So Long, Gyeongju

It was our last day in Gyeongju and Andrew and I decided to rent bicycles to get around town.  This way we could finish up seeing everything we had wanted to without having to worry about the less-than-accurate bus schedule.  Kara had gotten up early and headed back to Seoul already because she had to tutor later in the day.

Andrew and I grabbed breakfast and then headed into town.  We once again returned to the park with the burial mounds, but this time we actually bought tickets so that we could go inside one of them.  The park was beautiful.  It was so peaceful, and as I've previously mentioned the colorful leaves were just amazing.  Being in a city for so long made me forget how much I enjoy the foliage.

Entering the park, so beautiful!

The mound was very neat.  We walked inside and it was set up like a museum, there were a few artifacts and exhibits that we could read about, and of course, the actual burial of one of the kings.  We left the park and headed towards the tourist complex to rent bikes.

We set off for a different part of town that we had not yet been to.  Our first stop was the Poseokjeong, which is a small park and garden featuring rocks placed in the shape of an abalone.  The Poseokjeong is also part of a small waterway and it's said the be the place of an ancient Shilla villa.  After walking around the park we decided to bike around the village.  We "off-roaded" a bit and biked down a cement path through some farmland.  It was a lot of fun and a very relaxing way to spend our last day.  We headed through some of the villages a bit and it really surprised me how rural some of these homes still were.  It's astounding that Seoul, a city so huge, complex, and developed is only a few hours from this part of the country that seems to be years behind.

The Poseokjeong, shaped like an abalone

The village was very pretty and it was nice to be out of the city for awhile.  We stumbled on a huge Buddha sculpture and decided to take a closer look at it.  It appeared to be simply part of somebody's backyard, but as we cautiously approached, nobody stopped us.  This Buddha was so big that we couldn't help but want to climb up on it.  The only thing I could think of was that it'd be cool to sit in Buddha's lap!  So quickly, Andrew climbed up and I snapped a few pictures, and then I climbed up and he did the same.  Mission accomplished.

Big Buddha and me!

Tired, a little stinky, and very hungry, we headed back to town to get lunch, grab our things, and get going.  We had a delicious lunch of soybean porridge.  I had mine with brown sugar and rice cake and Andrew had his with noodles.  We said goodbye to our hosts at Sa Rang Chae and then walked to the bus station.  Unfortunately, the earliest bus available wasn't until 6pm, but we didn't mind waiting.  The bad news was that the normal 4 hour trip turned into a 6 hour trip because of all the traffic heading into the city.  It was a bummer getting back into Seoul so late, but stopping for some midnight Korean BBQ before heading back to SK Global House definitely put Andrew and me in a better mood!

Saying goodbye to our wonderful hosts at Sa Rang Chae 

Day 2 in Gyeongju

The next day in Gyeongju we woke up and had some breakfast in the kitchen/common room which was adjacent to our "family room".  We helped ourselves to eggs and toast and we got to meet some of the other guests that were staying at Sa Rang Chae.  There were other people from different parts of Korea, the States, and from Europe.

The Bulguksa Temple is one of the most well-known temples in Korea and it was only a short bus ride from our hostel so we knew we had to see it.  South Korea has ranked it number one on the list of most historic and scenic sites in Korea, and it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The temple was beautiful!  The sun was shining and it was warm out, we had a great time just walking around the park, through the different parts of the temple, and taking lots of pictures.  We were lucky to get to see the amazing fall foliage because in Seoul the leaves were already gone.

Loving the fall foliage at the Bulguksa Temple

In front of the Seokgatap, a beautiful 13-century old pagoda inside the temple

Another famous site is the Seokguram Grotto.  This was only a few miles away from the temple and we took a shuttle up to the top of the mountain where the grotto was located.  Unfortunately, the opening was blocked by plexi-glass, but the stone carved Buddha inside was beautiful.  We took pictures and then headed back towards the shuttle.

The view from the top of the mountain where the grotto was.

When we got back into the main part of the city, we had lunch at a delicious "juk" restaurant.  Juk is the Korean word for the famous porridge that is served here in the winter time.  My all-time favorite Korean food is "hobakjuk" which is pumpkin porridge.

We headed back towards the guesthouse but stopped first at a park that was filled with mound burials of the old kings.  We walked around the area for bit enjoying the scenery and taking in the friendliness of the historic town; we realized that we had just missed a pumpkin carving contest!  There were beautifully carved pumpkins all over the park.  Located in the same area is the Cheomseongdae, which is the oldest surviving astrological observatory in East Asia.  Although not as big as I was expecting, it was still really neat.

