The Chapalang Way: Travel | Seoul, Korea 2014 - GYEONGBOKGUNG + NATIONAL FOLK MUSEUM OF KOREA

Continuing from my morning at Bukchon Hanok Village, the next stop on my cultural day trail was Gyeongbokgung. For convenience's sake, I'm just gonna shorten it to GBG.

Funfact: What we see here at GBG today is actually the restoration works done under the rule of King Gojong (1852 - 1919). The palace, with its 7, 700 rooms, was once destroyed in a fire during the Japanese Invasion, known as the Imjinwaeran War, in the 1500s.

Built in the Joseon Dynasty, GBG was the main royal palace of that time, covering an estimated area of over 40 hectares. This makes it the largest of the Five Grand Palaces built in the Joseon Dynasty. GBG was where the King, his household, and the government of Joseon resided - you can probably imagine the vast space needed to house everyone.

GBG also houses the National Palace Museum of Korea and National Folk Museum of Korea. We headed to the latter first as it was conveniently on the trail from Bukchon Hanok Village to GBG.

FYI: You can buy the entrance tickets for GBG at the Palace Museum and Folk Museum. So, no worries about walking all the way to the main entrance to purchase entry tickets if you're heading to GBG from the museum! Yay~

For an overdose of culture-centric photos;

Starting chronologically, here's where I snapped at

Once you purchase the tickets and enter the grounds, you'll be greeted with numerous sculptures representative of the past~

How people of the past measure water - wonder what happens when it goes over 10 feet *horror*

The different humanoid sculptures on display

So, apparently, worshipping phallicism is a thing in Korea (below).
That is to say, natural stones or geographical features shaped like the male-female sexual organs are venerated. They did this to pray for the birth of baby boys and also, protection.

No points given for guessing correctly which sculpture represents which organ.

Rotary Grinding Mill - used to thrash and mill grains, and to soften woven straws. So big and heavy, it's usually drawn by a horse or ox.

How cute is this!

cr:// FJ

Shhh, nobody knows I'm tryna act like a proper lady

Dried Herbs Dispensary Hall - the equivalent of our pharmacies now.

Look at the different kinds of herbs they used in the past! Isn't it amazing how resourceful humans are?

Old-school cafe. Pretty sure it's a fully functional cafe (someone enlighten me!) - If it is then sadly it wasn't open when we were there.

There's a replica of a classroom in the olden days too!

Complete with backpacks, piano (not shown) and blackboard (not shown). Thumbs up.

After 15mins of walking, we arrived at the folk museum~
The cooling aircon wind in the museum - godsend in that heat.

It's like an extension of the Folk Musuem at Lotte World (blogged about it here!)

So I'll spare you the many photos and put only a few up :)

Interior deisgn of the past!

Kitchen tools!

And now, we head into GBG~

A plaque of the layout of GBG. Hone your Korean reading skills!

One of the outer courtyards

Gyeonghoeru - an open 2-story pavilion used for royal banquets and entertaining foreign convoys. It's so pretty <3

Surrounded by mountains.

I think this is one of the main halls.

Short blast into the past.

Lovely juxtaposition between modernity and traditional.

Gwanghwamun - one of main entrance of GBG!

That leads us to the end of the GBG walk.
Unfortunately, we did not finish the entire GBG but then again, the place is humongous - I gather at least 3 days are needed to complete a thorough tour.

On the opposite site of the entrance which leads to the train station, there are some interesting statues at the place conveniently named Gwanghwamun Square: