More Adventures in Seoul

Samcheong Park and Samcheong-dong

After spending several months living in what seems like a maze of buildings, lights, and roads, Alexa and I decided that it was time to check out a park in the northern outskirts of Seoul. It was called Samcheong Park, and it was pretty much the first green I have seen in months (outside of a few tree-lined streets and Yuedio Park back in April). It was wooded and had trails that could be walked, though many of the trails were paved. We hiked the trails up to the top of the mountain. There were some very nice views at the top. Seoul is surrounded by mountains and many of these were visible. There was an old city wall winding its way through the mountains, and we even passed a manned lookout post for the South Korean army.

I was able to get my first shots of Seoul from above. This is downtown northern Seoul (below), and you can see Namsam Mountain (from an earlier post) on the left. I live south of that mountain, across the Han River in Gangnam, which has emerged as a second downtown. On the right is Gyeongbukgung, the palace from another previous post.

After hiking down the mountain, we set out to look for a neighborhood of traditional Korean homes in the Samcheong-dong, which is a neighborhood just south of the mountain we had hiked. After reading about these homes in a tourist magazine for expats, we assumed these homes would be a historical (it annoys me when people say an historical) tourist site. There was literally no one walking around in the first alcove of homes we came across, and it was obvious that people were still living in them. It felt awkward walking up to the homes, snapping pictures, and walking away. I was hoping that we wouldn't run into any of the owners the whole time we were in that area. We eventually found the more touristy, much larger neighborhood, but it was still just that, a neighborhood. Koreans wander the alleys, checking out homes that have been in tact for about 75-100 years, but that are, for the most part, still inhabited. Many of the homes had garages, and the homes had electricity and other modern conveniences. In the U.S., homes like these would be bought up by a historical society, or used as a tourist attraction, like Greenfield Village. It seemed very odd that someone's home could be a tourist attraction, but I enjoyed getting lost in the crooked alleys.

Hangang Park

Hanggang Park is a park about a mile or mile and a half north of where I live along the Han River. It was more of a wide-open space, as opposed to the wooded Samcheong Park. It provided a nice view of the southern side of Namsam Mountain, so hopefully you can get some feel for the geography of the city. Keep in mind that Seoul has a second downtown south of where I'm standing while taking the picture. I also got a shot of one of Seoul's bridges that has fountains shooting out into the river. I didn't get very close though, so the shot wasn't great (that's why I didn't post it). The bridge lights up at night, and it is supposedly quite a sight. It was very relaxing just to lay out a towel riverside and read a book for a hour or two.

Changdeokgung

Changdeokgung is another royal palace built by the Joseon that ruled Korea from about 1400 up to its surrender to the Japanese in 1910. Gyeongbukgung is the most expansive palace, and was initially the primary residence of the royal family. Then in the late 1500s the Japanese burned all of the palaces down, and Changdeokgung was the first to be rebuilt (there is kind of a recurring theme in Korean history of the Koreans building cool things and the Japanese burning them down). It then became the primary residence of the royal family until that last king capitulated. Even though it is not a spectacular as Gyeongbukgung, it is the most well-preserved, hence the only palace in Seoul that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Below is a shot of the main hall as well as a shot of its inside. The palace complex also includes a supposedly beautiful "Secret Garden," but it costs an extra 5,000 won (about $4-5), and you can only enter if accompanied by a tour guide. By the time we came to the garden, the last English tour had departed, so we decided to save the gardens for another day rather than pay for a tour in Korean.

Insa-dong

Insa-dong is a small, 2-3 street area in northern Seoul that features many traditional Korean souvenir shops. You can buy crafts, fans, art, or other less traditional, tacky souvenirs. The only thing I bought that day was food (surprise, surprise). The guys below on the right were very charismatic and made a delicious candy from honey and nuts. They began with a hardened block of honey, hollowed it out to look like a doughnut, then kept stretching it until it was thinner than strings. The honey wires were then wrapped around crushed nuts. After perusing the main street for a while, we decided that we needed to relax and enjoy some tea at one of Insa-dong's famous traditional tea shops. Our table overlooked the main stretch, allowing me to get some pictures from above.

I tried the delicious jujube tea (below on the right). I opted for iced tea because it was a rather hot day. The waitress was kind enough to to give us English menus, but some of the descriptions were rather interesting. Each drink included a description of the health benefits that that tea offered. Notice the benefit of "prevention getting fat." This would be a good time to bring up the term "Engrish," or as the Koreans call it, "Konglish." Basically, Engrish is a mistranslation (or in this case an all-too-literal one) that makes for some entertaining reading for English teachers living abroad. Sometimes the errors are with syntax, sometimes with spelling, or sometimes a sign just won't make sense. In this case, the translation also failed to tactfully explain the health benefit of that particular tea.