Seoul City Tour

Jogyesa Temple.

The inside and the outside.

Female nuns bringing incense.

My guide Chloe.

A funeral cart from the Folk Museum.

Gyeonbokgung Palace.

Changing of the guard.

Drummers.

An interesting lovely sounding instrument.

Changdeok-gung Palace.

The king's throne room.

Market street.

Wednesday, June 27^th.

After eating my grapefruit and cereal in my room I was in the lobby by eight and the Seoul City Tours company remembered to pick me up this time. The guide was a lovely young lady named Chloe and I talked to her about yesterday as we drove in the big bus to pick up some other people. She told me that Seoul is home to ten million people, twenty percent of the country’s total population.

Our first stop was at the Jogyesa Temple, the main temple of Zen Buddhism in Korea. Most of the other temples are located deep in the mountains and are more ‘solemn and traditional’, but it has the advantage of being in the city where the transportation is very convenient, and it is well connected to the surrounding city area. The temple is complete with numerous large golden Buddha statues. Chloe told us that 50% of Koreans have no religion, 20% are Buddhists, 20% are Protestants and 10% are Catholic.

Then we visited the National Folk Museum which is located on the compound of the Gyeongbok palace. It illustrates the traditional life of both the ordinary people and the aristocracy. It has exhibits from all parts of Korea. There are displays of traditional farming methods, hunting, weaving, cooking and other ‘housekeeping chores’.

Next was a stop at Gyeonbokgung Palace. This is one of five major palaces and was constructed during the reign of king Taejo, founder of the Joseon Dynasty(1392-1910) which was the final kingdom in Korea. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in the Japanese invasion of 1592. It was reconstructed in 1868. Here we watched the changing of the palace gate guards, not quite like Buckingham Palace, but colourful anyway.

Then we went to the Insadong neighbourhood with its authentically decorated tea houses, high-end antique galleries and many restaurants. We had lunch here in a local restaurant serving traditional Korean food. Then we had time to browse and look through the shops. I sat and watched and listened to a street musician playing a very interesting spaceship shaped drum that produced lovely lite metal sounds.

Next we visited Changdeok-gung Palace, the best preserved of the five palaces of the Joseon Dyansty. The compound has been designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO. Originally an auxiliary palace, but since Songjon (1470-1494), it became virtually the main palace as kings came to live there.

We did a drive by of the ‘Blue House’ which is the official residence of the president. We were not allowed to stop by it for security reasons. It is named the Blue House because of the colour of its roof tiles. ‘The blue tiles and the smooth roof are in beautiful harmony with Mt. Bugaksan behind it.’

Finally, we had some time to explore Namdaemun Market which is the largest in Seoul and where shoppers can get any product in Korea at the cheapest price.

Then Chloe arranged for a van to drive me the one hour back to my hotel. It was not a bad tour. I enjoyed it, but it is a shame that most of the major things in Korea are rebuilt replicas of the originals that have been destroyed by the Japanese in the 17^th century, and the Allies during the Second World War and the Korean War. The whole city looks new, including the temples, palaces and the city wall. But, ironically that probably allowed Korea to build a new city pretty much from scratch complete with new modern highways and a very complex subway system.

The one draw back of the tour was they took us to two shops. One was for Korean 60-year-old ginseng and the other was for red pine oil. Both shops gave a demonstration and information about their products which apparently will make you live a longer and healthier life, and they had shops where you could buy the expensive products. I am sure that Seoul City Tours gets a kickback for bringing tourists in and that helps them fund the tours. I resent it because I have no interest, but obviously other people, particularly Asians, do.