Category: Seoul

Seoul has a handful of palace complexes that are all a bit different, have played an important part in Korean history, and are definitely worth checking out. However, out of all the palaces in Seoul only one of them, Changdeok Palace has been designated a World Heritage Area by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The palace is located in northern Seoul across the street from a fellow UNESCO site the Jongmyo Shrine and to the east of Kyeongbok Palace.  Changdeok Palace literally means “Palace of Prospering Virtue” and is easily recognizable when viewed from overhead because it is an island of green in the dense urban jungle of Seoul because of the thick foliage of trees that surrounds the palace.

In fact the green foliage and natural setting of Changdeok Palace played a major role in the justification UNESCO cited for including the palace as a World Heritage Area:

The Committee decided to inscribe this property on the basis of criteria (ii), (iii) and (iv), considering that the Ch’angdokkung Palace Compound is an outstanding example of Far Eastern palace architecture and garden design, exceptional for the way in which the buildings are integrated into and harmonized with the natural setting, adapting to the topography and retaining indigenous tree cover.

Besides the natural setting of the palace, UNESCO also cited the outstanding palace architecture as part of the reasoning for naming the palace a World Heritage Area. From the moment you arrive at the front gate of the palace it is easy to see why this is true:

The front gate of the palace is known as Tonhwamun and was first constructed in 1412, seven years after the main complex was constructed in 1405. The gate stood until it was destroyed during the Hideyoshi invasion of Korea in 1592. After the war it was rebuilt in 1607 and some how it has survived all the other subsequent wars on the Korean peninsula to become the oldest two story wooden gate in the entire country.

It is here at Tonhwamun that I bought my ticket for 3000 won to enter the palace. However, unlike other palaces in Seoul, this palace can only be entered as part of a guided tour in order to protect the historical and cultural treasures within the complex. There are tours every hour, but the only English language tours begin at 11:30, 13:30, & 15:30. I toured Changdeok Palace six years ago and found the then English language tour to be quite poor. I was pleasantly surprised this time around because the tour guide was actually quite good, though a bit robotic. A problem with the English language tours is that the limited number of them means the tour groups are quite large. This makes taking pictures and listening to the guide a bit difficult because of the sheer number of people you are surrounded by.

Once the tour began, the first historical structure that was presented was the Geumcheongyo Bridge, which was built in 1411 and is the oldest bridge still used in Seoul:

On the other side of the bridge is the gate that leads to the throne hall of the Korean King:

Changdeok Palace was built in 1405 as a secondary palace for the Korean Chosun Dynasty King with Kyeongbok Palace serving as the primary palace for the Korean royalty. During the Hideyoshi invasion of Korea, Kyeongbok Palace was destroyed and after the war it was not rebuilt and Changdeok Palace became the primary residence of the royal family.

The Chosun Dynasty King’s throne was located in Injeongjeon Hall:

The structure was originally constructed like most of the buildings in the palace in 1405, but was destroyed during the Hideyoshi invasion and rebuilt in 1607. The structure had to once again be reconstructed when it was destroyed by fire in 1803. The throne was rebuilt a year later and the current structure is now over 200 years old.

From this building the King was able to review his troops and governmental officials. The small stone tabulets on the ground are not gravestones, but markers that designated where the different governmental and military officials stood during reviews by the king.

Inside Injeongjeon Hall sits the Korean throne that had served as the seat of power for the Korean King for nearly 300 years:

The throne room is decorated with lavish artwork. The painting behind the throne represents the sun, the moon, and the five sacred mountains of Korea. The room is really incredible to look at with its highly detailed artwork and extragavant chandaliers. As impressive as this room is, the King actually did not use it all that often. Towards the back of this building the King had a smaller throne room the Seonjeongjeon that the King used to hold meetings with his ministers.

Outside of the building the roof is decorated with small and decorative statues of animals that represent an old Asian tale about a monkey king:

The buildings in the palace is filled with bright and colorful artwork. Here is how many of the corners of the roofs are decorated:

The sides of the roofs were painted in these patterns:

Even on lesser structures you could find beautiful, detailed artwork:

Even the doors are beautifully painted:

If you like bright and colorful artwork, Korean royal palaces are definitely the place to see it.

Adjacent to the buildings housing the King’s throne and meeting room is the buildings that housed the royal living quarters and office:

Huijeongdang is the building that served as the royal office. Huijeongdang has some impressive artwork on the sides of the roof:

What is interesting about the King’s office is the combination of eastern and western furnishings:

You can see the combination of western and eastern design in the construction of the building as well:

Huijeongdang was not only the King’s office but was also his living quarters. The queens living quarters, Daejojeon is located behind Huijeongdang:

The furnishings of the Queen’s residence were more traditionally Korean:

However, the royal bed is a mix of western and eastern origins:

The royal kitchen also had plenty of western influence as well:

The heating system though for the palace is purely the Korean ondol system. The ondol system is when hot coals are burned underneath the buildings in order to heat the floors. The smoke from this system is piped out of the building and channeled to these large decorative chimneys behind the buildings:

The ondol system is largely responsible for the Korean habbit of sitting and sleeping on floors.

