Today we went to Changgeyonggung Palace! It's the second of the grand 5 that we've visited since being here in Korea. We also visited the Jongmyo Confucian Shrine right next door!
The Shrine was cool. It was literally just a really long building with 19 doors leading to rooms that represented the dwelling places for the spirits of 19 kings of the Joseon dynasty. When they ran out of room, they built an annex with another 16 rooms. Once every year in May there is a ceremony where they honor the spirits of the former kings and prepare a huge feast for them and participate in traditional dances and chants. We got to watch a cool 13 minute documentary on it. The best part was it was in a room with AC. (Hallelujah!) You had to take off your shoes before entering and then there were these little chairs on the ground that you sat on. They were pretty much stadium seats but bigger and way more comfy!
The Palace was pretty neat. This one looked pretty much the same as Gyeongbokgung in terms of the architecture and the designs and styles and colors, but there were beautiful gardens where they still grow weird flowers and plants and there is also a greenhouse with plants of all kinds inside. Spencer and I hung out in the gardens for a while just talking and chatting. We decided not to go across the street to the third of the five palaces because we were running out of time before they closed and we were enjoying our current view. We walked around the backside of the palace and found a beautiful lake with lots of ducks. There were tons of carp in the water too.
This palace became the overflow once the main palace was too full. Many of the members of the royal family (aka concubines) lived in the Changgyeonggung Palace. There were also throne rooms and some other unique buildings including feast halls. It's definitely much smaller than Gyeongbokgung, but equally beautiful. We had a great day exploring around despite the killer heat.
