It isn’t an international ‘mecca’ for tourists, in fact it is barely known. Nevertheless it has been the tourist destination at one end of the busiest air route in the world.
While little known outside of Korea where it has been revered for decades as a honeymoon destination, long before most Koreans had enough money to become tourists.
Actually in the world of Africa animal viewing it is ’the big five’ that is most craved. They include the elephant, rhinoceros, lion, leopard and buffalo.
But my discourse here is on the ‘really big four’. They are as could be expected the elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo and hippopotamus. Of these the rhino is the rarest and also the least likely to threaten humans.
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My long morning walk to Tibet was a kind of symbolic pilgrimage.
When I set off, for what turned out be an eight-month trip around the world, in September 1970, my primary interest was Asia and within that, the “Confucian’ influenced countries…China, Korea, Vietnam and, to a lesser extent, Japan.
A month was devoted to Japan, two weeks Korea, 10 days Taiwan and I went to the China border in the New Territories of Hong Kong.
