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[HanCinema's Korea Diaries] "Seoul" June 10th-14th

Owing to a lack of major work commitments as well as the fact that I did not need to go the Immigration Office, this particular visit to Seoul managed to be fairly enjoyable. There really is a lot to do and see in Seoul provided you don't have to hurry between other errands. Just try stopping in the middle of the street sometime and peering south between buildings. There you might find Namsan Tower. For now. If the skyscrapers could obliterate Mt. Fuji from the Tokyo skyline, it's only a matter of time before you'll have to visit the site in person if you want to see what Namsam Tower looks like.

But it was too hot to hang out on the streets all that long anyway. Random museums are much cooler. The Dokdo Museum (독도 체험관) deals with Dokdo, the disputed islands between South Korea and Japan. Physical dioramas of Dokdo show up everywhere (particularly at airports), and given how these are specifically aimed at international audiences, I thought it might be worthwhile to explain the dispute.

...Yep, that about covers it. The tiny island east of Korea is Ulleungdo, and the one northwest of Japan is Dogo. The spot in between those two islands is Dokdo. South Korea claims that it controls Dokdo on account of it being closer. There's historical evidence too inside the museum, all of it translated into multiple languages, if for some reason you really want to get into detail. Dokdo is so small it serves little practical purpose except as a nature reserve, so it's all symbolic anyway.

Speaking of symbolic political disputes that make little sense out of context, someone felt the need to inscribe murals on the ground in downtown Seoul, where people walk. This one caught my eye mainly because the person who made the mural got the slogan wrong. It's "No" Taxation Without Representation. Then again maybe the artist was a Washington D.C. activist, protesting how the citizens of one of the United States' most famous cities pay federal taxes even though they don't have any representatives in the government.

Deoksugung (덕수궁) is one of Seoul's five major palaces. In practice it's really more of a public park that happens to be contained inside of a palace so there's ancient restored walls everywhere.

Deoksugung is, for what it's worth, a particularly excellent park in this regard. There's really not very much real history here that I could notice, no exciting stories or what-not. As a whole, though, Deoksugung struck me as being the kind of place important people would like to hang out at on their days off. It's supposed to be pretty more than functional. How else to explain the flirtations with Western architecture?

This is a twentieth century intrusion courtesy of King Gojong, although most of the renovations happened during the Japanese Occupation. That much is fortunate, since otherwise the structure might have been torn down. Today, it serves as a museum with changing exhibitions. Be warned, though, the asking fee is relatively steep, and pictures taking is not allowed. At least when I was there.

The other nice part about Deoksugung is that public performances out front are quite common. Sometimes they're the standard traditional stuff, other times it's just a band, and then sometimes it's a mime. A lot of this is just a matter of location. Deuksugung is easily viewable from city hall, so there's a lot more foot traffic than what's common at the other four palaces. It's a very public area with little privacy, which probably makes it the best of the palaces overall when it comes to understanding modern South Korean urban life.

Article by William Schwartz

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