Friday, June 7th of 2019

This day started with rain, I had planned all indoor things just in case, but the sun came out after mid day!  With so many museums in Seoul, it was hard to choose the ones to visit.  Today I visited the following:

National Palace Museum of Korea

National Korean Folk Art Museum.

King Sejong Statue

I did other places, but I’ll share those later on!  No more time today!

National Palace Museum of Korea

This museum is inside Gyeongbokgung Palace, I will do the palace another time.  I really wanted to see this museum as it houses the best collection of regal artifacts in all of Korea.

“National Palace Museum of Korea houses over 40,000 artifacts and royal treasures, from the palaces of the Joseon Dynasty and the Korean Empire, of which 14 are National Treasures of South Korea. It displays records, state rites, architecture, clothing, royal life, education, culture, paintings and music of the dynasty’s ruling era. It also has among its collection the royal seal of King Gojong of Joseon, which was used for his personal letters to Russian czar and Italian emperor after 1903. It disappeared during Japanese rule and was re-covered from a US-based Korean collector in 2009.” Cr. Wikipedia

I absolutely delighted in this museum… it covered all aspects of Korean life during the Joseon Dynasty…  the amount of information was overwhelming!  I did the best I could in documenting some of it… here are some photos so you get the idea of how extensive it was… I will do a section on this museum in the “Visiting South Korea” section of my website… someday!

Let’s see it on our king!

Hello again Haechi!

Did you get how the clock works?  This movie helps a bit…

I’m so fascinated by this clock… the attempt to use water to move things that need to be accurate is incredible!

 

National Korean Folk Art Museum

This museum was filled with information about the history of Korea and its culture.  It had many Korean traditions and explanations with models of all the rites of passage:  birth, coming of age, marriage and death.  It also featured all the major holidays with samples of even the food… (fake food!).  This museum was also inside Gyeongbokgung Palace, so you don’t pay anything extra.

 

Jung Il-woo break!  🙂  Today is the day… of his Fan Meeting!  Ahhhhhhhh!

King Sejong Statue

This was totally unexpected.  My favorite Joseon King is King Sejong.  He created the Hangul language among many things that were developed during his reign. I wanted to pay my respects by visiting his statue near Gyeongbokgung Palace and there was an entrance to his statue…what?!!!  I had never seen such a thing! So basically there is a whole underground museum of him!  I can’t even begin to tell you how delighted I was!  Like BONUS!  It was so great … all his life’s story and accomplishments told in such a graphic easy way for anyone to understand.  IT joins the story of another great Korean man: Admiral Yi Sunshin… and there is a statue for him too.

Here are some photos…