Gingembre at York: Korea Day 17

Joann and I got up pretty early (we were at a coffee shop by 9:00am) to try to formalize some plans for China. We looked at flights, hotels and tried to fit in the River cruise. We determined that we would have to have 5 internal flights in China in a week in order to see Beijing, Xi'an and do the cruise. The job has been pretty hectic and exhausting so we decided that this was too much. We will spend 5 days in Beijing and 2 days in Xi'an and that will be week in China. We both agreed that the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the Terracotta Soldiers were our top three so the cruise will have to wait.

We met up with some of the other teachers and went to see Changdeokgung Palace. Most of the palaces have, at some time, burnt down and been rebuilt. That is true of this palace. None of the furnishings or valuables are kept in the palaces any longer, they are all in the Palace museum. The buildings are very simple and the rooms are small. The ruling family in South Korea lived quite simply by Western standards. The last ruler to live in the palace was the King Sunjong. He lost the crown in 1910 but continued to live here until his death in 1926. His widow, Queen Yun, kept the palace as her home until she died in 1966. The last royal prince came here to live with his Japanese wife. He did here in 1970 and his wife was the last one to live in the palace. She died in 1989. The palace now belongs to the country and is a Unesco site. As I said, the buildings are very simple and the king, along with all the other people, slept on the floors. This is not as bad as it sounds - apparently it was unsafe to have furniture in his room as potential killers could lurk behind it. Also, there was no heating other than a heated floor so this would keep them warm in cold weather. Okay, enough with the history lesson, here are some photos. I wish I could say that I know the names and functions for each buiilding but that is just not true!!

This is a gate, it might even be the front gate!

The purpose of this room has escaped me. It did have lights and a bit of furniture. No one is allowed to go in the rooms. These shots are taken through a window where we could stand and peek into the room.

Here is a picture of another small building. Truthfully, the buildings all look the same!

Do you see what I mean??

Here is our sweet tour guide. You can't enter the palace without going on a tour ($3). There are three English speaking tours daily and we were late leaving. We had to run in and catch up with the tour!

It was a very HOT, HUMID day, as you will see from the pictures of me! However, it did not look this hazy! These are gardens along the wall that goes around the whole palace enclosure. It is hard to say but there were probably about a dozen different buildings with their own front courtyard.