In front of the Cheomseongdae Observatory

That night back at the hostel we ordered McDonald's for dinner.  We hated being "such Americans" but we were too tired to head back out and in Korea you can get anything delivered!  Chinese was our first choice, but they stopped delivering at 8.  I gotta say though, a burger and fries was not a bad way to end the evening.

Going to Gyeongju, Day 1

Two weekends ago I went to Gyeongju with Andrew and Kara.  Gyeongju is a city located near the southeastern coast.  It is most well-known for being the capital of the Silla Kingdom which ruled Korea between the 7th and 9th centuries.  We left on Friday afternoon by bus from Seoul and arrived that evening around 5pm.  Kara made us reservations at an awesome guesthouse called Sa Rang Chae.

The guesthouse was really nice.  It was run by a cute older couple and they were really helpful the whole time with directions and tips.  The guesthouse was made up of a few Korean style rooms connected in a rectangle shape so that there was a small courtyard in the middle with a little garden, picnic tables, and a fire pit.  We had reserved the "family room" which was the biggest room they had and it had a private bathroom.  The rooms were Korean style which meant we slept on the heated floors, also there was a couch and a TV.

The first night we walked into town where most of the famous tourist sights were.  There was a big park with many huge, grassy mounds which are the tombs of all the Silla kings.  Also in the park is the Cheomseongdae observatory which was built by the Sillas; also it's one of the most famous astronomical observatories because it's the oldest one still standing in East Asia.  We walked around the park and the tourist complex for a bit before looking for the restaurant we wanted to eat at.

We had dinner at a restaurant that was recommended in Andrew's guidebook.  The area is known for ssambap and so that's what we decided to try.  Ssampbap refers to rice wrapped in lettuce along with many other items that are served as side dishes, these are called banchan.  The side dishes we received included fish, soybean paste, soup, sesame noodles, pickled vegetables, kimchi, a leg of some unknown creature, and a few other items.  I was not impressed with the dinner and although it was nice to experience the area's specialty, I just wanted some meat!

Our table at dinner; many, many side dishes!

After dinner we walked through town to Anapji Pond, a gorgeous pond and park that was built by the Sillas.  The pond and the pagodas were beautifully preserved and it was especially nice to see everything lit up at night.  It was quite cold at this point so we did a quick walk-through and then headed back to our hostel to get cozy with some tea.

Andrew, Kara, and me in front of the pond at the Anapji Park. 

The reflections in the water were my favorite part. 

Historical pagodas from the Silla Kingdom. 

A Day Out With Professor Chun (Again!)

This past Saturday Professor Chun arranged for our Religion and Culture class to go tour the Korean Folk Village outside of Seoul.  The weather was beautiful that day and we all had so much fun.  We met around 9am in the lobby of SK Global House and walked together to the bus stop.  We took 2 buses to get there, one to Gangnam and then the other to the village, and it took about 90 minutes to get there.  I enjoyed the ride though because I took a nice nap on the way!

The village was beautiful.  It's essentially a museum-like park set up like a traditional Korean folk village.  You can walk around, go into most of the buildings and houses, and there's even a small market and food court.  Also there's demonstrations and activities for the kids, as well as a horse show that we caught the tail end of (no pun intended).

Yes, that man is riding upside-down!

We walked around with Professor Chun and he explained a bit about eastern culture and religion at each stop we made.  It felt like we had our own personal tour guide!  We then all ate lunch at the market.  I had a potato pancake (it made me very excited for Hanukkah time!) and some soup, and as a class we shared some rice cake that Professor Chun bought.  At the market place we got to meet Professor Chun's reverend from his church back home in Kansas City.  His reverend is visiting South Korea with his family for the week and they decided to come to the folk village and meet our class.

One of the performances we caught was actually a national contest between grade schools.  Students were competing in the "Traditional Korean Mask Competition" where each school's team would perform a folk dance incorporating the traditional masks.  It was very interesting to watch and the kids were very cute.  It reminded me of when I would compete in chorus and band against other schools in the area.

Korean grade school students getting ready to perform their folk routine.

We continued to walk around and see things like traditional servants' quarters, the government house, a rich man's estate, a silk farm, etc.  Before we left we sat down in one of the tea houses and we all shared a cup of traditional medicinal tea and some candied ginger.  The tea had a very strange taste but it was really fun sharing the tea with the class and "experiencing culture", as Professor Chun says.  We headed back in the late afternoon, and after walking around for most of the day, we all enjoyed a nap on the bus ride back.

