imposed physical adaptations of Seoul’s citizens can be seen as survival or the fittest; Korea’s hiring practices are as unforgiving as nature itself.
So don’t mourn the loss of natural beauty, for it was only so because of it’s brevity. Were the spectacle not so brief, it would surely lose it’s splendor. Cherish the moment when you are in it, be it an engulfment of blossom trees or any other passing occurrence.
After all, “Even the Mona Lisa”, Tyler says, “is falling apart.”
This was part 3 of the Beauty series on Ansan mountain. Click for parts 1 and 2. Want more Secret Map? Tumble further down the rabbit hole on Facebook.
Love it!
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I’m not much of a flower type of girl. But yeah, I love most of the pictures you posted. And they really are gorgeous. Also, you’re right about the appreciative part. The changes make us grateful.
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Love that film and the quote really has depth to it.
-Mark
revealyourinnerhealth.com
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Good Gosh I miss Korea. Asia is so beautiful, I can’t wait to move back.
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Reblogged this on anadeconsuelo and commented:
good picture
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Love this article.
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Nice to see something beautiful from Korea!
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Amazing. I wanna visit Korea someday.
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Reblogged this on ufairoh27aisyah.
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This is amazing. Keep posting dude !
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Reblogged this on ermayankaggarwal.
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Reblogged this on zara G and commented:
Cherry blossom? I will be seeing you SOON 😉
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Reblogged this on The Student Becomes The Teacher.
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nice looking
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That first picture is my favourite thing of the day.
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Imagine walking out to that everyday hey?
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Reblogged this on dinalovestory and commented:
nice
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Reblogged this on itdrama.
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Interesting narrative. Excellent photos.
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Reblogged this on Entropic Order and commented:
Beauty in the eye of the beholder.
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Trendy pics in there. Really liked the juxtaposition of nature and its vivid colors!
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Reblogged this on The Higher Firewall and commented:
Very varied and amazing scintillating picturesque of nature and you will surely love it! Please go through this amazing post!
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Beautiful pictures. Thank you for sharing!
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Love this! Check me out
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Your photographs are STUNNING!
Lovely post 🙂
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Wooooop! Thanks!
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Reblogged this on benbrilliant.
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Beautifully captured. Wonderful blend of pictures and prose. Thank you for the reminder to step out side our cognitive bubbles and remember the great big world out there
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That’s my pleasure, thank you for your thoughts 🙂
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Amazing photo!
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Like, like, like
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Awesome…..
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Lovely photos! I don’t know why, but I have always adored Cherry Blossoms 🙂 I have the same reaction to sunflowers, it is not possible to look at either and not feel at least slightly cheerier than before you saw them.
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Thank you – those are both two flowers that just cry out for attention ! I wonder if there is such a thing as a sunflower festival…
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I agree. There are sunflower festivals (what can I say I am a Librarian and I Googled lol), there’s the Taebaek Sunflower Festival in Korea, the Sayo sunflower festival in Japan, there’s even one in Ohio and a massive one that includes a music festival in the UK. It’s nice to know others see the worth of these flowers 🙂
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What’s the festival in the UK?
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It’s called Sunflowerfest, here’s the link for the 2014 one http://www.sunflowerfest.co.uk/
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Beautiful snaps. One must be blessed to experience such natural beauty.
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I am for sure
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nice
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Reblogged this on Yet another fine blog … 😀.
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Excellent connections made between the cyclical and the eternal. Thank you!
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I’m glad you connected too 🙂
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Korea is a very beautiful place. I dream of visiting there someday.
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Make it happen..
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Reblogged this on lady46836's Blog and commented:
Hi l am deaf this is vanessa Williams hello what up
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Cool stuff, Check out are sports blog at http://alldaysportz.wordpress.com and follow us on twitter @alldaysports2
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Reblogged this on Apps Lotus's Blog.
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very nice post…
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Great Pictures, all the blossom and to be able to stroll through the park and enjoy it all. Nice
Jim
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Reblogged this on StaR1004GeM and commented:
Beautiful Photographs, hope to visit one day.
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Simply beautiful!
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Reblogged this on Danilo Bortoli and commented:
Dialética simbólica.
