Chapter 12 South Korea's sea

In the eyes of ordinary Koreans, there is nothing wrong with South Korea, especially their mountains and rivers. You can use the lines of the second lady in the Henan opera "Chaoyanggou" to say: "It's so beautiful-it's so good!" I have seen it several times. One place reads "the most beautiful country in the world", "the most beautiful scenery in the world" and so on.When I went to Jiangling, there was a stone tablet standing there. When I looked up, there were seven big characters engraved on it: "Jiangling's mountains and rivers are the best in the world".Whenever the Chinese encounter such a situation, they can hardly even laugh.But I have been in Korea for more than half a year, and I am already familiar with them.Once they know that your criticism is well-meaning, they can still accept one or two, so I frustrate them every now and then.Once I said to my students: "Don't brag about your mountains and rivers in front of the Chinese. Do you think there is only one Fragrant Mountain in China? Fragrant Mountain is the worst mountain in China. There are hundreds of mountains higher and more beautiful than it. Thousand. Isn’t your highest peak more than 1,000 meters above sea level? An old lady in Shandong, China can climb Mount Tai twice a day. Isn’t your most famous river the Han River? If you fool Westerners into traveling, I can help you out, but you even want to fool the Chinese, isn’t that the same as selling the Three Character Classic in front of Teacher Confucius?”

Seeing that the students were ashamed and pitiful, I said, "Korean mountains and rivers also have beautiful places. The red leaves of Mt. Seorak and the sandy beaches of Baengma River can be ranked among the top 100 in China. But you forget the most beautiful scenery in Korea. In addition to publicity, in my opinion, you should blow your seas hard." South Korea is a peninsula country, except for the 38th parallel in the north bordering North Korea, the other three sides are sea.Oddly enough, however, the sea is hardly visible from the Koreans.Assuming that everyone's appearance has a "motif", Koreans basically fall into two categories: small landlords and poor and lower-middle peasants.You will never see bullies and poor fishermen, let alone water ghosts and pirates.Only from the diet of Koreans, you can know that they cannot do without seafood every day, and seafood pervades every family and every dining table.But to eat and eat, there are only a dozen kinds, the most important ones are squid and sea vegetables.

So I have long wanted to meet the sea of ​​South Korea.In addition to overlooking from the plane, I have inspected a total of 11 times so far, including 4 times in the West China Sea, 4 times in the East China Sea, and 3 times in the South China Sea.The West Sea is China's Yellow Sea.I once looked at the "Sea Fairy Mountain" from Qingdao to Yantai towards South Korea, but the wind was howling, the turbid waves were clear, and I didn't see anything.When I went to Incheon for the first time, the weather was very good. I went around the sea on a passenger ship and found that the sea was nothing to see. It was dark and dirty. It was obviously caused by the sediment of the Yellow River. I could smell the smell of the Loess Plateau. breath.What is worth seeing is the twists and turns of the coastline and the patchwork of large and small islands.The sea here is shallow, there are many beaches, and the islands form natural fortresses to cover ships. It is absolutely easy to attack and difficult to defend in the military. No wonder MacArthur chose this place for a surprise attack and turned the tide of the battle in one fell swoop.If "Incheon Landing" is performed here every day, it will definitely attract a large number of tourists.However, the United States and South Korea were the final losers in the Korean War, and they are probably unwilling to expose their scars.

Another deep impression of Incheon is to eat sashimi in Soraepo.This is the largest aquatic products distribution center in the West Sea. In a market about the size of Wangfujing, there are hundreds of fish stalls lined up, and all kinds of fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs that have just "landed" are jumping and rolling in the pool that is constantly changing water.My companion said that it looks like a dragon palace, but I think it is better to say it is a "hell for fish".Thousands of tourists choose and bargain there.After the fish is selected, the stall owner quickly cuts the fish live. Sometimes half of the fish has been cut into thin fish fillets, while the remaining half is still writhing with white bone spurs. struggling.Customers can go to the nearby restaurant and wait. The gluttons who can’t wait will take out their own hot sauce and mustard and eat it without stopping.To be honest, that day was the most beautiful fish fillet I had ever eaten in my life, and it was also one of the most impressive delicacies. I had many moments of "ecstasy" or "eating climax".I really understand why my ancestors said "the sashimi is not tired of the fine", I really understand why the ancients missed the sashimi in their hometown and didn't even become an official, and I really understood why the Chinese people put the best His art is called "popular".But when I think of the scene of killing fish, I can't help but feel very guilty and feel like a barbarian.I can't bear it, but I want to eat again. No wonder Confucius said "a gentleman stays away from the kitchen".I think this is the hypocrisy of human beings.

I went to Incheon again in the rain.The other two trips to the West Sea were in Ganghwa Island and Taean, the birthplace of Korea, and it felt similar to the first time.However, the few times I went to the East China Sea, the feeling was different.The East Sea of ​​South Korea has a straight coastline, deep and wide water, spotless, quiet and deep, which is the real Pacific climate.I told my Korean friends in Jeongdongjin that it was the first time I saw such a beautiful sea.When I was writing a diary, I wanted to describe it, but I felt that it was not good enough, so I gave up.Later, I suddenly remembered that Bing Xin seemed to have a passage about the sea in "Send to a Little Reader", which was similar to what I saw. When I found it, I found out that it was written about the sea in South Korea!I plagiarized it as my feeling:

After arriving in Koryo, the sea water is like the light of a lake.Extremely blue and extremely green, condensed into one piece.The golden light of the setting sun, like a long snake, goes directly from the sky to the place where people stand beside me.From the sky above to the water in front of the boat, from light red to deep emerald green, it changes into dozens of colors, layer by layer, piece by piece. …My little friend, I hate that I can’t draw. Words are the most useless things in the world, and I can’t write this ethereal scene! Look, even Grandma Bing Xin thought she couldn’t write it, so I simply stopped writing and declared directly that the East Sea in South Korea is the most beautiful sea in the world.This place is not suitable for landing and killing people, or for noisy picnics, it is only suitable for pleasing the eyes and the eyes, and only suitable for reverie.It's a pity that South Korea doesn't advertise such a beautiful sea, but only brags about their kimchi and massage.I want to tell those travel experts that if they go to Korea, they must go to the East China Sea.

I told the students how I felt about the sea in South Korea, and read Bing Xin’s passage to them. They showed happy and grateful eyes, but finally said: "Mr. Kong, our sea in South Korea is of course good. Other things That’s okay! That’s right, that’s right...” I had no choice but to use the Tianjin dialect: “That’s right? That’s right?” They didn’t hear it, so everyone was happy, and the classroom was filled with the warm sunshine of internationalism. Slightly changed from when it was published in newspapers, because I watched Korean Hai Ye many times later.