Sharing some tea with Professor Chun and the class, very Korean of us. 

Unsuccessfully trying to make friends with a donkey.  At least I tried. 

Jeju Island Day 4

It was our last full day and we were determined to make the most of it.  As Bree told us, we just had to "Charge it!".  Andrew and I had hit up basically every big Jeju sight except for Mt. Hallasan, the Manjanggul lave tubes, and Seongsan Ilchubong, commonly referred to as Sunrise Peak.  Mt. Hallasan, the statuesque volcano that lies in the middle of Jeju, was far too much of an undertaking for the hiking abilities of Andrew and me.  Bree and her friends had climbed Mt. Halla and said it was an "easy" 4 to 6 hour hike, but Andrew and I took one look at each other and said, "Uh-uh, no way", we'll admire it from a distance.

We really wanted to see the famous underground lava tubes though, and we were desperate to climb Sunrise Peak.  We headed out early after having a nice breakfast at Tae Gong Gak and then Sylvia showed us how to take the bus to the lava tubes.  The sky was looking really gray, and considering we had had perfect, sunny weather the whole time, we weren't too bummed.  We'd rather be underground or hiking when it rained, rather than on the beach or at the waterfalls.  Sylvia even gave us rain ponchos with our directions, it felt like Sylvia was our mother and she was getting us all ready to get on the bus for school!

The bus ride was a bit long, almost 90 minutes, but it was fine because we were passing through the rain.  We found the lava tubes right away and without wasting any time bought our tickets and headed on down.  The Manjanggul lava tubes are an extensive system of underground tubes that lava rushed through during the last eruption.  This particular site is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and South Korea takes a lot of pride in it and has preserved the area so well that over 8km are open for the public to walk through.  Unfortunately, we had missed the English tour but it was alright because we wanted to hustle through.  It was chilly down there and we were anxious to get to Sunrise peak.  The tubes were really cool though and I'm glad we had kept them on our list.  It reminded me of Howe Caverns, except that they were way bigger and far more dramatic.  It was hard to get good pictures because it was so dark, but we did manage to get a few good shots.

Oh you know, just hanging out in a lava tube, the usual.

After the lava tubes, we got back onto the bus and headed to the town of Seongsan-ri where Sunrise Peak is located.  Sunrise Peak is a volcanic crater that lies slightly off the east coast of Jeju.  In fact, the crater is the most eastern part of the island, which is why it's called Sunrise Peak, because it's the first part the island that the sun hits each morning.  There is one side of the crater that you can climb up but unfortunately you cannot go into the crater, once at the top the center is blocked off.  The hike going up was not bad at all, only about 20 minutes, and most of the way up there were stairs carved into the path.  As expected the view was amazing.  You could see the ocean for miles as well as a panoramic view of Jeju.

Here is Sunrise Peak, we climbed the crater from the left side but we were not able to go down into the grassy middle.

I made it to the top!  To the left is the middle of the crater and to the right is the small town of Seongsan-ri, which lies on the eastern coast of Jeju Island.

We headed back down the path and then did a little shopping at the base of the crater.  There were many souvenir shops and food vendors.  We were exhausted so we got back on the bus shortly after and headed back to the inn.  We asked Sylvia and Peter for dinner recommendations again and they suggested a popular Chinese restaurant nearby.  Unfortunately, it had already closed, we were starving so we settled upon an interesting looking Korean restaurant in the same area.  Andrew ordered kimchi stew and I ordered a scallion pancake and when our food came we were stunned!  Both orders looked like they could feed a small army.  There was so much food and if we had known how big our meal was going to be we would've just shared something.  The food was pretty good though, but not nearly as delicious as the night before.  

Afterwards we stopped at a little cafe around the corner that Sylvia thought we might really like.  She said a lot of foreigners go there and I'm glad we went.  I had a delicious hot chocolate and it was nice to be around other people speaking English for a little bit; for the first time in awhile I don't think Andrew and I were the minorities, there were many other Americans there.  The cafe had a lot of books, most of them in English, and we had fun reading some of them to each other.  The funniest one I picked up was a dictionary on popular English phrases.  It was fun to read about how they defined phrases like "You gotta be kidding me" and "Fish outta water".  We didn't want to end our last night in Jeju so soon, but we were exhausted and we had to catch the airport shuttle at 9 am the next morning, so we headed on back to Tae Gong Gak (that rhymes!). 

