탑골공원 Tapgol Park

We walked back to Anguk station and took the subway one station down to Jongno-3 so we ended up near the south end of 탑골공원 (Tapgol Gongwon). We stopped for lunch in a restaurant on the way. I had the soontubu (spicy tofu soup) and Justin had their specialty, donkkaseu. Donkkaseu is an interesting dish. It's the Korean version of tonkatseu, which was inspired by the Portuguese, who brought over a German dish, wienerschnitzel. Talk about global.

Tapgol park is a park dedicated to a 10 story pagoda, Wongaksa. It was also the site of the March 1st Movement in 1919, which was demonstration of resistance against the Japanese occupation. It ended in a blood bath, with 7,000 dead, even more wounded, and over 46,000 people arrested. There are now bas-relief to depict the day,

A Buddhist monument on the back of a turtle.

This pedestal used to be the stand for the supposed first sundial installed in 1437

원각사지십층석탑 (Won-gaksaji Sipcheung), the 10 story pagoda the park is dedicated to. National treasure no. 2.

Sorry about the glare. The whole thing is surrounded by a glass case.

An excavated well.

팔각정 (Palgakjeong), an octagonal pavilion in the center of the park.

Stone Relics

The proclamation presented to the Japanese occupiers declaring Korea an independent country.

Bronze statue for patriot Euiam Son Byeong-Hui

The following the reliefs depicting the events of the March 1st Movement. It did not end well.

After Tapgol park, we headed across the street into Insadong, street full of souvenirs, artists and supplies, antiques, and pottery. Before we headed into the street, there was a group of traditional acrobats with the wonderful ribbon hats. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but unfortunately, it was so crowded and over so quickly, I didn't get a shot.

I will do a separate post about all the items I bought in Korea. I found some souvenirs for family, a white moon jar for me, and I got some name stamps for the kids, Justin, and me.

After Insadong, we headed to Dongdaemun, a market near the East gate to buy some hanboks for my niece and nephew. I wish we'd spent more time in Dongdaemun. It's definitely more my type of market over Coex. Dongdaemun is where to shop for clothes and fabric and some housewares.

Dongdaemun, the great East gate. 

We sat by Cheonggyecheon, a small stream that flows through a large part of Seoul before meeting a tributary of the Han river. It was nice and quiet, and more importantly cool. It was unseasonably hot when we were there.

After shopping in Dongdaemun, we went back the flat. There was a chicken place at the end of the street, where we stopped for the famous Korean chicken. We choose poorly, because the chicken we picked was odd, and Justin was very disappointed. I also bought some oranges called hallabong. They are sweeter than the usual clementine, They are called suck because they are from Jeju-do and the bump on the top resembles Hallasan, the mountain in the center of Jeju.