Our Beloved Summer|Hwahongmun — The Picnic Under Seven Arches

Hwahongmun is the north water gate of Suwon Hwaseong, seven arches over the Suwoncheon and Banghwasuryujeong Pavilion sitting above Yongyeon pond. VisitKorea sends the picnic here. Ung and Yeon-su spread a mat on the grass in the years before they learned how to leave each other.

The fortress is a UNESCO wall you can walk. The gate is the photograph everyone already has, which is useful. You come for the same reason the camera came: water under brick, a pavilion that does not move, a lawn that still takes a blanket. In summer the stream runs under the arches. In winter the stone holds the cold.

Yeonmudae, where soldiers drilled, is a short walk along the wall. Haenggung-dong, where the show borrowed streets for their neighborhood, starts when you come off the rampart. The picnic was not shot in a park designed for television. It was shot in a fortress Jeongjo built to move a capital. The mat is gone. The arches are not.