Lovely Runner | Banghwasuryujeong — The Pavilion Where She Learned the Pedals

Banghwasuryujeong sits on a knuckle of wall above Yongyeon, the round pond the fortress kept when it needed a lookout that also pleased a king. The official name is Dongbukgaknu, the northeast pavilion. The courtesy name means walking for flowers along willows. Jeongjo's builders finished it in 1794. Treasure No. 1709 now. The grass around the water is a picnic ground that does not close.

Lovely Runner put a bicycle here. Sun-jae taught Sol to ride on the path that rings the pond, under a pavilion that was designed to watch enemies and ended up watching dates. VisitKorea lists 44-6 Suwoncheon-ro 392beon-gil and does not charge admission. Wikipedia places the pavilion at 37.2875 north, 127.0183 east, fifty metres of wall from Hwahongmun.

Walk the short downhill from the pavilion to the watergate and you cover two of the series' hardest scenes in one breath. The pond holds the sky. The wall holds the wind. A visitor who never saw the episode still understands why a teacher would bring a beginner here: the ground is level, the water is a reason to look up, and the city stays just far enough away.

Photo: Banghwasuryujeong and Yongyeon, oreum, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.