Seoul Survivor

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Last Sunday Daniel and I took a train to the Changdeokgung Palace (about 100 mins.) which was the home of King Taejong of the Joseon Dynasty. It was built in 1405 and was destroyed by the Japanese during the Imjin Invasion (1592-1598). Unlike the neighboring palace of Gyeongbokgung which was constructed on flat land and had a perfectly North and South axis layout, the Changdeokgung was built in the mountainside and thus the design considered the geographical landscape and looked more natural. The Palace does not allow people to wander the grounds anymore, for they found that the traffic was destroying the grounds. Therefore, you have to take one of the scheduled tours, and they occur less frequently for English-speaking tourists, just three times a day. A few interesting things we learned;
-There are large pots (about 2.5 feet in diameter) outside the "residence" buildings which are to act like a fire extinguishers, but not in the sense that we would think. Because the buildings are made of wood they often would catch fire and it was believed that fires were caused by evil spirits. They pots sit outside the doors so that when a fire spirit comes, he will look into the water in the pot, see his reflection in the water, and be scared away, thus preventing a fire.
-The rooms in most of the buildings were heated by coals, which were placed underneath the structures. The floors would be heated and smoke would leave through decorative chimneys next to the building.
-There are little figures on all the buildings, like monkeys, which keep evil spirits away.
-At the time, the people of Korea spoke and read Chinese (it wasn't until many years later that they Korean language was invented so that all people could learn to read and write, for the Chinese language is extremely complicated which thousands of symbols that represent words instead of sounds).
-The people believed that heaven was round and the Earth was square (symbolically) so their buildings were square, but some of the gardens and ponds were designed with round figures to represent heaven.
-Because Confuscionism stated that men and women should not interact during the daylight hours, the King and Queen had their own separate residences, but had a connecting corridor so that at night the King could join her in the sleeping chambers and she could perform her most important duty; giving the dynasty an heir to the throne.
-The last members of the Joseon Dynasty who were still living in the Palace died in 1981. I find that so fascinating! There are still others with royal blood, but they have no power, no title, and live just like common people, many of them in the U.S.

The temperature here has warmed up and is quite very comfortable. Friday night I met up with several co-workers to have an all you can eat sashimi Tuna dinner. Daniel joined us, and brought one of his Army friends, Dave. It was great! Each party is given its own separate room, which you step up into after removing your shoes. There are several sides of tempura vegetables, sweet and sour pork, seasoned/marinated jellyfish, warm rice porridge, miso soup, pickled radishes, and onions. The tuna came out on wooden platters, adorned with wasabi, ginger, pickles and a small tuna salad. There were about 10 different cuts of tuna, each with its own texture and flavor. Whenever you ran low on any tuna or side, simply ring the buzzer and ask for more. It was wonderful!

This is cherry blossom season, so yesterday we took a train to an island in the middle of the city which (I believe) was a Cherry Blossom Festival. Only we didn't really see any cherry blossoms. There was a great, wide park, with lots of families and couples enjoying picnics, riding bikes that could be rented along a bike path by the water, and taking boat tours. There was no entertainments, very few food vendors, and no cherry blossom trees. I think there is a possibility we were not at the epicenter of the festival, but its where thousands of people were and so we assumed that was it. It was nice to walk around, and the first time I have seen a body of water (I LOVE being around water) so it wasn't a waster of time. We could also see building 63 (the tallest structure in Korea) from where we were. We made a stop in Itaewon on the way home so Daniel could buy a Cowboys Jersey (Jason Witten #82) and we could have Cold Stone Ice Cream (P.S. the Green Tea Ice Cream is disgusting and the brownies are cut in quarter size pieces than the one our store had).

We came home, changed, and we two trains stops down the road (2 minutes) to Jihang, where some friends of our were having us and another couple over for dinner and board games. It was sooo nice to have comfort food (baked ham, casserole, potatoes, and ice cream) and play Battle of the Sexes and Taboo. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, to the point of tears, and it felt good to be with truly good people.

This past Wednesday we had no work (woo hoo!) because it was Election Day. While they had elections for the president just a few months ago, this time it was for congress. All around the city you see posters with the headshot of men smiling, giving the thumbs-up. There were 8 candidates, and we known more for their number than their name. Outside the subway would be women dressed up in one color (usually blue or green) and wearing their candidates number, who would say something in English and bow to everyone who walked by. One candidate had a carriage pulled by van with a woman in the back singing opera.

This week I had the children drawing pictures of their home in one of their workbooks. I found it quite interesting to see that none of them drew houses in the typical fashion in which an American student might draw their home; with a front door, two windows, a roof, chimney and some trees. Instead, all the students drew skyscrapers. No clouds, trees, flowers, sun... just tall buildings and their apartment number. I should have expected as much, since no one lives in a one family house here, but it was just interesting to me, and I thought I'd share.

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Photos

Royal Court
The King and Queen would walk down the raised aisle, while military and officials would walk down either side. The stone markers you see delineate rank, and the little figures on top of the building keep demons away.

The Thrones
Behind you can see a red and yellow sun, each representing the king or queen. On the wall there is a phoenix rising.

Stone Figure
On the steps leading to the Royal Court

Attention to Nature
There was much respect for nature (building were painted in certain colors, and the green represented nature's importance) and trees were carefully planted around the Palace.

The Secret Garden
The pond was drained for cleaning, but it was still beautiful! A library can be seen in the hillside, and a small temple for relaxing, contemplating, praying and meditation.

Home of the Common Man
A young prince built this house on the palace grounds because he wanted to be closer to the common man, so he could better understand and thus rule him. There is no paint and no figures on the roof to scare away demons.

Cherry Blossom Fest., and Building 63
You can see Building 63 in the distance, the highest structure in Korea, and some people enjoying a picnic lunch near the water. Not much of a festival, but still a relaxing day.

Comments

[Tom]

Chinesee
So do Koreans know chinesee since it use to be their official language?

[mom]

Korean Architecture
The closeness to China might explain the similarities in architecture. All the old buildings we saw in China last year looked like these - the throne rooms, as well. Some of the stairways were higher - the royal family would be "carried" up the steps over the ornate carving of stone below them (usually the phoenix and the dragon representing the male and female), while their servants used the steps along the sides. I'm so thrilled your using your spare time to learn about the culture you're part of this year - but, I knew you'd never be one to sit home!

[Korean middle school student]

Koreans speak Korean language that is linguistically unrelated to the Chinese counterpart. It's the Chinese writing system that was used until the invention of Hangul. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul Before (or even some time after) that, the Chinese writing system was used like Latin in Korea. (It was mostly used by the ruling class.) The only difference is that now the Romans are safely gone, while the Chinese certainly aren't.

[megan]

Hey
I am glad to see that you had a relaxing time with Dan and that you laughed so hard you teared up. Good times. I love that it seems like all you do is work and tour your surroundings. You are learning so much and embracing your time away!

[Susan]

arm chair traveler
Erin, Very well written, informative and entertaining post. I look forward to reading more of your writing. Susan Next door neighbor to Inmans