Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 36 - day 2
Day 2 started with a walking tour of Gyeongbokgung Palace. Gyeongbokgung Palace is one of the Five Grand Palaces built during the Joseon Dynasty and the name means "Palace of Shining Happiness". It was built in 1394 and reconstructed in 1867. It was the main palace and also the largest of the 5 palaces. This is just a view from the main gate of the palace back up one of the main roads in that section of town. It is an interesting contrast from this view, which is modern, to what you'll see in the next picture, which are the traditional historical buildings.
The palace complex was nearly destroyed by the Japanese government in the early 20th century and it is slowly being restored to its original form. They have about 50% of the original number of palace buildings now, either those that were not destroyed or those that have been reconstructed.
You first go through one of 3 arched entrances, with the middle one being slightly taller for the King.
We arrived at the perfect time, as the royal changing of the guard ceremony is held in front of the main gate every hour and it was just getting ready to start. There is this huge drum over on one side and various musicians and guards.
Back to the front gate, each of the entrances has a different picture on the roof of it.
This is the Gwanghwamun Gate, which is the main gate, and largest gate, of the palace. It was first constructed in 1395, then destroyed in 1592 by the Japanese. It was rebuilt in 1867 but then the Japanese had it torn down and moved in 1926 to make way for a different building. During the Korean war, the wooden part of the gate was destroyed and in 1963, the stone base was relocated back near the original site and the wooden part was rebuilt but in concrete. Between 2006 and 2010, a major reconstruction project took place that put the gate in the original location and reconstructed the top part back into wood.
Inside the main gate is a large area, where the changing of the guards ceremony took place. Then there is a bridge that crosses what used to be a water source, with these interesting carvings on the sides. As you can see, there is no longer water in the viaduct.
Geunjeongjeon Hall, is the throne hall where the king used to meet with his officials, gave declarations, and greeted foreign envoys and ambassadors during the Joseon Dynasty. It was originally constructed in 1395 during the reign of King Taejo, but was burned down in 1592 by the Japanese. It was reconstructed in 1867, and is made up mainly of wood.
This is the interior, and you can see the very colorful and detailed ceiling, along with the throne
There are lots of other buildings lining the sides of the complex as well.
One of the buildings that this really nice dragon print that I just had to take a picture of.
And this was explained to us as the picture which depicts the king when the king is not there. I forget all of the details, but you see it placed behind the throne.
Near the back, there is a park next to an artificial lake. In the middle of the lake is the Gyeonghoeru Pavilion. It was used to hold important and special state banquets during the Joseon Dynasty. It was first built 1412, during the reign of King Taejong, but (yea, you guessed it), it was burned down by the Japanese in 1592 and rebuilt in 1867. It is on an island of an artificial, rectangular lake that is 128 m wide and 113 m across. When Gyeonghoeru was originally built in 1412, these stone pillars were decorated with sculptures depicting dragons rising to the sky, but these details were not reproduced when the building was rebuilt in the 19th century. Three stone bridges connect the building to the palace grounds, and corners of the balustrades around the island are decorated with sculptures depicting twelve Zodiac animals.
This is a view inside one of the residential buildings, where you can see the rooms are laid out next to each other, normally with low furniture since most people sat on the floor.
They had a unique way of opening up rooms where the walls would open and then you could close the entire wall up. When they were opened and pulled up, the house seemed very large and open.
Again, they liked to have the name in Chinese characters instead of Korean, and you can see here under the name where you have each of the panels of the wall folded and pulled up to open the entire side of the house up.
Out in the very back is a terraced garden area.
There is also another lake (pond) with an island in the middle .. it seems very popular where they build a rectangular lake and put a circular pond in the middle. 
Near the Palace is the "blue house" which is the current presidential palace. It is the official residence of the South Korean head of state.
For lunch, we headed back to the Insadong pedestrian road and we walked through the alleyways looking for a place for lunch. We went by and there was a guy out front tending to the flowers that you see outside, and he mentioned to us that this was good traditional Korean food ... we went a little further and then headed back and actually ate at this restaurant. It was quite good and very traditional, we again ate sitting on the floor. We don't remember exactly what it was called, but it was a Korean BBQ beef dish.
After lunch we met up with a small group and did a walking tour of a "traditional korean house" area. You can see the roofline which is the traditional Korean style. This first one houses a little store in it now.
One of the first stops was a cultural center, which has a traditional Korean house, which contains several buildings around a center courtyard. The rest of the pictures are random pictures of the traditional korean houses and rooflines throughout that area.
There were a few that had these really nice doors also...
This was our tour guide!
There are a few homes (Hanok's) that have been turned into little hotels or Bed & Breakfast's.
This was a really cool looking building that we saw.
We then went to one of the large shopping areas or markets, the Nandaemun Market. As you can see, it was full of stalls and people. They sold almost everything you can imagine here. It is named due to its' location near the Great South Gate in the old city. It dates back to 1414 and is one of the oldest continually running markets in South Korea and one of the largest retail markets in Seoul.
And we just HAD to take a picture of this ... this guy wearing all these ladies clothes trying to sell them (we assume)
Then to dinner. We went to this Korean Pork Cutlet restaurant (although I keep thinking that pork cutlets are japanese). We ended up watching what other people were doing (so we apologize to the people in the restaurant who thought we were staring at them). So we get this small bowl full of spices and a wooden stick, and it seems that you mash the spices with the wooden stick, using the edges of the bowl (obviously designed for just this task).
Then you mixed it with a sauce which is then used on the pork cutlet, which comes deep fried and placed on a little wire rack.
I ordered the pork cutlet stuffed with ham and cheese so that the cheese melts when cooked, along with a cabbage slaw, rice, and something that we don't know what was (the pink things) and didn't eat.
It was quite tasty! Then we headed back to the hotel to get sleep to get ready for Day 3.