Across from these royal buildings is the royal garage:

The royal family has had a number of cars that were housed in this garage and are beautifully preserved for people to see to this day.

These first two areas of the palace took about an hour to cover before the tour moved on to the last two portions of the palace Nakseonjae and the Secret Garden.

Next Posting: Nakseonjae and the Secret Garden

I posted a couple of months ago about the KBS report I saw on television about Incheon International Airport taxi drivers overcharging foreigners.  Courtesy of the Marmot he has translated a Hankyoreh report of an investigation they have done as well into the corruption of the airport taxi drivers. 

For instance, a taxi ride from Incheon Airport to Seoul City Hall normally costs 40,000 won (by normal taxi) and 70,000 won (by call van), but these jokers were charging 150,000 won.

Police said that the “bonbang” would not allow other taxi drivers to work in their turf, assaulting drivers who tried. In May, gang members beat the crap out of a taxi driver who didn’t belong to the “bonbang,” leaving the victim with wounds that took four weeks to heal.

Police are investigating whether the “bonbang” used violence or threats on the foreigners they overcharged as well.

An employee at a hotel in Myeongdong said there are at least one or two arguments a week between foreigners and “call van” taxi drivers over fares. He also said — sit down for this — that taxi drivers regularly overcharge US soldiers (!), referring to the hapless GIs as “butter.”

Just for the record the vast majority of taxi cab drivers in Seoul and Korea in general are quite honest and will give you no problems.  However, there are certain areas where the cab drivers are some of the lowest scum you will find in Korea and Incheon airport is just one of those places.  If you are a foreigner, do not take a taxi from Incheon airport; take either the bus or the new installed train.  The bus is much cheaper than a taxi and more comfortable as well with its large, spacious seats.  The train is also cheap, quite comfortable, and uncrowded.  The only downside with the train is that it only goes as far as Kimpo Airport where you have to transfer on to the subway, but construction is continuing on the line to take the train all the way to downtown Seoul.  Both these options are much better than taking a taxi cab. 

I have long pointed out on this blog that other places to watch out for dishonest cab drivers is Uijongbu, particularly the Uijongbu train station and Stanleyville, as well as in the city of Dongducheon.  These cab drivers regularly rip off soldiers and even try to provoke incidents in hopes of big payoffs. 

These taxi drivers are vultures who are looking to rip off GIs. They know that the GI’s are desperate to get back to camp before curfew, so they feel free to charge exuberant fees, knowing full well that the soldier will more than likely pay it because they have to get back to camp. However, sometimes when you got a GI that is drunk and the cab driver tries to rip him off, tensions mount and the incidents occur. It is not an excuse for a soldier to get in a scuffle with a taxi driver, but it is just the reality of what is happening.  The foreigners at the airport are just getting a taste of what soldiers in Uijongbu and Dongducheon have to regulary deal with in regards to cab drivers.  So will there ever be undercover investigation of the cab drivers in Uijongbu and Dongducheon?  Probably not, but the uncovering of the corrupt cab drivers at Incheon airport is at least a start.

I was watching KBS1 last night and they had did an uncover report on how cab drivers in Seoul particularly at Incheon Airport were overcharging foreigners.  The cab drivers had found techniques to rig their meters so that when a foreigner takes a cab they would hit a button that would speed up the meter to charge the foreigner more than a Korean customer who would better know how much the cab fare from the airport should cost.

KBS pointed out that a cab fare from the airport into Seoul should cost about 48,500 won while the cab driver they did the uncover report on cost 67,500 won.  A cab fare that is 19,000 won more expensive converts to about $20 US dollars more in expense for foreigners.  The report also had interviews with foreigners in Seoul who told other stories of how the cab drivers try to rip them off.

I have never taken a taxi from the airport, I always use the airport bus or the subway train that is now available as well.  So I can’t really add any personal experiences about the airport taxi drivers, but the fact that they are ripping off foreigners does not surprise me.  Also with Seoul taxi drivers I have never had any problems with as well.  I’m sure there are crooked cab drivers there, but personally I have had no problems which I think suggests that only a really small minority are crooked.

The only places I have had regular issues with taxi drivers are in Uijongbu and Dongducheon where they love to play the game of not running the meter and than charging GIs an overpriced fare at the end of the ride.  A tactic I used to combat this is to simply not pay the cab driver.  If he doesn’t run the meter it is a free ride.  The cab drivers scream and yell and one time a cab driver tried to get the police stationed in front of Camp Red Cloud to arrest me.  I simply showed the policemen the meter which had zero on it and the policemen had no issues and let me go into the camp.

I even had one cab driver stop in the middle of the ride and stop the meter and then try to negotiate an overpriced fair with me and my buddy.  If we didn’t agree we would have to get out of the cab in an area where he knew we would have to walk a long ways to find another cab.  I just simply started writing down his information from the panel in the taxi.  He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was going to contact his taxi company as well as file a complaint with the local authorities.  The taxi driver started the meter again really quick and got us to our destination in no time.

