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I haven't blogged since early May so I'm going to do two blogs to catch up. This first one will be about my visit to Seoul at the beginning of May.
At the beginning of May we had five days off due to it being Labour day on the Friday and Children's Day on the Tuesday (yes there is a special day here for children to get spoiled....hint hint Britain). I decided this was a good chance to go and see Seoul, so I booked a hostel and the KTX (high speed train) and left Friday morning. After arriving in Seoul and trying to work out how to use the Subway, I found my way across the underground metro to Hyehwa to where my hostel was. I went out that afternoon to Gyeongbukgong Palace. It was very big and had stunning architecture. I got to see the changing of the guard ceremony which was very colourful. Then I went to folk museum where they had displays about Korean Shamanism, the farming year and various rites of passage in a Korean's life. It is one of the best and most interesting museum's I have ever been to.....but that's partly because my Paganism leads me to be fascinated and interested in folk religion. In the evening I went to Cheongyecheon stream and Dongdaemun design plaza and park. It was late so everything was closed but I managed to see a lovely display of white LED roses which looked amazing. I also ate some street food which was a bad idea as it heralded three days of food poisoning and illness.
Saturday I decided to go to Changyeonggung Palace and even got a guided tour which was interesting, but by half way through I was getting hot flushes and feeling sick so I had to go back to the hostel and relax. The hostel (Inside Backpackers) was lovely with lots of great information, a good location near the centre and a very cosy atmosphere (plus free breakfast :) ). That evening I had read in my guide book that they usually had entertainment on at the Seoul Plaza next to the city hall so I decided to go see what was happening. It turned out there was a multicultural celebration called "the friendship fair" featuring performances from around the world. I sat down and watched that for three hours before walking around a bit to see the city hall, Gwanghwamun square and statues of King Sejong the Great and Admiral Yi Sun Shin. King Sejong was a great king because he invented the Korean language. In fact, the Korean language is the only one in the world with a known creator and is considered very scientifically based. Before the 15th century when it was invented, the educated classes in Korea used Chinese which has over 50,000 characters, however King Sejong felt sorry for his people and so simplified the language down to only 40 characters so most people would be able to read and write. King Sejong was also responsible for many other scientific inventions in Korea too. One of the key influences on Korea culture is that of Confucius who emphasised meritocracy i.e. to serve in government you had to get educated because he believed people could be taught moral perfection. Under Confucian influence, the kings of Korea had to spend lots of time studying throughout their lives to ensure they would govern well and in some cases it seems to have paid off.
Sunday I was treated to an amazing experience - the Jongmyo Daeje. This is an annual Confucian ancestor ritual where the royal ancestors are honoured. Korea is the only nation that continues this tradition and so the ritual is classified as world heritage. It involved a two hour long ceremony with hundreds of people dressed in traditional dress, playing music, giving offerings, dancing, bowing and generally showing respect to the spirits of the dead kings of the Joseon dynasty. Set in beautiful grounds and with a path you can't walk on because its reserved for the spirits of the dead kings, it truly is an amazing event to behold. I think it's great that the Koreans still maintain ancestor veneration in their culture and its not just this royal ancestor ceremony that happens. Each family gives offerings (called Jesa) to their own personal ancestors to remember them a few times a year - New Year, Chuseok (harvest) and the dates of their ancestor's deaths. It is a practice we in the west used to do but it was wiped out with the coming of Christianity and I believe we lost something vital to humanity when that happened. In my opinion, honouring ancestors regularly, giving offerings, visiting their graves and remembering them on important dates not only helps to develop important virtues of respect in us, but also helps us cope with and come to terms with the death of loved ones in a better way than we tend to do in the west.
That evening I went to Deoksugung palace which was quite a small palace but they had an hour of classical music being sung live which was lovely, especially as the palace was lit up and the moon was out - a concert by moonlight. Awesome!
Monday I was starting to feel better but a lot of historical tourist places close on Mondays so I decided it was a good day to go to Namsan mountain and tower in the centre of the city. The walk up the path to the top of Namsan mountain was beautiful, especially now its May and the trees and flowers were all in bloom. There was also a lovely stream along the side of the path. The only annoying part was what felt like a never-ending set of steps up the side of the ancient fortress wall. The wall was interesting but half an hour of constant steps really wore me out. At the top was Namsan tower which, while expensive at 9000 won, was great because you could see the entire city from the top. After I came down, I decided to go up another mountain - Ingwansan which contains a sacred Shamanist shrine which was interesting. At the top I sat down and took in the beautiful views, the sun was shining and there was almost silence. I can understand why its seen as such a spiritual place to visit. Half an hour later I came back down and decided to visit Insadong, a very touristy place with lots of shops, cafe's and art galleries. There were too many people and I left quickly. It was then getting towards evening so I did a quick walk up to the Bukchon Hanok Village (old style Korean houses). Most were closed and I had already seen loads during the trip to Jeonju so I wasn't impressed with that either. I also visited the Jogyesa Temple. That was beautiful and covered in thousands of lit up lanterns in anticipation of Buddha's birthday on 25th May. Next to it was the first ever post office in Korea which was quite cool to see. I went back to Cheongyecheon stream in the evening and saw a lovely laser light display. I also watched the Avengers movie at the cinema - a very funny and fantastic film that I think appeals well to the British sense of humour.
Tuesday was my final day in Seoul. I decided to go back to the Changyeonggung palace and then to its next door palace Changdeokgung. I had an interesting experience when a tour guide said Changyeonggung palace had been turned into a "Jew" by the Japanese. She meant zoo as many Koreans seem to pronounce Z as J. Changdeokgung palace has an amazing secret garden. I got a 1.5 hour tour around there and learned a lot. It was wonderful. After that I finished looking around the rest of the palace before heading back to Seoul station for the journey home. Despite feeling ill for most of it, I had a wonderful weekend and saw everything I had planned to in Seoul, plus much more.
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