The Counselor
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Royal Scandal and Tragedy at Changgyeonggung Palace
There are many beautiful places to experience autumn in and around Seoul. I’d read that Changgyeonggung Palace was such a spot, and since we hadn’t visited it yet we put it on our list. We were able to take a free guided tour here and so were able to learn more of the history of this palace. In addition to being very scenic, it also has hosted some strange and tragic moments in Korean history. King Sejong, the fourth ruler of the Joseon Dynasty, first built this palace in the mid-15 century. Its original purpose was to house his father, King Taejong, and his wives and concubines. It’s located east…
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The Ultimate Day Tourist: Gapyeong Rail Park, Nami Island, and The Garden of Morning Calm
Some tourist traps are so compulsory to visit that you have to fall in, even if you know it’s a trap! The Gapyeong area northeast of Seoul is filled with such attractions. For anyone visiting South Korea for a short vacation, there’s probably no reason to prioritize visiting this area. However, if you stay in Seoul for any length of time, you’re unlikely to escape going at least once. It is a very photogenic area to visit in the fall, and we wished we’d been able to visit in October when the leaves were at their peak. We decided to visit three of the top Gapyeong attractions in one day,…
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A Night to Remember at Gyeongbokgung Palace
If you’ve been following along with our adventures, you might recall that we have visited Gyeongbokgung Palace twice already: once in the summer and then in the fall. Well, the third time may be the charm! We visited in December for a special nighttime, winter walk. Thanks to one of Peter’s SNU colleagues, we learned that Gyeongbokgung is open several times a year at night. We were told that Koreans often have to book tickets for these evenings months in advance, but luckily for us a certain number of tickets are set aside for foreigners to purchase on-site. We presented our Alien Registration Cards at the gate and were allowed…
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Have Yourself a Merry, Distanced Christmas!
Learning how another culture celebrates a big holiday such as Christmas is one of the most exciting and also one of the more challenging elements of living in a different country. Somehow, in years past the chemist and I always have managed to be with at least most of our families at Christmas. Ah, memories of Christmases pre-social distancing! This year, the presence of COVID and the need to quarantine when traveling made it impossible to consider returning to the U.S. for the holidays. Not to mention, even if we were in the U.S. we would be staying put at home, as we know many of you are doing. We…
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Artful Seoul: Sites in the City and Around
It’s hard to believe that autumn is long gone and Christmas is upon us! In this season when we especially are missing family and friends back home, it is a comfort to realize that in a few short months, we have made friends in Seoul who are fellow explorers. We feel really grateful for the opportunity to meet and learn from this international community. As a bonus, it’s always great to have a network of people who know about places we otherwise would never have thought to visit! While Peter is at the lab during the week, I’ve had the privilege of sight-seeing with new friends. As it happens, for…
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What’s happening with COVID-19 in South Korea? The December Edition.
Around the world, an estimated 71,536,243 people now have been diagnosed with COVID-19. More than 1,603,500 have died. These are the reported numbers and are believed to be an underestimate. Sadly, the United States continues to have a very high proportion of the world’s cases. We last posted about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on South Korea at the end of August. At that time, we reported that when we arrived in South Korea (ROK) on July 31, the count of new COVID cases for the day was 36. On August 14, our first day out of quarantine, that number was 103. On August 27, it was 441, the…
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Trail Challenges at Seoraksan National Park
Our last post detailed our experience of the most accessible trails from the Seoraksan National Park entrance near Sokcho. In this post, we tackle a couple of the more challenging courses. Don’t worry though. As with any good hike, there are tasty food and beverages at the end! Ulsanbawi Course Ulsanbawi arguably is the most famous peak at Seoraksan National Park. Its iconic rocky ridge can be seen for miles around. Day-trippers travel nearly three hours from Seoul just to complete this hike. Unfortunately, because of the heavy monsoon rains this year and the COVID pandemic, we needed to make significant modifications to our hike. The usual place to begin…
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Seoraksan National Park: Best Adventures for the Whole Family
Seoraksan National Park is such a popular spot that we lost count of the number of people who recommended we visit there in the autumn. A Korean friend described the park to us as having “the most typical” mountains for a quintessential Korean hiking experience. Never ones for passing up a good travel recommendation, we took the 2.5 hour bus ride from Seoul to South Korea’s northeast coast. Although the park covers more than 150 square miles, its most popular hikes have trailheads at the park’s main entrance, Sogongwon Park. Sokcho is the city closest to this entrance, and local buses from Sokcho drop passengers off at Sogongwon Park. There’s…
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Sokcho and Abai Village: A Taste of North Korea
Last month, we traveled for the first time to South Korea’s east coast, home to some lovely beaches and the iconic Seoraksan National Park. We traveled easily by intercity bus from Seoul to this area. Though Sokcho is only a 30-minute drive from the national park, it is very much a beach town rather than a mountain town, so we thought it deserved its own post. We were able to take a local bus from our hotel near Mt. Seorak to spend a day in Sokcho and the surrounding area. Most interesting were the seaward-facing Naksan Temple and the historic fishing town of Abai Village, originally a settlement for North…
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A Rainbow of Colors in Seoul’s “Green” Spaces
With a population density twice that of New York City, you might picture Seoul as an urban jungle packed with tall buildings. While there is no shortage of cityscape, one of the greatest aspects of Seoul is its many parks. From ancient mountain trails to re-claimed industrial land, there are endless places to enjoy the outdoors. Before we arrived, all I could picture were city streets with neon signs and futuristic architecture. Now I realize what I will probably remember most about Seoul is the green space. We have visited many parks here, but this post will be dedicated to two of the largest and most interesting parks we have…
