National Museum of Korean Contemporary History
After a morning subway ride and scenic walk next to some of Korea's government buildings, we arrived at the history museum. Not only is the museum dedicated to the research and preservation of Korean history, it also contains a view of Gyeongbokgung palace, the Blue House (Cheong Wa Dae), and Bugaksan mountain. The perfect spot to get pictures as well as sight-see. There were many students there on field trips and much of the artifacts in the museum were not translated, so I stuck with our tour guide Andrew. I enjoy listening to him speak about history and provide deeper context on the various photographs we see.
I was particularly interested in the art aspect of the museum of which he did not talk about. There are two different paintings that we encountered on the floor we were on. The first called Lunch was made by painter Hwang Jai-hyoung and depicts coal miners eating their meal. Sadly, the working conditions of the Koreans working in the mines were so poor that to eat they're own lunch food, they would have to use the light from each other's helmets. As for the second, it is called Urban Square Memories painted by Park Young-gyun depicting the street filled with people for the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup. Spaces such as these are where joy, sorrow, and memories meet. We saw a space similar later in the day of a photograph showing the amount of people present for the World Cup also.
City Hall Area
Ironically, I ended up grabbing McDonalds right next to city hall before going back to the meeting spot. Our second stop of the day was the city hall; of which we learned that the old one was made by Japan when they occupied Korea. Now, it has been transformed into the Seoul Metropolitan Library. However because it was the old city hall, it doubled as a museum full of activities, history, and of course a gift shop! Watching everyone exchange turns behind the mayor's desk was funny, but better yet, we ended up learning much more about the history leading up to the building as well as Cheonggyecheon stream.
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