Jeju Island Day 1

I know I'm a few weeks late in writing about my trip to Jeju, but I wanted to wait until I had enough time to sit down and relax and write about every detail, rather than rushing through a post.  Today seems like the perfect day!  It's a beautiful Thursday afternoon; I've finished class for today; I have no classes tomorrow; I submitted 2 big assignments last night; and now I'm just sitting in the Caribou Coffee shop in SK Global House ready to write!

My trip to Jeju Island was incredible, I went with my friend Andrew and we had such an amazing time!  Jeju is a small island off the southern coast of South Korea and it is considered the "vacation hot-spot" of Korea, it's where many honeymooners go and some even call it the "Hawaii of South Korea".  Andrew and I left on Thursday, September 23rd, which was still part of our fall break for Chuseok.  We took the subway express line to Gimpo Airport, which is a smaller airport than Incheon airport, it's similar to New York's Laguardia Airport.  We arrived and checked in without a problem.  I'm pretty sure Andrew and I were the only Caucasions on the plane, and we were both assigned to the exit seat aisle.  Of course we made plenty of jokes how they would put the white kids in charge of saving everybody, but the flight was smooth and quick, only about a 50 minute trip.

When we got off the plane we could feel it already, warm ocean air!  We grabbed our bags from baggage claim and then our next step was getting to our first guesthouse.  Andrew had his heart set on renting a car for the trip.  We looked into and it would've been extremely affordable, about $200 for the 4 days including insurance!  The only problem is neither of us had filed for an international license, so instead we headed towards the bus terminal.  Andrew was bummed and so was I,  it would've been nice to be able to travel by ourselves and not have to wait for the island buses.  I let it roll off my back, but Andrew procedded to sulk like a puppy dog everytime we passed a rental car.  It was funny at first, but by the third day I told him to GROW UP.

The bus system was slow, but easy.  We took a bus from Jeju airport, which is located at the northern coast of the island, to Insong-ri in the southeastern part of the island, which is where our first guesthouse, Island Guesthouse, is located.  It was about an 80 minute ride with one transfer, and many stops.  We got off the bus and followed the convenient directions sent to us by the guesthouse manager, Ilene.  We were greeted immediately by Ilene when we arrived.  From what I learned, she doesn't own the guesthouse, but she does run it and lives upstairs.

Ilene and me at the Island Guesthouse

The Island Guesthouse was beautiful.  It was eccentrically decorated and the house had this wonderful tropical feel to it.  We put our stuff down when we arrived and were anxious to head back out and explore!  We wanted to head to the beach before sunset and walk around the Jungmun Tourist Complex.  This area was located about 15 minutes away from the guesthouse and it is where the Jungmun beach is located, which is one of Jeju's most popular beaches; also it's where the big resorts are, like the Hyatt and the Lotte Hotels.  Ilene wrote out awesome directions for us.  She drew us a map how to get to the bus stop and wrote us a note for us to show the bus driver so that he knew where to drop us off.  After just two days Ilene felt like a mom to us!

We got to the complex just before sunset and we walked down to the water and along the beach.  After being in the city for a month already it felt great to walk with my feet in the sand and listen to the waves.  We were lucky enough to catch the sunset and then we headed down the beach towards the Hyatt.  The Jeju Hyatt is a beautifully architected resort that overlooks the beach on a hill and it was all lit up since the sun had already set.  We couldn't help but be a little bit curious so we decided to check it out.  The lobby was beautiful, there was a fish pond in the lobby and a cafe and bar with a nice jazz singer.  We sat outside on the terrace that overlooked the beach and ordered a couple of drinks and a small margharita pizza to share.  I had a pina colada, since it was the most "islandy" drink I could think of and perhaps the best part about it was that it was a non virgin!

Me and Andrew at the Jungmun Tourist Complex, before heading down to the beach.  The bridge in the background is  called the Seonimgyo Bridge, or the Seven Nymphs Bridge, because there are 7 nymphs carved into either side in white.

We made it to the beach in time for the sunset!  The building in the background on the right is the Jeju Hyatt.  

While we were sitting on the terrace at the Hyatt, we could see a bunch of children congregating inside at the cafe with some chefs.  We asked our waitress and she explained that every night there's an activity for the kids who are staying at the hotel and tonight they were learning how to make rice cake!  It was so very Disney-like.

