Gyeongbok Palace

The last day of our long weekend in Seoul, we went to Gyeongbokgung (경복궁), or Gyeongbok Palace. This is one of the most famous places in Korea, and it's been on my "must-see-before-I-leave" list for a while.

 The day was gorgeous. The blue sky and bright sun provided for really great, colorful photos. In the picture below is the front gate of the palace. This is probably the more famous part and when I've seen Gyeongbokgung mentioned in Korean textbooks, it's accompanied by a picture of this gate rather than the other buildings.



This is Geunjeong, the first and center building. It was the king's throne room, and is one of the most popular viewing areas for tourists. However, the entire palace grounds is HUGE, and the further you get away from the main gated entrance, the less and less people you see.


I'm absolutely in love with the paint colors and patterns that Korea uses to decorate their traditional buildings. The sunlight on this lucky day gave it plenty of pop and contrast against the sky to actually give justice in a photograph to  how brilliant they are.

There were several Korean tourists wandering around the grounds in traditional dress, called hanbok (한복). Most likely because it was a national holiday. May 5th is Children's Day.


One of the things I found fascinating about Gyeongbokgung is it's location in a pretty central part of the city. It's about a 20 minute walk from city hall. I thought the modern vs. historic contrast of the glass buildings in the distance behind the traditional structures was very interesting.




My favorite part of the palace was the quiet and calmness that you found the further you moved from the entrance. Weaving your way through the maze of buildings, it was easy to wander and get lost (one of my favorite things to do). Eventually, there was no one else in immediate sight and it felt like you were in another world.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Seoul Trick Eye Museum

Image
Our last day in Seoul for the long May weekend, we went to a couple places. The first, located in Hongdae, was the Trick Eye Museum. It's an amazingly fun place set up purely to take funny and awesome photographs due to the optical illusions painted in the space. Each work is accompanied by instructions and an example photo to show you how to take the best picture illusion. Here are some of the ones we took that worked out the best.   In addition to our purchase of a ticket to the Trick Eye Museum, we received a complementary admission to the ice museum next door. This place was smaller, but it was fun, too. It was SO COLD inside though (obviously it needed to be).
Read more

Day trip to Daegu

Image
Daegu is the 4th largest city in Korea and only a 20 min KTX ride north of Ulsan. (of course it takes an hour and a half for me to GET to the KTX station...) One Sunday, a giant group of us decided to take a day trip to the giant city to go zip-lining at a ropes course that one in the group had heard good things about. The time we were here was the peak of fall colors in the area and everything was gorgeous, not to mention the perfect fall temperature. It was chilly, but just enough that a sweater was enough to keep you warm: my favorite kind of weather. The park was called Herb Hillz (yes, with a 'z') and it included many aspects in addition to the suspended ropes course including tons of gardens, a small zoo and a small amusement park.   Before we were allowed up in the trees, they had us go through a little practice course that was a few feet off the ground. The staff members don't go up into the trees with you like many zip-l...
Read more

A Korean Wedding

Image
Two weeks before the event itself, the landlord of my apartment (whom I know very well and am friendly with) messaged me to invite my neighbor and I to his son's wedding! This surprising method of invitation was the first of many things I would learn about Korean weddings. Firstly, there are 2 types of weddings: "traditional" and "western". Traditional weddings are extremely rare, barely anyone opts to have them anymore, but many of its little practices still show through in the Korean interpretation of the "western" wedding. This is the wedding hall in which I attended the wedding. As you can see, it's very showy. The center aisle and the front area is actually a stage. These giant halls are rented for just the ceremony. A business or building that runs them usually has several and on a given day (especially Saturdays), there are usually many weddings going on at the same time, and 3-4 lined up in the same event hall for the same day, get...
Read more