Day 4: Jongmyo

By Day 4, I was still waking up early around 5-6AM in the morning and it felt really great to be up at that time. Every morning after waking, I’d lie around in bed for a little while longer, get up and do some exercises in my room and then go out on to the veranda/balcony. I always peeled back the window and screen and leaned out to breathe the morning air. I would also just stare out in to the distance for a while and focus my gaze on far off objects like the Namsan Tower or Mt. Inwangsan. On this morning just before 7AM, the haze was mixing with the morning sun.

Despite the appearance of haze sometimes very early in the mornings (the haze would be gone shortly afterwards) and despite much how I remembered Seoul to be smoggy and polluted (I had visited prior during the summer months), the air always seemed crisp and clean during my visit in October (at least I hope it was ^^).

Every morning like clock work I could hear the collective footsteps of a nearby local military regiment marching through the area as they went for their daily run and again in the afternoon. Sometimes they would jog quietly with only their footsteps making sound and other times they would sing a marching song.

I started developing a blister on my 2nd toe where it rubs against the big toe on both feet from all the walking I had done and I couldn’t remember whether it was better to leave a blister as is or to pop it. I had developed blisters when I went to Tokyo also but couldn’t remember what I did then either. In the end I chose to leave them be and though they were there, they never really bothered me during my trip.

My plan for today was to visit two UNESCO Designated World Heritage sites, Jongmyo and Changdeokgung. They are relatively near each other so I choose to visit them together and I also chose a Thursday because that is the one day in the week when you can visit the palace of Changdeokgung unescorted.

I got to Jongmyo by around 9:30AM by taking Line 3 to Anguk Station from Dongnimmun. The walk from Anguk Station leading up to Jongmyo took me through a small park where I encountered seniors playing Korean chess or smoking. Upon arrival I found that entry was by tour only and the next available tour (I checked for either English or Korean) was the English one at 10AM so I had a little bit of time to kill.

The majority of the small group that was forming for the tour at 10AM were Chinese and I was the lone Korean. The tour was hosted by a young volunteer wearing a hanbok and it lasted about an hour and it took us all around the grounds.

Jongmyo is a royal shrine that contains many tablets of the Kings from Korean history. One of the things I learned from the tour was of this path that leads to the shrines. The reason the path is divided into three like that is because it is meant to be taken by three different people: the middle path is for the Spirits, one is for the King and the other is for the Prince. There were signs along the pathway to keep off of it. The notion of three pathways was a concept that continued to be used in Korean architecture which explained why I sometimes saw paths divided in three at other historical sites in Seoul, like palaces and such.

The shrine is located in a beautiful forested area and it was very quiet and peaceful. It was nice because it felt secluded like I had walked into another world, one away from the modern day city of Seoul. By the end of it I wish I actually had more time to walk around Jongmyo unescorted. There really isn’t a whole lot to see up close and in person at Jongmyo but while I was there it became more about being the presence of history and nature. During the tour, we stopped in to one of the smaller buildings to watch a video on the history of Korea and the shrine.

The first shrine which contains the tablets behind closed doors was located in an open cobbled court yard and is the bigger of the two shrines. I hate to admit it again but one the reason for my visit to Jongmyo was because I inspired by one of my favourite Korean movies called 깃 (Feathers in the Wind). It really is a gem of a movie I recommend watching it. It actually has nothing really to do with Jongmyo and I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone so I will just say that the final scene in the movie takes place right here in the court yard.

One of the distinctions I learned between palace buildings and shrines is that shrines use very little colour. Palaces on the other hand use a wide range of colours and also decorate the rooftops with little “gargoyle” like creatures at the four corners. Moving along, we got to the second shrine which was pretty much a scaled down version of the first.

Here are some clips of Jongmyo I put together that show the court yards and shrines and what the grounds were like to walk around. Jongmyo seemed like a very peaceful place.

You use to be able to walk through Jongmyo and exit on the north side which would lead to the palace of Changgyeonggung and then to Changdeokgung but that route was closed so I had to exit from where I came. I walked around Jongmyo and headed north to Changdeokgung…