Gyeongbokgung Palace

This past Saturday I did my first bout of sightseeing.  I went with my Mandarin Chinese language teacher (Yuu) and her friend (whose name escapes me) to Gyeongbokgung Palace. I had yet to do much historical sightseeing as most of my outings had a purpose of either food or a movie.

A real quick note about my Mandarin teacher. Yuu is 25 years old in international age.  She is attending Grad school for teaching and as a requirement of most Chinese University’s they make you teach their native language to a different area for a year. She is here now teaching Koreans Mandarin around this area. I just happened to hear about her through friends (as anyone not Korean is considered a foreigner and every foreigner makes it a habit of knowing others in this area) so I asked where she lived so I could inquire about lessons. Come to find out she lives in the apartment literally right across from me. Go figure. Now twice a week we get together and have two hours of Mandarin lessons for 20,000 Won.

(That is Yuu on the right and her friend on the left)

Anyways we boarded a bus to the nearest train stop which is about 15 minutes away. We then proceeded to jump on Train Line 1 all the way to the City Hall exit (about 45 minutes.)  After meeting up with her adorable friend (who looks like she is 18 but is actually 24) we started walking down the street to the Palace. On the way we went down this handcrafted arts street. Here there were wooden masks, wind chimes, trinkets and all sorts of do-dads. Let’s just say I’m glad I haven’t gotten paid yet.  We stopped when we saw a crowd crowding around something. After listening for a few minutes we finally figured out that it was an example of a traditional Korean wedding. We stayed for a short time but were completely lost because we came in on the middle of the ceremony.

After seeing these huge walls we knew we had arrived. We paid the modest gate entrance fee of 3,000Won and started walking towards the main gates. Luck for us we came in right when they were showing the traditional gate guard arrival ceremony. As a Bass player I can usually keep a beat but the music they were playing I actually found it hard to keep rhythm. I got to get some of instruments.

(The first thing we saw once we got the tickets)

(Gate Guards arrival. Those swords were real!)

The arrival of the Guards in Gyeongbokgung Palace from Joel Tillman on Vimeo.

Some facts about the Palace. The name means Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven. The Palace was built in 1395, three years after the Joseon Dynasty was founded, and it served as the main palace. When the Japanese invaded in 1592 the Palace was burnt to the ground. However it was re-built in 1867 and expanded until, surprise surprise, the Japanese tore it down once more. Once again it was rebuilt to what they thought was the original specs and has stood since (I hear those Japanese are too worried about Dolphins and Whales nowadays.)

I won’t bore you with the rest of the details (that’s what Wikipedia is for anyways) but we all walked around speechless the entire time.

(This is the outer-courtyard. Its hugeee)

(Through those gates lies the inner-courtyard)

(The kings palace)

(This thing was huge)

(I have decided to remodel my loft in this fashion. Good idea?)

(Vertigo 101)

(That guard was unhappy with us)

(This is the Queens little area)

We then got free admittance to the Korean Folk Museum (after literally sneaking past the guard, Ninja Vanishing at its best. Herman would be proud) After seeing some cool movies, exhibits and learning a little about Korea’s history we made our way back to the Palace area. Making our rounds more one time to make sure we didn’t miss anything we started to head home. 

All three of us had 0 energy and needed food to make it home. We wondered around the same3 blocks (as they were the only ones that had restaurants on them for a while) looking at the pictures for anything that looked appetizing. We took our chances and just went in one. After trying to talk Engrish to the owner for a while her assistant came over and, surprise surpise, spoke Chinese.  What we wound up getting was basically a giant bowl of Chicken, Cabbage, Spicy Spices and Korean Rice. We cooked it to our specifications and ate every…… last…… damn….. bite.

We then made our way back to the subway, said our goodbyes with Yuu’s friend and made our way home with this guy guarding our journey.