Saturday, a very busy day

 Our friend, Jihee joined us today.  We met Jihee when she was a student at North Dakota State University.  She came to Fergus Falls as part of an ecology group to work at the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center on a cleanup day.  We became friends and she would travel from Fargo to Fergus Falls to spend the weekend with us. In Korea, she invited us to travel there and so we did it.

It was a clear bright day as we awoke so we want to share the view from our room at the hotel.

Our first visit of the day was to the Gyeongbokgung Palace.  It was the main palace of the Joseon dynasty and was built in 1395.  It stood at the heart of the capital city.  It was destroyed in 1592 and then rebuilt.  A total of 500 buildings were included in the site.  In 1910 the Japanese occupied Korea and destroyed the palace once again.  Since 1990 the palace has been rebuilt once again and is almost complete.

 This is a special retreat for the emperor and is surrounded by a lovely reflecting pond.  The guide book states that the name Gyeongbok means "The new dynasty will be greatly blessed" and gung means "Palace".

This the throne room of the dynasty.

Sue in one of the courtyards.

A building used as a site for entertaining foreign envoys and leaders.

Re-enactors show historical characters just as the American Civil War has soldiers for both sides of the conflict.

We were on our way to view a folk opera when we came across a changing of the guard ceremony at the Deoksugung Palace.  It went on for about fifteen minutes and was fascinating to watch.

This video, just over a minute in length, shows some of the pageantry.  Also, does it remind anyone of the marching in the "Wizard of Oz"?

A traditional theatre telling the story of two lovers separated and finally reunited.  It was a spectacle of dance, acting, costuming and music. They did not allow photography of the musical event itself so this hallway promotion has to do.

The heroine, on left, and hero posed after the performance.

 So we had to get into the act. The actor on the right was the "bad guy".


Across the street from the traditional theatre was the Chong Dong Methodist Church.  These folks were giving away coffee and tea and their banner read "Jesus loves you!" in Korean.  They had a man with a microphone telling the gospel story near this picture.  Quite different from the main-line Christian denominations in the USA. After some conversation, they gifted us with a CD of music they have recorded.

As we returned home, we observed these "dancers" held aloft by the crane.