Thursday 16 July Today the plan is to get a few UNESCO world heritage points: the Hwaseong Fortress at Suwon, followed maybe by the nearby folk village. From my base in Insadong, a one-hour tube journey direct from Jonggak station on Line 1 takes me to Suwon, armed with my guide books. A moment of … [Read More]
Place: South Korea (page 25)
The LKL Korea Trip 2009 pt 1: Arrival
Wednesday 15 July 2009 Unaccustomed to long-distance standard class travel, I arrive in Seoul a little tired. All the previous times I’ve been to Korea, I’ve been in the area on company business, and this is the first time I’ve had to pay my own way: hence the downgrade in comfort. The evening bibimbap is … [Read More]
Gen Paik Sun Yup Interview: Remembering the Forgotten War
Seoul, Friday 17 July 2009 “Freedom is not Free”, we are reminded by the inscription on the monument commemorating the Korean War. In the bustle of our daily lives, we can forget the sacrifices made by previous generations to secure our freedoms. I have come to the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul to meet … [Read More]
Yeah Seoul! – the FC Seoul theme tune
For those who were disappointed, on reading Ash’s recent corker of an article on Korean Soccer Wars, that they could not find the FC Seoul theme tune on the FC Seoul website, we’ve managed to find a copy of it for your delectation. It’s a catchy little number, complete with lyrics for you to follow. … [Read More]
Mayor Boris in Seoul
The most bizarre (at least initially) news item on the BBC a couple of days ago was (a) Bill Clinton praising a building project in (b) London’s dowdy Elephant and Castle area (c) while in Seoul. What was the former president doing in Korea talking about one of London’s least loved tube stations? We discover … [Read More]
The divers of Jeju-do
LKL digests Barbara Hammer’s documentary “Diving Women of Jeju-do”, which screened in a recent film festival in London. Barbara Hammer’s brief documentary Diving Women of Jeju-do (2007) provides an intimate portrait of Cheju-do’s famous diving women, the haenyo. Barbara Hammer goes diving with the women, and took trouble to get to know their ways. She … [Read More]
The Gwanghwamun and its many rebirths
When General Yi Song-gye founded the Joseon dynasty and moved Korea’s capital to Seoul, he needed a palace of suitable magnificence. The Gyeongbokgung (경복궁) was carefully sited by the royal geomancers to benefit from the perfect Pung Su (풍수), and at its southernmost point, in direct alignment with the main throne room, the Gwanghwamun (광화문 … [Read More]
Cambridge-based Man U fan wins trip to Seoul
Celebrating the big supporter base in Korea for England’s most successful football team, the Seoul Metropolitan Government last weekend gave away a trip for two to Seoul in a lottery drawn at half time during the Manchester United game against Blackburn Rovers on 21 February. The legendary Bobby Charlton was there to witness the draw, … [Read More]
The Uprising (이재수의 난, 1999) review: when history drowns in endless exposition
An endless pre-occupation with forced exposition combined with a lack of character depth and, resultantly, next to no character empathy whatsoever, all adds up to The Uprising being dull from start to finish. Not only a waste of the talents of Shim Eun-ha and Lee Jung-jae but, ultimately, also rather a waste of viewers’ time… [Read More]
The Tripitaka Koreana part 2 – the Depository Buildings
Matthew Jackson continues his series of articles on the important treasures from Korea’s past The depository buildings which house the Tripitaka Koreana library are unique in almost every sense. Officially the largest wooden storage complex in the world, they are registered together with the Tripitaka itself as part of the UNESCO World Heritage (http://whc.unesco.org/). The … [Read More]
The Tripitaka Koreana – part 1
Matthew Jackson continues his series of articles on the important treasures from Korea’s past One crowning achievement of Korea’s Buddhist heritage that is not included in the Bozar ‘Smile of Buddha’ exhibition is the Tripitaka Koreana. There is a practical reason for this, as it consists of 81,258 woodblocks, weighs 280 tons in total, and … [Read More]
Photos from this year’s Mudfest
I just found some great photos over on Flickr, courtesy of pwalks. Here’s a tiny taster, deliberately small so that you go visit the original yourself. Enjoy the full slideshow here. [Read More]
Boryeong Mud Festival 2008
The Festival is on around about now. The traffic on my two other posts about the festival is going through the roof. If any reader based in Korea is going along and feels so moved, feel free to send me in some photos and an article to tell everyone how great it is. I’m told … [Read More]
Return of Millennium Dream
Last year the ceramic artists of North Gyeongsang province held an exhibition just off Regent Street entitled Millennium Dream, Millennium Light. This year they return to a gallery in New Malden – coinciding nicely with the first week of the New Malden Arts Festival. As last year, the exhibition will include work by renowned masters. … [Read More]
Mythology in the making: Seoul Selection’s Lee Myung-bak profile
Lee Myung Bak: Korea’s CEO President Seoul Selection, 2008 When their country has pulled itself up from the devastation of war in the space of fifty years, and a man has risen from poverty to the highest office in the same period, Koreans have every right to feel proud of themselves and their country. That … [Read More]
The Seoul Magazine photo challenge
One of my minor complaints with Seoul Magazine is their slapdash approach to visual material. Particularly in their events listings they splatter pictures around the page with no description of what the image depicts and what article or event it relates to. We bloggers have a partial excuse for not putting captions under pictures, because … [Read More]