Gyeongbokgung Palace, Jogyesa Temple, Sewoon Plaza, Bukchongdong Food Culture Street
MAP
We asked for a taxi to Jogyesa Temple at the front desk. I think they checked using an app like K.ride, and they said that no drivers wanted to take such a short trip, and recommended that we walk. Good thing we didn't get a taxi, because we saw so many cool things along the way.
We walked north on Sejong-daero road (세종대로) and came across Deoksugung Palace which wasn’t open yet, but definitely a place to come back to. Then we passed City Hall and came to a fantastic statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin (이순신, 1545–1598). Then we saw a little further on, a statue of King Sejong the Great (the 4th monarch of the Joseon Dynasty) who created Korea’s written language. Hangeul (한글). The ingenious writing system enabled people to become literate in a matter of days.
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| Admiral Yi Sun-sin (이순신, 1545–1598). And check out those huge curved monitors on the building to the left. Korea is truly the land of big screens. |
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| King Sejong the Great (the 4th monarch of the Joseon Dynasty) |
From there we saw a great gate. It was Gwanghwamun Gate, the entrance to Seoul’s greatest palace, Gyeongbokgung Palace. This was actually on our itinerary for another day so since we were there…
As we approached, we saw in the distance green mountains with outcroppings of sandstone. I was struck by how much it looked like the landscape of Southern California - a lot like Malibu Creek State Park, where MASH was filmed. That area really did make a pretty good stand-in for Korea.
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| Gwanghwamun Gate. Doesn't the mountain in the background look like it could be in Southern California? |
Entrance is free if you wear hanbok traditional garb. We didn’t do it, but it was so cool to see so many people dressed in the Korean style posing in front of the historic buildings.
The first thing we saw there was the Royal Guards marching in preparation for the changing of the guards. This was almost better than the actual changing of the guards as we were able to be much closer. I noticed all of the soldiers wore beards and mustaches, but most Korean men are clean-shaven. It turns out that the guards use theatrical beards and mustaches as part of their historical costumes. A big crowd had formed by Gwanghwamun Gate to watch the changing of the guards. There was a children's viewing area roped off in front, so kids could get a good view. A lot of parents had handed the kids their smart phones to get better video!
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| Royal Guards drilling before the changing of the guard ceremony. |
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| Aren't these flags cool? |
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| Changing of the guard ceremony. |
After watching the changing of the guards, we explored much more of the grounds. It was all nicely restored. We exited the grounds to check out the kimchi pots outside the National Folk Museum of Korea. Then a snack at a 7 Eleven. Next door was a shop for renting hanbok. I’m sure there were many more around the palace grounds.
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| Gyeongbokgung Palace |
Walked to the Jogyesa Buddhist Temple. It’s very different from Japanese Buddhist temples. Lots of colorful lanterns & inflatable Buddhas and tigers.
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| This 500 year old tree reaches above the strings of lanterns. |
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Tiger and Magpie! A popular theme in Korea.
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| Inflatable tigers. |
We took the subway to Sewoon Plaza. This area is famous for its maze of electronics distributors. At first we started out seeing shops selling lots of pyrex glass, dewars, flasks, and condensers. Then as we moved toward the electronics section we saw shops with other specialties: HVAC controls, servo motors, buttons, indicators, wire, connectors, integrated circuits, test equipment, and tools. There were motorcycles running up and down the narrow allies making deliveries. I would have loved to look into the shops, but the vendors are wholesalers busy trying to make a living selling to nearby manufactures - 10,000 capacitors here, 750 high current relays there. I’m sure they don’t have time for tourists. Sewoon Makerplaza, is a multistory building filled with more small shops, each specializing on one line of goods only. There were cardboard boxes filled with their wares everywhere - even spilling out into the hallways, How do they find anything?
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| Laboratory glassware. |
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| Electrical switches of every type. |
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| All kinds of cables. |
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| The roofs and utilities of the whole district are in bad repair. One reason is that the area is under constant threat of redevelopment. If it's going to be torn down, why bother fixing it? |
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| Goods spilling out into the hallways. |
We looked at the river walk that flows through Sewoon, then headed for Jongmyo shrine, but they were only offering tours. It was a bit late and we had really just wanted to wander around there for a bit. So, we walked to the subway and went back to the hotel.
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| River walk. |
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| Notice this CU convenience store with the green trim here at the edge of Sewoon Plaza. CU is spelled using Korean characters. It's the only one I saw like this. It's probably because few non-Korean people come to this neighborhood. |
Dinner at Bukchongdong Food Culture Street. The street was just behind the hotel. The restaurants were mostly pubs serving BBQ meat. But we found National Beer (국민맥주), which is popular for its fried chicken. I had a seafood stew with veggies that was really good, even if it was on the edge of being too spicy. The place was lively, with people eating, drinking and laughing. I drank a Cass 0.0 which was quite good.
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| Bukchongdong Food Culture Street |
