Gyeongbokgung palace is famous as one of the Must-go siteS to foreign tourists. It was main palace of Chosun dynasty from early of 15 century. Now this place gets famous with changing of guard. It is good for taking video.
It is held twice a day 10:00am and 14:00pm. After the ceremony, tourists can take pictures with guards. The guards are not real soldiers because S.Korea is already republic country. We don’t have King and royal families anymore.
The buildings of palace are very similar to China & Japan. Its difference is in the colors. The roof and body color of building is black and white. It comes from Fungshui theory. Black stands for the Earth, White stands for Sky. Black and white set in array in turn from the top to the bottom. On the contrary, The China’s and Japan’s roof color is yellow and violet. Because those colors are recognized as the color of Emperor. Others are green, orange, red brown and pink. Green stands for nature, Red brown is mud, pink is spring flower.
The difference in the building comes from the ridge of the roof. The China’s and Japan ridge of roof comes down straightly from the top. But Korea’s ridge has curve with the combination of the mountain. The palace are surrounded by mountain. the ridge of the palace building and mountain ridges keep well harmonious. Because the harmony and balance used to be the main country philosophy of Chosun dynasty.
The palace lake is also built on the base of Fungshui theory. The shape of lake is round. The round stands for the universe. Andit has the combination of the sky and water. The small pavilion in the middle of lake is only for King. King is recognized as the son of the sky. Everything in the world own for king and exists for king.
The way to Gyeongbokgung palace is very convenient. From subway line 3 has Gyeongbokgung station. Exir 3 leads the shortcut to the palace. Nearby exit 3, there are a lot of Hanbok(Korean traditional clothing) rental shop. The palace tour with Hanbok is very much popular.
