One weekend in July, we took a trip up to Seoul with my parents to do a little sightseeing. It was the rainy season, so we had to change our plans a little bit, but what we did in the end was probably more interesting than our original plans.
We took the subway to City Hall to see Seoul Plaza and Deoksugung Palace. When we emerged from below, we found ourselves in the middle of a protest rally at Daehanmun Gate (the entrance to the palace). The gate is apparently a popular spot for political protests. This particular rally was for a far-right group, which seems to support U.S. troops and a more hawkish stance with the North.
[Side note: Trump’s visit to Korea this week was met with protests by those who are against the U.S. President and possible war with the North – along with a small number of pro-U.S. protests – though all protests were banned in many parts of downtown Seoul as the government enforced “security zones” around the President’s Blue House and the National Assembly.]
The issue of political protests in Korea is complicated and I could do an entire post on it, but suffice to say Koreans have a long history of protest. Since at least 1919 with the March 1st Movement against Japanese colonizers, Koreans have found public demonstrations to be an effective way to push back against their government. Oftentimes, such protest can be dangerous – as when the Japanese military gunned down unarmed students, or when the Korean military gunned down unarmed students – but that seems not to deter people. Millions of Koreans turn out regardless. When we first arrived last year, Korea was in the middle of mass protests against then-president Park Geun-Hye (the “candlelight revolution”). Because protests are so common, they are well-organized and sometimes even family-oriented. Aaron’s coworker took his son to one of the anti-Park protests, saying he wanted to teach him how to do it right. Besides, he said, “At least this time, they won’t be throwing tear gas canisters at us.”
We didn’t stay long at the Daehanmun protest, and I’m not certain what was said, but there were speeches and some singing and a lot of flag (American and Korean) waving. Since the area immediately in front of the gate was pretty busy, we decided to skip a visit to the palace.
Wandering instead over to Seoul Plaza, we happened upon a fair put on by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. There were booths and a stage and some kind of raffle going on… the usual fair activities. The kids insisted on visiting the “learn how to use a fire extinguisher” booth, and some guy let Lena loose with an extinguisher until she smoked out the place.
Dad declared it all to be far more interesting than a museum.
But the next day, we went to a museum anyway. The War Memorial of Korea was built in the early 90’s on the former site of the Korean army headquarters in Yongsan, Seoul. It commemorates the wars of Korea, and in particular the Korean War. Thousands of items from Korea’s military history are displayed – including numerous tanks, aircraft, rockets, boats, and vehicles – along with a memorial to the Korean and U.N. soldiers who died during the war.
It is probably one of the most impressive museums/memorials I have ever seen. The grounds are vast and beautiful. The building is enormous and beautiful. There are sooo many items, and I don’t know why but I just find it really impressive to see so many full-sized vehicles inside a building. They have everything from a Turtle Ship replica to Kim Il-sung’s limousine. We only had a few hours to wander around the museum and grounds, but I could have taken longer. Even the kids enjoyed climbing all over the jeeps and tanks.
If you’re ever in Seoul, I highly recommend a visit.
We finished up our visit to Seoul with a day at Lotte World, a theme park right in the middle of Seoul and the other major Korean theme park aside from Everland. The highlight for me is the fact that most of it is indoors (useful on rainy days, as it was on our visit). Cramming all that “fun” into one big space is really quite impressive (you could almost high-five people going past on the roller coaster). The other part of the park is outdoors on a island in a lake. Unfortunately, due to the downpour, we could not visit this part of the park. It was fairly empty when we first arrived, but by the afternoon it was full of high schoolers in uniform wandering about in groups. I wouldn’t mind returning sometimes, and I’m sure the kids wouldn’t, either.
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