Thankfully, Friday was a late start at about 9.
We had a short walk to the Jongro Foundation for a global ambassador appointment ceremony.
We met with the chairman and then headed to Hanyang Castle. We visited a lot of cultural sites on Friday such as the Dong-ju Yoon Literature Center, and the Chungwoon Literature library. We learned about Korea’s culture and the Korean war through these places.
The place I found the most interesting was the Dongju Yoon literature center. Dong-ju yoon was a poet during the period of Japan’s rule of Korea. He made poetry protesting Japan and promoting Korea’s independence, but was imprisoned in Fukuoka in 1943 for anti-Japanese allegations. It was in that prison where he died in 1945, but he left his mark and is remembered by his poems left behind.
the sites, we were fortunate enough to have the Jongno Foundation sponsor our lunch at a restaurant where we ate Samgyetang. Samgyetang is a traditional Korean dish where you take a whole chicken and fill it with herbs and rice to eat in a soup. It was delicious and incredibly filling.
We then chose our hanbok and walked around Gyeongbokgung Palace and saw Gwanghwamun, the largest gate in the palace. It was a beautiful palace with intricate architecture and it covered a vast amount of area. It is one of the places that makes one question how they built it without the use of machinery. After getting a tour of the palace by a guide and taking pictures, we returned our hanbok and went to dinner.
It was a very pleasant evening. And Director Kim Young-geun of the Overseas Koreans Cooperation Center treated us to delicious pork belly for dinner. I had the amazing experience of endless food coming out.
We didn’t have time to go to Namsan Park and ride the cable cars due to it being too late, but we did enjoy a nice scenic walk through the night city also passing the Cheonggyecheon.