The cab drivers in Uijongbu and Dongducheon is something I wish KBS or someone in the Korean media would do an expose on because they regularly screw over soldiers and really portray a bad image of Korea to the soldiers serving in the 2nd Infantry Division.

 

My wife and I were walking through Jogno earlier this week and decided to have lunch at Mr. Pizza.  I have seen the Mr. Pizzas around Seoul before, but I have never ate there before because I figured it was probably just the usual Korean style pizza with corn and other wierdness on it, with cheese that tastes like cardboard, and loaded with tobasco sauce.  I ended up being quite surprised.  Mr. Pizza is actually a pretty darn good pizza: 

The pizza had cheese that actually tasted like cheese and the toppings were of the more typical variety, though the corn still remained.  The pizza was not spicy at all and to satisfy Korean tastes every table had a bottle of tobasco sauce if needed.  What I also liked was that the pizza came with the garlic butter dipping sauce which was quite good.  Plus for a pizza that feeds two people with two refillable cokes we paid only 12,000 won which is quite good. 

Needless to say both the wife and I were quite impressed and will definitely stop by again for some more pizza before leave.  Definitely the best pizza in Korea that I have tried. 

I arrived in Korea earlier this week and as usual things ran smoothly at Incheon International Airport.  My wife and I made it through customs in no time and then we proceeded to try out the new subway train.  As we walked over to the area of the airport where the train runs from, the airport became suspiciously empty:

The new train terminal at the airport is quite nice and even had staff there that helped us load our bags on the train.  As we got on the train we noticed we were the only people on the entire train:

The airport must have lost some serious money running an entire train with just 2 people on it.  The train ride was quite smooth though and the chairs were comfortable.  It was nice to sit back and watch the country scenery as the train headed towards Seoul:

Then the train crossed over from Yeongjongdo Island where the airport is located and over Incheon’s famous tidal flats:

Can you just imagine what would have happened if the timing of General MacArthur’s fleet that invaded Incheon during the Korean War was off?  It would have been a slaughter with MacArthur’s boats all stuck in the mud.  Once on the otherside of the bridge the scenery quickly changed from rural Korea to industrial Korea just like that:

The train from the airport only goes as far as Gimpo Airport and takes just less than 30 minutes.  From Gimpo we had to transfer to the subway to get to Gwanghamun Station to meet our ride that was picking us up there.  Bringing our luggage on to the subway was definitely not a pleasant experience.  Carrying our luggage up the subway steps was additionally not pleasant either.  On the way back to the airport we are definitely taking the limousine bus. 

One of the most unusual things to do in the Seoul area, is a trip to Dongnimmun Park and Seodaemun Prison. I say unusual simply because you wouldn’t think of a former prison as a recommended travel destination in Korea, but I recommend this park and prison simply because of the historical and psychological significance they have to the Korean people. If you have ever wondered why Koreans are so ultra-nationalistic this park and prison will give you an idea why.

When you arrive at Dongnimmun Park the first thing you will see is this large arch that towers over the park:

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I guess if they can’t concrete over it, they will at least concrete under it. From the Marmot’s Hole:

In a telephone conversation with Yonhap, a government official revealed that the government is considering building a mall complex—complete with shops, restaurants and movie theaters—under what is now the U.S. garrison at Yongsan, which is supposed to be returned to Korea in late 2008.

Plans to turn the land above ground into a huge citizen park remain unchanged, however.

Seoul City is not happy about this—it feels that the plan doesn’t fit with the spirit or ecology of the planned park, and it’s particularly worried that the government may later use its prerogative to develop above ground as well.

And to think I was under the impression that U.S. base land was so toxic it was burning holes to California. Who knew?

I am going to continue to maintain that by the time it is all said and done, the top of Yongsan is going to see plenty of concrete as well.

Seoul’s Cheongyecheon stream restoration will air on the Discovery Channel:

Seoul City’s restoration of the Cheonggye stream will be broadcast by the Discovery Channel, the global documentary broadcaster, to 53 countries, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced yesterday.

The hour-long documentary, titled “Man-Made Marvels, Seoul Searching,” has been under production since December of last year with the support of Seoul city, according to the city government. The documentary, which includes historical research and computer -generated images to illustrate the process of the project, will be broadcast from Nov. 6 to 16. In Korea, it will air at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Oct. 26 and 6 p.m. on Oct. 30.

It is good to see Seoul and Korea air on international TV for something other than North Korea and anti-American protesters. Hopefully this will help improve the image of the city and the country.

Speaking of Cheongyecheon I went down to Seoul recently to take a few night shots of the stream and to see if the cleanliness of the stream is being maintained.

This is a shot of the stream looking North towards the start of the creek.

I’m happy to report that the stream is still immaculately maintained and clean. I didn’t see soju bottles, trash, or cigarette butts all over the place, at least not yet. We’ll see if this level of cleanliness is maintained over the long term. For now enjoy this additional picture I took:

This picture of the stream is looking towards the South with a full moon in the background hovering over the city.