We finished our drinks and decided to head back up to the bus stop because the last bus stopped running at 9:30 pm.  We caught the bus and headed back to the guesthouse, completely exhausted.  When we got there the other people who were staying at the guesthouse were there also!  It was so much fun meeting them.  It was a big group of girls and a few guys who were not much older than Andrew and I.  They were mostly Americans who were teaching at an international school in Incheon for the next few years.  It was so much fun talking with them before we went to bed, but it was a little strange sharing a big room with a bunch of people we had just met.  It felt kind of like the first few nights of sleep away camp, when we're all a little bit shy and nervous but we know we're going to have fun anyways.

The group of teachers had been in Jeju for the whole week so they offered a lot of good advice about what sights were worth seeing and which one's weren't so great.  I enjoyed talking to Bree the most.  Bree is from California and she's a bit of a tom-boy with this deep, raspy voice.  She was so enthusiastic about meeting Andrew and I and she wanted to hear all about our plans for Jeju and the other stuff we were planning on doing over the semester.  We expressed some hesitation about traveling all the way across the island to see a particular crater that we were thinking about and her response was "Just charge it!  Charge it!!".  Me and Andrew started laughing; she sounded so funny but we weren't sure if she was referring to charging a credit card or something like that.  The more she said it we realized she meant "charge like a rhino", in other words, just do everything and don't hold back.  So that became our philosophy for the trip, JUST CHARGE IT!

A Day Out with Mindy

My friend Andrew's mom, Mindy, is visiting this week and yesterday Andrew invited me to go out with them for the day. We had a really nice time and it was fun getting to know Mindy. Mindy is staying at the Courtyard Marriott in Seoul and I met them at the hotel yesterday morning. The hotel was very nice, it was much fancier than a typical Courtyard Marriott and it was on top of a large mall and an E-mart. The best part of all was that Andrew surprised me with a watch that his mom had brought with her for me. Andrew's dad works for a watch company, Armitron, and Andrew has this one particular watch from his dad's company that I really like. The one Mindy brought for me is the same one, just in different colors. Also, Armitron is the official watch of the New York Yankees! Here is a picture of my awesome watch:

Mindy wanted to take the City Tour of Seoul, which is basically a coach bus that you buy a ticket for and it travels in a loop to about 20 different sights around Seoul. You can get off at any stop that looks interesting to you and then just get back the next city tour bus that comes. Also, with the headset in your seat you can hear about the facts and history of each stop. We traveled around on the bus for about 30 minutes and we decided to get off at the Namsan Seoul Tower stop. The N Seoul Tower is one of the many things on my "Korea to-do" list so I was happy to be able to go. Also, we lucked out with the weather being sunny and beautiful so we had a perfectly clear view of the entire city.

The N Seoul Tower is not the tallest tower in Seoul, but it's still a staple of the Seoul skyline standing at 1,574 ft. above sea-level. Mindy bought tickets for all of us and we stood in a short line and then took the elevator up. The view was breathtaking! The observation floor is cylindrical so we had a 360 degree view of Seoul. It was amazing! The coolest part of the view is that the windows were all labeled with major cities around the world at the approximate position of where they would be located. Here is a picture of the bottom portion of the tower, and what the view looked like from the observation floor.



Afterwards, we jumped back onto the next city tour bus and we looked at some more sights in passing. We thought about stopping at one of the many palaces but by this time it was almost 4 and they all closed at 5. We got off at the Namdaemun stop because Mindy wanted to see one of the famous markets. Neither Andrew nor I had been to Namdaemun yet so I'm glad we went. Namdaemun is one of the most famous traditional, open-air markets in Seoul. Literally meaning "south gate", it's located very close to the historical south gate of Seoul. The market was awesome, but very overwhelming! Many, many street blocks are filled with thousands of vendors selling everything from live squid to Korean souvenirs to lingerie! It's literally one-stop shopping for the people of Seoul. Here's a few pictures of Namdaemun market.


Mindy reminds me of Grandma Rhoda in many ways. At 57, she was way ahead of Andrew and me everywhere we went and she was determined to make the most of every minute of the day! We were definitely hungry by the time we got to Namdaemun so Mindy thought it was time for a little nosh. We shared a scallion pancake and some potato tempura from a street vendor which hit just the right spot! We zipped through the market pretty fast but I definitely plan on returning to do some gift shopping and such. I did buy one thing though, Mindy and I both bought Korea swimcaps. Nothing like showing a little Korea pride when I train for another triathlon this summer!

