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SEOUL - South Korea Capital CityI hope those who are travelling together with me on this tour can forward some scenic pictures. Incheon International Airport is located on Yeongjong Island off the west coast and is link by the Yeongjong Bridge which form part of the Incheon International Airport Expressway. A modern and a well layout four levels airport, with the first two levels catering for all arrivals and the next top two levels for all departures. The airport and airlines provide services to cater for the disabled, aged and expectant and nursing mother. You can request for the appropriate service when reserving your airline tickets. The airport has facility ranging from airline lounges, airport medical center, transit hotel to sauna (men only) and more. Seoul is about 30 miles from Incheon International Airport and travelling time is approximately 50 minutes. If you are travelling on your own it is advisable to spend sometime at the airport to gather all the informations you need. Here you can get maps, information brochures, bus informations and others in written english whereas in other cities it is rather hard to get informations in written english and even harder to find someone who can speak english. For this trip I joined the group tour where there is a local guide who travel with us throughout our stay in South Korea. Read my General Comment page for more. It was a little misty as the tour coach pull out from the airport and heading towards Seoul. Although the traffic is quite heavy there are no traffic jams. We had a smooth ride throughout the journey. Frankly speaking six days in South Korea is not enough to visit and explore all the intriguing and places of interest. Here I will highlight the places of interest that I had visited couple with a few generated from brochures that I had gathered for your informations. Preservation of historic buildings and maintaining the cultural heritage are found in many places of South Korea. In Seoul the two distinct landmarks are the Gyeongbokgung and the National Folk Museum Of Korea. Gyeongbokgung, the Primary Palace of Joseon Dynasty is Korea's representative cultural asset. Gyeongbokgung has an almost rectangular shape with four gates : Gwanghwamun - The South gate, Geonchunmun - The East Gate, Yeongchumun - The West Gate and Sinmumun - The North Gate. The palace was built in 1395 by the then King Taejo but was burnt down during Japanese invasion during the reign of King Seonjo (1592) and was left in ruins. It was restored in 1868 during the year of King Gojong. When Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, most of the 200 buildings on the palace grounds were torn down by the Japanese, leaving only a dozen or so structure. Since 1990 the Korean Government implemented the restoration project and the whole site was fully restored in 2001. The following buildings constitute the Gyeongbokgung after the full restoration works.
Want to learn about the history of the Korean people and the traditional lifestyle of a Korean then the visit to the National Folk Museum will be beneficial. The National Folk Museum of Korea is located on the grounds of Gyeongbokgung. Exhibitions and the presentation of Korean folk culture, symposiums, special exhibitions and traditional art performances serve as an educational center, providing visitors with an accurate and comprehensive understanding of Korean folk traditions. The museum has three exhibition halls, Children's Museum and an outdoor exhibition. Exhibition hall 1 highlights The History of the Korean People. Exhibition hall 2 display The Lifestyle of the Korean People and Exhibition hall 3 exhibits The Lifecycle of a Korean from Birth to Death. Subway orange line #3 exit Gyeongbokgung Station. Walker Hill, I would call it a "hill resort" of a kind, situated still in Seoul, but located high up on a hill is a nice place to get away from the city for a while. You have top class hotels serving only the best. You can be entertained with the show or if you prefer gambling there is a casino (Walker Hill Casino located within the Sheraton Walker Hill Hotel) as well. There is also a duty free shop. Subway line #2 and exit Gwangnaru Station. A total Korean casts and production stage show which you should not miss is the cookin' Nanta show. 'NANTA' is a non-verbal performance of reckless rhythms that dramatize customary Korean percussion in a strikingly comedic stage show. NANTA storms on stage into a huge kitchen where four capricious cooks are preparing a wedding banquet. While COOKIN', they turn all kinds of kitchen items - pots, pans, dishes, knives, chopping board, water bottles, even brooms and each other- into percussion instruments. "Toast of 1999 Edinburgh Festival, Completely Sold-Out."- CNN. You can get more infos from their website NANTA. Subway purple line #5 exit Seodaemun Station. Following the style of Disneyland, Seoul had created it's own version called Lotte World. The facilities that you can enjoy while you are there can be summarised as follows: 1) Lotte Hotel 2) Folk Museum 3) Sports Center 4) Lotte departmental store 5) Lotte Mart 6) Lotte World Adventure 7) Shopping Mall 8) Swimming Pool 9) Magic Island. Lotte World presents great entertainment shows like the Laser Show, World Carnival Parade, Magic Show, Royal Puppet Show and the Garden Stage Show. You will find all the great rides and games within the indoor and outdoor theme park. After you had let go steam with all the rides you can fill up your stomach at the various eatery outlets serving local korean food, japanese and western cuisine. Before leaving check out the shopping mall for some sourveniers to take back with you for rememberance. Subway green line #2 and pink line #8 exit Jamsil Station. Most tourists to any country would not like to miss out the one last itinerary that is of course shopping. If you are in for jewelry you may want to visit the Amethyst Topaz Factory. It is claim that the color tone for these stones can only be found here and you can view how they grill and grind these stones into perfect jewelry. Next is the famous Korean Ginseng. It is also claim that the Korean Ginseng are the best and you are shown how to evaluate their value by number of years and color. There are quite a number of centers around Seoul and the choice is yours to pick. If you really want to visit all the shopping centers in Seoul you will need at least a few days but I will list the more popular ones here. Itaewon, the place where you may feel more closer to home. You know you are in Itaewon when you see the sidewalks filled with people of every nationality and race. Even the stores have written english on the signs and most shop attendants can speak english and other languages. Itaewon have a high concentration of foreigners living in the nearby housing and on the American army base. There are some 1,400 shops in the area and you can bargain for the best price. If you travel by the subway take the brown line #6. Dongdaemun Market, reachable by subway green line #2, blue line #4 and purple line #5 and exit at Dongdaemun Stadium Station. This market place extends into the streets and stores in the alleys selling fruits, silks, cotton goods, handcrafts, fabrics, cloths, comic books, army uniforms, mountain climbing gears and many others. Prices are reasonable and said to be 30-40% lower than anywhere else! Myeong-dong shopping area covers over several streets and basically has more shops selling apparels. Eating outlets from korean to western food are all over the area as well as hotels and banking services. Subway blue line #4 exit Myeong-dong Station. There are still many locations and places of interest here in Seoul but due to time constrain we had to move on. The next city is Daegu where we travel by KTX Railway from Seoul. |
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