The Korea Times has a nice article reminiscing about the Queen’s visit to Andong’s Hahoe Folk Village in 1999, where she celebrated her 73rd birthday. The village has set up a temporary memorial for the Queen for visitors to pay their respects in the period leading up to the state funeral on 19 September. The memorial, along with many photographs of her visit to Andong, has been set up between the house of the Ryu family chief and the tree which the Queen planted during her visit. More photos of the scene can be found in this Yeongnam Ilbo article.
The Korean Fir planted by the Queen has grown very well: LKL took this photo when we briefly visited Hahoe Folk Village in 2018:
More photos of the Queen’s visit can be found in the below Korea Times Facebook post:
The Queen is also remembered in Andong’s UNESCO-listed Bongjeongsa temple which was included in the 1999 visit itinerary. When LKL visited in 2018 this poster could be seen near the temple office:
Those who click through to the Korea Times article mentioned at the top of this post will read about how Andong got chosen to be included in the Queen’s itinerary
[Dho Young-shim] pitched to U.K. embassy officials that Andong is a “Far Eastern city that waited a thousand years for a woman wearing a crown to come visit,” referring to the Chinese characters of the city’s name…The Chinese character of “An” which means “comfort,” looks like a woman sitting under a roof…Dho proposed a creative interpretation of the letter and said that the part that represents roof in the character “An” looks like a crown
The character in question is reproduced below. We leave you to judge how creative this interpretation is.
安
President Yoon will be in London for the state funeral on 19 September. Earlier this week he was pictured signing the book of condolence at the British Embassy in Seoul.
Links:
- Queen Elizabeth II remembered in Hahoe Folk Village, Korea Times, 14 September
- Queen Elizabeth II’s incense burner in Andong Hahoe Village (Google Translate version), Yeongnam Ilbo, 10 September (Korean original version)