Kings, emperors, palaces and warriors

Korea's Joseon dynasty lasted from 1392 until 1910, when the Japanese took over for a few decades. They are very proud of their long period of independence, and the Japanese annexation was regarded as a period of national catastrophe.

 

The Joseon emperors (most were kings at the time, but posthumously declared emperors after the Korean Empire was declared in 1897) built fine palaces and presumably lived very fine lifestyles. 

You can walk around several such palaces in Seoul today, meticulously restored and rather beautiful. Every hour or two there will be a 'changing of the guard' re-enactment ceremony. There will often be martial arts displays, lots of pageantry. It's all very colourful.

You're led to believe that these emperor chaps with their magnificent palaces and secret gardens were wise and benevolent, ruling purely in the interests of their subjects, who loved them dearly, even though I imagine these subjects would have lived dirt poor subsistence lives.

Later on in my Korean adventure I visited the Demilitarised Zone between North and South Korea, before which I was shown a rather heavy handed South Korean propaganda film about another Korean dynasty, the Kim dynasty of the current day North. The dastardly leaders ('Great', 'Dear', or 'Supreme') were said to have had hundreds of  luxury cars and other extravagances, while the poor, miserable ordinary folk starved or ate weeds and rats (or something like that). (Might well all be true of course, but the presentation style didn't do the message any favours.) I was struck anyway by the likely similarity between the benevolent dictators of the good old days and the evil ones of the modern age, just over the border. Not quite sure how many South Koreans see it like that.

Seoul - a city with soul (and rather a lot of concrete too)

I spent a few days recently in South Korea, mainly confined to Seoul, and once I'd found my footing in the snow and ice that covered the footpaths, I found that it was indeed a great place to explore.

On the snow and ice thing, I suppose I should have expected it, but as I'd not seen any for the past few years, it somehow came as a shock anyway. When I initially emerged in the city out of the metro tunnel, I thought I was sliding on a layer of sugar that must have come from a sack that had fallen off a truck. Honestly. Only it was everywhere.

One of the things that grab you about the place is the contrast between the old and the new. There are some very imaginative and modern buildings around, and a fabulously efficient clean, modern, convenient public transport system. There are also beautiful and perfectly restored royal palaces and 'hanok' traditional village suburbs (though not many). There's the best educated, most wired up and online population in the world, and there are very traditional Asian style market places.

I attempted to follow Lonely Planet's recommended 'archi-tour' of the Gangnam district. I bagged the GT Tower East and the Tangent building (headquarters of the Himma company), plus several other fine specimens. After photographing the slinky and curvaceous former edifice, a security guard came out and told me: 'No photo'. No reason could be elicited, but I put my camera away and he seemed happy. Fancy being shy about this beautiful creation. I wonder whether they want to stop me copying it somewhere or to stop me flying an aeroplane into it. I should add that by and large, I found Koreans to be incredibly co-operative, helpful, and friendly people.

The concrete doesn't all end up in fine creations like those though. From the top of Seoul's TV tower you can peer out on a vast megalopolis of between 10 and 25 million people (depending how you define the city limits - cities are like this). You become aware that an awful lot of them live in 'suburbs' of dozens, maybe sometimes hundreds, of identical tower blocks. That's a lot of concrete, and maybe not such a soulful lifestyle?