Temples in Yangyang.

Temple in Yangyang

Ah, the beloved Buddha

Painted door on the side of the temple

Eaves of the temple

Aubrey and Paul

With clear skies and gorgeous 60+ degree weather, Ara, Kelsey, Paul and I headed to Yangyang, a city just south of Sokcho. Yangyang boasts Korea's third largest airport, and is famous for pine mushrooms, salmon, and sunrises. In fact, Yangyang means sunrise. You can read more about Yangyang here.
Yangyang is also a city that contains all five major religious influences in Korea: Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, and Roman Catholicism. But we were interested in temples today (Buddhist temples, that is). We found this one just a short walk from the bus stop. It wasn't marked, which means it's probably relatively new. It was set back from the main street behind a residential neighborhood. The temple had beautiful and intricate paintings on all sides, mostly scenes involving the Buddha. His birthday is coming up next month, and there are special lanterns lining the streets as a decoration. We couldn't go inside, but there was plenty to appreciate from the exterior. The temples here are extremely colorful and beautiful--I probably took about 30 shots on this one alone!