Jongmyo Shrine and Changdeokgung Palace

Last weekend, I visited the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Jongmyo and Changdeokgung Palace. In the park outside Jongmyo were hundreds of adjoshis (they were all men) playing the same board game (not sure what it was, possibly Baduk or Changgi?)

Jongmyo is a shrine to deceased Kings and Queens of the Joseon era and is the oldest preserved Confucian shrine in the world (building started in 1394). The main hall, Jeongjeon, has 19 spirit rooms (there is also another hall called Yeongnyeongjeon built to house the memorial tablets of later Kings and Queens). Each year in May, an ancient ritual known as Jongmyo jerye is held to commemorate the late Kings and Queens which includes court music known as jerye-ak and dancing.

The park surrounding the shrine is very peaceful and its hard to believe you're in the middle of Seoul.

Jeongjeon - Main Hall

The south gate through which the spirits were believed to enter and depart (the King would enter from the east gate and the performers would enter through the west gate.

Korea was a monarchy until the Japanese annexed Korea at the start of the 20th Century and deposed the royal family. After the end of the Second World War and Korean liberation in 1945, South Korea became a republic and most of the assets belonging to the royal family were seized and they were stripped of any authority (they were seen as being partly responsible for allowing the Japanese annexation). The current heir, Yi Chung, currently lives in his ancestral home in Seoul.

Nearby Changdeokgung Palace (Palace of Prospering Virtue) is one of the 5 grand palaces of Seoul and was the site of the government until Gyeongbukgung was rebuilt in 1872. Changdeokgung became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 as it is an "outstanding example of Far Eastern palace architecture and garden design". To me, it didn't look a whole lot different than the other palaces in Seoul that I have visited as they are all very similar in style, but then again, the entry fee for Jongmyo and Changdeokgung was a paltry 1,000 won (about 50p), so I thought I may as well have a look around!

Changdeokgung

Outside Changdeokgung I stumbled across these sculptures made out of grass and flowers obviously harking back to a more pastoral past. Not that long ago, most Koreans lived in the countryside, but rapid economic growth in the 1970 caused mass migration to the cities. Seoul has a population of around 10 million, but is classed as one of the biggest megacities in the world as the surrounding metropolitan area (of which Bucheon is a part of) takes its population up to around 25 million. No wonder the subways are always so crowded!

Seoul is an interesting city, but the bulk of it is not very pretty and fairly monotonous (step off at any subway station and you will probably see the same vista of Dunkin' Donuts, Paris Baguette, Baskin Robbins along with identikit tower blocks. It seems a shame that the more interesting low-rise areas seem particularly susceptible to the wrecking ball. This is one side of the Cheonggycheon stream near Jonggak which is lined with coffee shops and pizza places, all nice and clean.

On the other side are lots of little Korean shopfronts ready for redevelopment. Korean history and culture isn't just royal palaces and museums, its about ordinary people too and it seems that city planners are all too keen to sweep away anything that isn't seen as modern Korea and that is a shame.