Saturday, September 3, 2011

Gyeongbok-Gung Palace & shopping in Insadong

On Saturday we had another full day of sightseeing. We were gone for about 12 hours and by the time we got back all of the babies had either gone home or were asleep. :>(

Getting around...
To give you a little background, we've been getting around Seoul using their subway system. The system is pretty easy to use when you get the hang of it. The most difficult part is when you leave the subway. There are anywhere from 4 to 8 exits and when you exit you need to quickly get your bearings. This can be difficult since Koreans don't use street signs except at major intersections. The maps and signs are really good in the subways though (written in both English and Korean). So, we've found it best to get a good understanding of where we are and where we want to go before we leave the underground subway stations. We've made good use of the information booths as well. The individuals working the booths speak both Korean and English. We've found this to be true for the most part in the stores and restaurants too. At least their English is much better than our Korean.

Now to the palace. Seoul has a number of palaces. We toured the one that is the most spectacular by all accounts. They provided a one hour guided tour with an English-speaking tour guide.  Gyeoungbok-Gung Palace was first built in 1394 and was the main palace during Josean Dynasty. Over the years it has been destroyed by the Japanese, rebuilt, burned down, rebuilt, dismantled, and rebuilt again. It is a testament to the will of the Korean spirit. The palace is split into the three main areas: the government section, the residence area, and the gardens. Here are some pictures from our visit. The craftsmanship is spectacular and, if you can believe it, the buildings were built without the use of a single nail.








Our last stop of the day was Insadong. Insadong was the area in which the food tour took place, so we were already familiar with it. The place was packed on Saturday and seems to be where the teenagers hang out on the weekends. It is a bit like Stillwater. There are a number of restaurants, antique shops, artist shops, and of course your good old-fashioned souvenir junk shops. Our main reason for coming back to this area was to get a name chop for Max. A name chop is a stamp carved out of stone used by Koreans to sign their name on important documents. There is a well known artist in Insadong that will make the stamps as you wait. He has made name chops for the Queen of England and the Prime Minister of New Zealand.  There are a number of places to have them made, but we worked hard to find this shop.  They were really impressed when we walked in with our print out of how to find the shop and had the store's name written in Hangul (Korean), so that we could match it to their sign. The stamp is really cool!  They use a special red ink to do the stamping.  They gave us a beautiful bowl of the ink as an adoption gift.  Here are some pictures of them making the name chop.





All for now. We hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day weekends. 
Karen, thanks for sharing the pictures of Lainie wearing her Big Sister bandana. Give Lainie a smooch for us.
Love,
Kurt and Dede

2 comments:

  1. We have really enjoyed the last two updates, as we have all of the blog. We are enjoying the weekend, but it is cool so no one has been in the water. Dorothy Peterka had also mentioned at coffee, how dressed up the Koreans were when they were there for the Olympics. We are glad you are getting a chance to explore the country. As aside, Ed reported that both Lainie and Buddy slept with them last night.
    All our love,
    Mom and Dad

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  2. Cool pics of the palace! Amazing that it didn't require any nails!

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