Seoul

February 26th, 2011

I went on a short tour of Seoul. I saw some interesting buildings and had a busy subway ride on the way there. 

First I went to Jogyesa, a Buddhist temple. There was a parade of people who stopped every few feet to bow so low that they were lying on the ground. 

Then I saw Gyeongbok palace, one of five palaces in Seoul. I was just in time for the changing of the guards! 

Within sight of the palace was a statue of King Sejong the Great, Korea's most famous king. He encouraged his people to invent new technologies, create new artworks, and write new stories. He also helped to create Hangul, the Korean alphabet. Before that, Koreans wrote with Chinese scripts, but these were very difficult to learn because every character is a different word instead of a different sound. King Sejong wanted everyone in Korea to be able to read and so designed one of the world's simplest and easiest to learn writing systems.

People in Korea love to remember the great things in their past, but they are also proud of the technology and wealth they have earned in the present. I went up to a small mountain in the middle of the city, where I could see hundreds of skyscrapers.

On the viewing deck people put little locks to keep their love safe, especially on Valentine’s Day. The idea came from a bridge in Wroclaw, Poland, where people throw the key in the river after sealing their love. Now several places around the world have started the same tradition.