Temperatures plumetted this weekend to minus 16. So most people didn't even leave there house. The streets were almost empty and there were lots of free seats on the train.
It was so cold that the other people didn't even come for the tour!
Haha, no loss for me, it gave me a chance to ask all sorts of extra questions.
This is the third time I'm been to the palace but the first proper tour I've had of the whole place.
Same with the palace museum. I didn't really check it out too much since they didn't off the English tour during the Chuseok holiday.
So here's some highlights..
This it the entrance exam to become a Korean bureaucrat. It's all in Chinese because Chinese writing was seen as the more traditional writing, while Korean writing was for commoners. Stranger still because the language is Korean, not Chinese, but it's written using Chinese characters. Sort of like using the English alphabet to write Arabic words. It can be done, but it's not as accurate or culturally unique.
This is the throne for the King of the Joseon Dynasty. The king's name tells you a little bit about him. A king's name ending in "jo" took power, probably violently. A "jong" inherited his royality from his dad. A 'gun' had the throne stolen from him (probably by one of those 'jo's). So if someone goes to steal your throne he might just be jo-king. Get it?
This is, I think, the room where the king meets with his advisors. I do know for sure that this is one of the only rooms that has not been resore. You can see the original paint -it's faded a bit over time.
This site is where parties would be held for foreign dignitaries. The water around it follows a theme of lets-make-sure-this-does-not-burn. There were two statues of water dragons sunken in there believed to portect the place from burning. There are also two four-footed dragons at the palace gate, protecting it from fire. And most buildings have two gaint blue water containers incase of, you got it, fire. All this preparation for fire, and they lost it to Japanese invasion.
It's hard to even think about fire when it's so damn cold.
Speaking of Japanese invasion, this is the site where the queen was killed, or kidnapped, pretty sure killed. My memory is far from perfect on this.
The Joseon Dynasty last from the late 1300s right up until Japanese colonisation of the late 1800s. Sadly, Korea's history has been very chaotic. When the Japanese came, they tried to destroy every aspect of Korean culture. What survived the occupation was again put at risk during the civil war. Now today's Korea puts so much effort into restoring and maintaining its history.
After the tour I got some of my favourite spicy tofu soup with the Seoulmates.
I quickly rushed home to find it was less that 10 degrees inside my apartment.
I turned the heating on, and the electric blanket.
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