kimchi-icecream: Unhyeongung (palace) in Seoul, South Korea--Part 1

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Unhyeongung (palace) in Seoul, South Korea--Part 1

Two weeks ago I was in Seoul and had some time alone while Julianne was with a friend from America . . .

I decided to go check out a palace I hadn't been to yet: Unhyeon Palace. If you happen to be one of those special members of a very small minority of foreign tourists, teachers, expats living in Korea who are able to read Korean at a high enough level to understand history and information about the palace the official website is http://www.unhyungung.com/ It's sad that while many Koreans really want foreign people around the world to learn about Korean history and culture there is a deplorable lack of information available in other languages.

Anyways . . .

Arriving outside I took some shots of the layout and palace map.

I always take a picture of these steel information signs because you never know if there will be any info on the Internet about the place you're visiting in ENGLISH.

I then noticed that I had to buy a ticket to get inside. 700won for a ticket? At first I thought this was rather cheap (about 50 cents in Canadian/American) . . . later, after having walked around inside . . . I kind of think it should be free.

View from the main gate onto the palace grounds . . .

Immediately inside there is a large open area . . . I really liked this tree for some reason.

It seemed to me that there wasn't really much that looked historically authentic . . . everything looked new and kind of just thrown together in each of the rooms . . .

I wonder what kind of historical aesthetic is behind how the displays were put together. I mean, if you're a guard isn't it pretty likely that you're going to have really tanned skin from having spent countless hours on patrols and standing at your post outside? Take a look at the mannequin they chose . . .

Looking closer at the room and its contents I noticed the floor . . .

I'm pretty sure the floor material isn't appropriate to the historical period, and that makes me wonder about the objects in the rooms . . . and yes, I do realize that "The site dates from the 1300s. Most early buildings were damaged or destroyed over the years, but some of the early construction remains" (from wikipedia's entry on Unhyeon) . . . but that doesn't mean you don't try to re-create the original using the original materials if at all possible . . . unless of course that historical knowledge has been lost . . . I don't know.

Oh, and add to that the materials of the 'period' costumes . . .

I thought it was kind of funny to see a 'street sign' telling you what each direction will take you to . . . lol.

And then I saw them . . . children . . . on tour with their teacher. I walked through the door with great trepidation (not really, but come on, how often do you get to use the word "trepidation"? lol) . . .

Surprisingly, I wasn't accosted with the-wind-of-a-thousand-hellos-and-what's-your-name . . . this time.

The displays began to feel like they'd been done by a 2nd year 'museum display' major, or whatever you major in when you want to be the person that puts together historical displays in Korea . . .

Were these guys Spartans? The quarters sure look awfully bare . . .

I don't really have much to say about the next series of pics . . . so read the info signs . . . and enjoy.

I think that this might be the chimney for an ondol heating system.

I'm still getting the hang of using my wide angel zoom lens . . . there are times where I'd swear the composition is straight and horizontal and then I get back to my computer to see this . . .