경복궁 Palace

I had a free day yesterday so I went sightseeing with a group of other people. We went to 경복궁 (Gyeongbokgung) palace, the main palace of Joseon Dynasty. It was built in 1395 but burned down during the Japanese invasion in 1592. Rebuilding of the palace began in 1865 (some buildings were later again destroyed by fire). The palace complex is huge and I took many many pictures :) Admission is quite cheap by the way (3000 krw ~less than 2 euro) and I can only recommend going there. You should bring some time though because there is a lot to see and you will be walking around a lot!

Second entrance gate

The weather was really perfect, it was very sunny and no clouds could be seen (on all of my pictures there is a beautifully blue sky). It was still cold and very windy though.
When we arrived at the palace, some kind of small parade was going on:

Changing of the guards

The parade was accompanied by a small music group performing traditional Korean music:

First we went around the palace grounds by ourselves and just walked wherever we wanted.
I love this kind of Korean architecture; everyhing is really colorful with meticulously detailed decorations and paintings.

My roommate and her boyfriend posed together with some of the stone statues. You can find plenty of those statues and they usually have the form of some kind of animal (real or imaginary). They all have a certain kind of meaning and function which I was supposed to find out later.

And since there are not many pictures of myself on this blog, here a special treat, just for you :)

At 1:30 pm there was a free guided English tour which I decided to join. The rest of the group wanted to have lunch first and go on the next tour, which was already too late for me since I had an appointment in the evening back at Hanyang university, so I went there by myself.
A group of around 20 people showed up for the tour, among them a squad of American soldiers (which I guess are stationed in Korea). At the beginning it was a little bit difficult to understand our tour guide but after some time I got used to her Korean English pronunciation ;) She greeted us with a "Hello, welcome to the English guided tour which will take around ten hours".....long pause...."oh no, just kidding, ten hours would be horrible, just one hour only."

Our tour guide, explaining everything :)

I don't remember everything she said but I also bought a small book about the palace, so I hope I'll be able to get all the facts straight :) (I don't guarantee for the accuracy of my descriptions though ;)

The throne hall compound

This is the throne hall compound, where the king granted audiences and official functions were held. The way to the throne hall is divided into three sections: the middle was reserved for the king and queen, while the left side was used by the military (and the right side by the rest of people I guess). Having heard this the US army guys scrambled to the left side and proudly used their section of the path. On the left you can also see a row of stones. They were supposed to help the military men to line up according to their rank (and yes, all of the US army guys went to the stone in the very front and were very happy about their imaginary high rank).
Can you imagine that these building were built without nails? For me it's really hard to believe.

The king's throne

The king's throne which you can see above is located in the throne hall compound (who could have guessed). Behind the throne you can see a big wall painting. This painting was always located behind the king's seat. It has a lot of symbolic meaning. You can see the sun and the moon which stand for the king and queen. The five mountains represent the five elements and the trees stand for everything living.

Haetae

Haetae is a legendary animal of judgment. It has one horn on its head and a lion-like body. It is supposed to know everything and was regarded as a guardian against disasters.
You can also find a lot of depictions of phoenixes, which were seen as symbols for a successful and good king.

Gyeonghoeru Pavilion

Gyeonghoeru Pavilion is located in the west of the palace complex and sits in the middle of a pond. It was a place for festivities and meeting foreign envoys. It is a very peaceful and harmonious setting. Unfortunately we couldn't go inside though.

On the roofs of nearly every building are a group of small gargoyle-like figures. They are from a Chinese story called "Journey to the West". Right in front is the monkey king and the other figures are his bodyguards. They are supposed to protect the building from evil spirits and all other kinds of harm.
It is really astonishing how much detail went into the construction of these buildings. The buildings were also errected and decorated according to the principles of Yin and Yang and Feng Shui.

By the way, they already had a sophisticated floor heating systemback then:

On the left picture you can see the access to the floor-heating system, inside a fire was maintained. On the right picture you can see the chimneys for the floor-heating system.

Hyangwonjeong Pavilion

Hyangwonjeong pavilion was built quite late (1873) and the wooden bridge was by that time the longest bridge (made of wood) constructed on a pond. The pond was created artificially and I think it will look very beautiful once spring really starts.

After the tour I wandered around a little bit by myself and went to the National Palace Museum of Korea. Coincidentally there was a sign saying that a free English tour would start in a couple of minutes. I went to the information desk to enquire about it and when hearing where I was from was greeted by the usual "Guten Tag" (which is the only German phrase which a surprising number of Koreans know). I was quite surprised however when the woman struck up a complete conversation in German with me and I found out that she had been living in Switzerland for some time of her life. The tour guide arrived and it turned out I was the only tour participant that day, so I got a private tour of the museum facilities and was able to ask a lot of questions :) The tour covered only one floor of the museum and took about one hour. Afterwards I looked through the other two floors by myself.
Apparently the kings often wrote guides of behaviour for their sons and grandsons. I found these ten admonitions by King Jeyongjo (r. 1724-1776) to his grandson King Jeongjo (r. 1776-1800):

1. Be filial to your parents and respect your seniors.
2. Study hard.
3. Revere great scholars.
4. Be frugal.
5. Listen to your subjects.
6. Beware of idleness.
7. Do not believe defamation of others.
8. Be prudent in large-scale projects.
9. Be discreet when handing out punishment or rewards.
10. Control yourself when you are alone.

It was already time to get back to Hanyang (I was also starving because I skipped lunch), but I had a few minutes left to raid the museum shop (where I found some of the nicest postcards I have ever seen in Korea).
In the subway station I found this small portal/door frame and a sign next to it said that whoever walks through it will never become old. I walked through it, let's see if it works ;)

Theoretically I can live forever now :)

I will post more pictures of the palace grounds later :)