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https://i0.wp.com/thesecretmap.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/p5060202-2.jpg?crop=0px%2C325px%2C4287px%2C2143px&resize=660%2C330
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beautiful
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Wow, so beautiful.!!
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Reblogged this on yell0wkorean.
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Beautiful photos!
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Love this series and the photos! They make me want to book to South Korea right now!
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You should!
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Bellissimo! Thank you for sharing this Paradise!
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Beautiful reflections and photos. Thanks.
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really nice~
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Simon, this is an absolutely fantastic post, and your images are beautiful. We have a similar, but much smaller, Cherry Blossom Festival here in Toronto, so it’s nice to see these.
Thanks for sharing a piece of your part of the world.
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Shane, thanks so much, i love that i’ve made this connection through pictures. Still you’re lucky that you get them over there, i’m not sure there are any in UK where i grew up.
Thanks for writing 🙂
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Thank you everyone for the comments, i’m glad to make so many connections from so many parts of the world!
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The pictures are beautiful!
By the way, have you heard about the Cherry blossom seeds that were taken up to the ISS?
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Thanks – I hadn’t until you just told me, but i just had a look. Very interesting…
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It is, isn’t it? Something like that happened in China too, when an astronaut took up some vegetable seeds.
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Superbe!!
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Merci!
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Reblogged this on Batok kelapa.
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Reblogged this on MY LOVER.
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So nice! I like so much your post!
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Really enjoyed this post! Follow for follow?! 🙂
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Reblogged this on sumLucifer.
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Beauty arrives every spring. ~Yolanda
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Beautiful writing and photos. Makes me proud to be Korean.
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사진 잘봤습니다.^^
예년보다 봄 날씨가 따뜻해서 벗꽃이 빨리 떨어져 아쉬웠었는데, 잘 찍으셨네요
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대단히 감사합니다! 난 당신이 그들을 좋아 기뻐요 🙂
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I love the oriental architecture- with the cherry trees in bloom, it’s magical. Makes me think of the ancient Chinese poets. Engaging narrative. Very cool- thanks!
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Beautiful architecture right? I love that temple. Thanks for reading!
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Beautiful Pictures I love Cherry Blossoms
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Reblogged this on Just Ask Big Mama.
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Korea’s beauty is underestimated, I want to visit it again and again.
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Maybe it’s because the urban scenery is less desirable. The natural beauty is gorgeous here though.
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Great pictures and interesting post!
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Beautiful photos.
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With this, I am now much eager to visit Seoul and witness the beautiful cherry blossoms. That would be a dream come true.
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You should come sometime, but make sure you time it right!
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I really want to 😀
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Reblogged this on cecechenn.
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Really beautiful pictures and a great blog! This is one place I would love to visit. Thanks for capturing the beauty of Korea 🙂
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Glad I could capture them for you Darlia 🙂
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Wondeful 🙂
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These are beautiful photos. Did you take all these?
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Thanks a lot, yes I did, I take all the photos on here 🙂
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gorgeous photos!!!
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Reblogged this on T Bone Lai.
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this is so prettyyyy! I can’t wait to go to Korea this summer
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Are you moving here?
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nono. I’m just coming to visit! super excited to try out all the food and shopping 🙂
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Food is amazing here – ever tried galbi?
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Reblogged this on Mon site officiel / My official website.
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That is an amazing view! So jealous!
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Jelly? Where do you live?
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Superbly framed photographs accompanied by such alluring narrative. Do have a look at my new page!
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Thanks Liv, ok I will.
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Just beautiful scenery
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Reblogged this on Life Connected.
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Reblogged this on Imagination .
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Awesome!!!!
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Great article, really liked the pictures you choose
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Thanks John, I’m glad you enjoyed the selection 🙂
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Gorgeous!
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Hmm is anyone else experiencing problems with the pictures on this blog loading? I’m trying to figure out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
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Reblogged this on Endless Wishing on Wells and Stars.
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Beautiful work:) thank you
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My pleasure 🙂
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I was curious if you ever considered changing the layout of your website?
Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so
people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two pictures.
Maybe you could space it out better?
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Hi there, thanks for the compliment on the writing. I’m not sure I understand what you mean – on this article there are 15 pics.
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More reasons that I love Korea ! ❤
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It is unbelievable….vivid, bright, and deep.
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