I had two free days in Seoul before a business meeting. We went to the famous Changdeokgung Palace Saturday morning and felt like we were back in time. I learned so much that I didn't know.
In the old days Koreans used the Chinese characters as their language symbols. Although it is the same written language as Chinese it is a totally different pronunciation, just like Mandarin and Cantonese. As years passed and the Korean alphabet was born, there still existed some peasants who couldn't read and write, so they recognized the "old" Chinese characters. The Korean alphabet was invented 400 years ago but only became the official alphabet in the 1900s.
As we walked around the old "ruins" of Palaces, I realized they weren't as beautiful as the ones in China but I loved the cloisonne type feel-the colors of the flowers and patterns on the rooftops.
Everywhere we went there were young girls in traditional Korean costume-as if it were prom or some other special event. At the palace they said if you dressed in traditional Korean clothes you got in for free so I assumed it was for that. Only later to realize that the whole city seemed to be full of young beautiful teens in traditional clothes for a national holiday.
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| very ingenious - silverware in drawer at each table |
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| silverware on sides of this table |
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| I bought this beautiful puffy skirt and soft funky sweater |
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