Afterwards we decided to grab some dinner and so we thought we'd try this noodle and dumpling place that was recommended in Mindy's travel guide. The restaurant was located in Myeongdong, the shopping district, and it's very famous for it's noodles. I have to say though, it was nothing like what I was expecting. It was this tiny, hole-in-the-wall place, and we had to wait in line to be seated for about 15 minutes. The food was very good though, only 4 different options, all of which were the same price, 7,000 won, which is about 6 bucks and change. I ordered the soup and Mindy and Andrew ordered both the dumplings and the soup to share. Each portion was huge! My bowl of soup was bigger than my head and I barely made a dent in it. It was a chicken broth with the restaurant's famous noodles and a couple of dumplings mixed in with some ground chicken. Even though the restaurant had take-out service, they refused to give me a to-go container to take the rest of my soup back to the dorm. I could've heated it up and had it for lunch today! Andrew and I even looked up on his phone how to say in Korean "Please wrap it up, we are poor college students" but they still said no. I was very upset, but oh well, Korea is not exactly known for their customer service. Mindy treated to dinner which was very nice of her.

We strolled through the hustling and bustling Myeongdong for a bit before heading back. We walked by a street vendor selling these huge creampuffs and she was filling them right in front of us! Of course we couldn't resist, so we shared one for dessert and it was delicious. We looked around some more and then got on the train. It was so much fun spending the day with Mindy and Andrew, it was nice to be around a mom for a bit, but really it just made me miss my wonderful Mom even more.

World Cup Stadium

Last Tuesday, Andrew, Kia, Jim and I decided last minute to go to Seoul's World Cup Stadium to watch the Korea national soccer team play Iran. We had a really great time! We took the subway just a few stops to Mapogu and when we got off the subway we took the escalator up and we were right inside of the stadium! It was a really enjoyable night because the humidity cooled down a bit. After wandering around for a little while, trying to figure out where to buy tickets (not many stadium employees spoke English) we finally got in the right line and then got our tickets. The stadium wasn't too packed, so we decided to move down a few rows since most of our section was empty. We were on the bottom level and had a great view of the game. The game was referred to as a "friendly" match since the teams are not in season.

The stadium itself was really nice. It was built in 2001 for the 2002 FIFA World Cup games. It was cool to be there because it was my very first time seeing a stadium that was specifically designed for soccer. Although the crowd wasn't huge, there was tons of Korean pride; everyone was wearing red (Korea's color) and the big Korean beer companies were even giving away free beer! Iran beat Korea 2-1 and when the game was over we got onto a very packed subway train and headed back to campus.

The pictures below are of the opening ceremony before the game, and then a shot of the game-time action!

Jongmyo Shrine

Yesterday afternoon we braved the rain and decided to adventure outside of Sinchon. Ariane from France picked out the Jongmyo Shrine from a Seoul guidebook that we've all been looking through. Located in the city-district Jongmyo, (named after the shrines), it was only a few subway stops and one transfer away so we decided to go for it! I went with Rosie, Axel, Andreas, Samantha, Kia, Ariane, and Andrew. The Jongmyo Shrine is a historical shrine that the Confucians used to honor the deceased kings and queens of the Jonseon Dynasty.

The picture below is of the Main Hall, Jeongjeon, and it was built in the late 1300s. At the time it was considered to be the longest building in Asia. Later on, in the 15th century, the Hall of Eternal Peace was built, which we also explored. We weren't allowed to go inside of the shrines, but the property surrounding them was beautiful. We were able to see how each shrine has been expanded since the 14th century. The Main Hall was last altered in 1726 and was expanded to fifteen spirit chambers, totaling a length of 101 meters. Each "spirit chamber" serves as a house that enshrines the spirit tablet that belongs to each deceased king and queen. The spirit tablet contains the name of the deceased ruler and the Confucian people believed that the soul of the king or queen would forever be contained in their respective tablet.

Unfortunately, we arrived too late in the afternoon to catch a guided tour, but we walked all around the grounds and saw a lot on our own. Also, we stopped for a bit at a pavilion which was showing an informational movie all about the shrines. That served as a nice break from walking around in the sweltering heat and humidity. Temperatures were only in the mid 70s, but with over 80% humidity, it felt a lot hotter. The other picture is of Rosie and me on the stone platform that surrounds the Main Hall.