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Visible from atop a mountain 806 meters above sea level is a plain spread along the bends and curves of Hunjiang River (渾江), which is thought to have formerly been called Biryu River. This view comes after a twenty-minute bus ride up a slope, a climb up 999 stairs from the west gate, and a further hike up a mountain trail to reach Onyeo (Wunu) Mountain Fortress at Huanren (桓仁) in China's Liaoning Province, the place that served as the first capital of the ancient Korean kingdom Koguryo established around 37 B.C. by Jumong (King Dongmyeong) after he left Buyeo.

Neglected Koguryo Remains at Huanren

Onyeo Mountain Fortress is the inferred location where Koguryo's first capital Fortress Heulseunggol used to be. The fortress built along the mountain's steep, rugged layout must have functioned as an impregnable reinforcement. The bird's eye view from the mountain top of the Huanren basin along Hunjiang River would have been ideal for detecting enemy invasions. What's now left of the man-made fortress is the southern part of its east wall along a gradual slope. That remaining part is immediate proof that Koguryo possessed a sophisticated construction technique of piling wedge-shaped stones upon a tall foundation of large stones and then sticking smaller stones to fill in gaps remaining in the wall.

Somewhere amid flat land nearby the mountain is a place where an earthen rampart of early Koguryo is thought to have existed. It is most likely to have been at Hagoseongja (Xiaguchengzi) located about 10 kilometers southwest of Onyeo Mountain Fortress. Most of the rectangular earthen castle wall estimated to have been 0.8 kilometers long has been lost except for 170 meters of its western section. It has become impossible to find traces of the ancient castle since private residences were built upon the castle wall's foundation. A milestone indicating that the location is a historic site related to Koguryo was installed when the area became designated as a world heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2004, but that milestone is now hard to spot because of a slated wall that was put up in front of it later on.

Up until the 1960s, about 200 tombs remained at the Sanggoseongja village located 1.5 kilometers away from Hagoseongja, which offered hints about the locations of early Koguryo capitals and the lifestyle back then. However, many of those tombs were reclaimed into flat land over the Cultural Revolution in China, leaving only around 20 or so tombs today. Without the sign at the entrance indicating that the area is being publicly preserved, the stone mound tombs could easily be mistaken as a mere pile of rocks, especially since no restoration work has been done on the now collapsed tombs surrounded by all sorts of crops grown by local residents. Yet, such circumstances are better than those of tombs that have been submerged.

Ever since the Huanren Dam was built, most of the clusters of tombs and villages in between the Onyeo Mountain Fortress and Hunjiang River have been flooded so that their sites can no longer be traced. According to the Gwanggaeto Stele, the area to the west of Onyeo Mountain Fortress is where Koguryo's first capital used to be, which means a Koguryo castle could have existed on flat land there. Moreover, the area also used to be considered historically invaluable because of the many Koguryo relics uncovered there that date back to the kingdom's foundation and up to the fourth or fifth century, but now that it's become submerged under water, all prospects of excavation or research have been eliminated.

Damage in the Name of Management

While Koguryo remains in Huanren are being neglected and damaged out of indifference, traces of Koguryo's second capital Gungnaeseong in Ji'an, Jilin Province where the ancient kingdom presumably relocated to after spending nearly four decades at its first capital Jolbonseong is being damaged in a different sense under the Chinese government's insidious management.

Of course, the area looks fancy on the outside. A three-hour drive away from Huanren, Ji'an gives the impression of a well-planned city. It faces the North Korean city Manpo on the other side of Amnok (Yalu) River, which presents a stark contrast to the glitzy shopping street and walkway along Ji'an's side of the river. It shows that the Chinese government put more effort into Ji'an rather than Huanren since the Northeast Project was launched in the early 2000s. Before parts of the city became designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a tremendous amount of funds was invested into building transportation infrastructure such as a highway and railroad. The whole of Ji'an became transformed into a tourist destination as hundreds of private residences and walls near historic sites became torn down and rebuilt.

Visiting major Koguryo remains in Ji'an makes it easy to notice that disputes surrounding history are ongoing between Korea and China. For example, visitors at the Ji'an City Museum are not allowed to talk and can only listen the commentary given by a Chinese guide. Even ethnic Koreans certified as local tour guides are not allowed to offer commentary of their own and can only translate what a Chinese guide says. According to the local tourism industry, guidelines for such a practice have been set up early this year, and although they are not explicitly mentioned in writing, tour guides leading groups of Korean tourists have been prohibited from offering their own commentary whenever they visit major historic sites such as museums, the Koguryo general's tomb Janggunchong, or the Gwanggaeto Stele.

The Chinese guide's commentary at the Ji'an City Museum is therefore likely to sound biased to Korean visitors. Most of it implies that Koguryo's civilization originated from mainland China, saying that "mainland China was in the iron age while Koguryo remained in the old stone age, so Koguryo had no currency of its own," or that "most of Koguryo relics uncovered at Ji'an came from mainland China since Koguryo didn't possess the technology to produce them." And such comments are only provided orally and are not included in the museum's display panels or pamphlets. Nevertheless, it seems fairly obvious that the museum is serving as a power plant that generates and imparts distorted historic details to the Chinese.

Some remains are rapidly being damaged under the Chinese government's strict management. It is said that King Gwanggaeto's tomb Taewangneung used to be a stone grave in the shape of a pyramid, but the stone steps that used to cover the tomb's exterior have now all fallen apart, making it difficult to picture its former glory. Rather than being accurately restored based on historical research, the chamber at the top of the tomb where the dead has been interred appears to have been carelessly patched up with cement. Severe damage has also been done to the mural inside Tomb no. 5 among the tombs of nobility called Ohoebun. Exposure to high levels of humidity and tourist traffic has cause the mural to be markedly affected by dew condensation and efflorescence so that moss can be seen growing underneath the lamps installed to light up the dark indoors. Such circumstances warrant an immediate shut down and restoration, but the current relations between Korea and China lack the channels necessary to make relevant requests or suggestions.

A Historical Asset to Mankind

A complex trail of emotions hung around the three-day trip to Huanren and Ji'an between the 6th and 9th of July 2017. The iron fences set up around each historic site felt like a symbol of exclusion and concealment rather than preservation and engagement. What seems urgent is for Korea and China is to actively partake in academic exchange out of mutual recognition toward the importance of restoring Koguryo history, which is not a history exclusive to China or Korea, but a shared history of mankind.

What is equally important is to reestablish the status of historical research on Koguryo. Koreans resolved to defend their own history as they became swept up in sorrowful indignation ten or so years ago upon learning that China had launched the Northeast Project, but the efforts the Korean government put in has remained meager compared to the astronomical amount of funds the Chinese government has put into its own agenda. There are still very few specializing in Koguryo history at universities or research institutes and without enough positions available for such specialists once they graduate, it is realistically difficult to encourage students to study Koguryo history.

In that sense, President Moon Jae-in's order to designate the restoration of the ancient Korean kingdom Gaya's history as a national task for the current administration may serve as a positive example since it has reignited discussions about studying the history of Gaya. Lending government support to areas of historical research that have been neglected should be welcomed. And hopefully such support and attention may be extended to the history of Koguryo, which lies at the root of Korean history.