Dongdaemun and the National Museum of Korea
July 14, 2010 (Wednesday)
After hearing the stories of Aunt Jennifer and Aunt Alice, we headed off to Dongdaemun, the main shopping district of Korea and the gathering place of wholesalers. The selection was so massive that Grace and I felt completely overwhelmed! For example, in the Pyeonghwa market, we saw seemingly never-ending rows of sock wholesalers, all lined up next together in crammed stalls, filled with thousands of sock designs! In the shoes market, we must have passed hundreds of vendors showing off an immense mountain of shoes. In fact, due to the sheer scale, Grace and I couldn’t settle down to shop at all! We got so lost that we ended up going to a rather posh internet/gaming café to look up directions. Inside, we experienced for ourselves a bit of Korea’s gaming culture – even at an early hour, plenty of young boys and men played warcraft and other RPGs with intense concentration.
In addition to the wholesaler markets, Dongdaemun has plenty of massive department stores, stretching 10+ stories tall. Rather than large shops for each retailer, as in the US malls, each vendor only has a tiny stall, meaning that on just one normal-sized floor, one can find dozens of different retailers. As such, the department stores feel really crammed – clothing, jewelry, and goods of all different colors and styles clashing with one another. As such, I found it very difficult to find the mindset to shop – rather, I enjoyed walking around and absorbing the sheer diversity of goods available!
We had such a tasty lunch at a local restaurant! I ordered a cold version of my favorite dish of bibimbap, while Grace ventured out of her comfort zone to taste sweet potato cheese. After lunch, we walked around the area, visited the memorial park (unfortunately, most of it is closed to construction), before heading off the Korea National Museum.
What an extraordinary museum, reflective of the country’s pride in its cultural identity! Grace and I got audioguides to fully appreciate the exhibit content, and as such, learned a tremendous amount about Korean history. Organized chronologically, we walked through the prehistory of Korea to the last reign of the Josun dynasty, abruptly ended by Japanese occupation. We learned about the Three Kingdoms period in early Korean history, the major milestones of the unifying Shilla dynasty, and the country’s traditions in calligraphy, painting, and other fine arts. The museum truly captured the immense nationalism of the Korean people – an immense pride in their country. Objectively speaking, the museum does not have as much content as the National Palace Museum in Taipei, but the attention to detail by the curator and the scale of the mammoth building provides such a better context for the artifacts! If only the Taipei government could replicate such a building – too much of the National Palace Museum collection remains hidden from visitors due to lack of space! We stayed at least four hours, intrigued by the contrasts and similarities between Korea and China.
After the museum, we visited Nanmendong to buy ginseng products for my grandparents and family. At the ginseng store, we met a friendly woman who gave us a lot of insight into the history of the Korean ginseng. By expressing our admiration of Korea, we got a substantial discount – yet another manifestation of the intense nationalist pride manifested in the people that we meet.
Rather than sitting down for a formal meal, Grace and I sampled different delicacies in the street stalls, tasting kimchi buns and dukbokki, a popular Korean snack food made of rice cake and a spicy-sweet chili seasoning. We then ended the night back at Myeong-dong again, buying earrings and trinkets as gifts for friends.
Alas, what a wonderful sisterly day of shopping and museum visiting!
August 1st, 2010 at 7:32 am
National pride, ugh, that we come to know Korean in the most vivid form! From their soccer team, to ice skating, Hyundai car, and even the disgraced embryo cell researcher, it all goes beyond personal achievement. Good or bad, I grow to dislike uniformity – yes, as you have observed, I count to be one of a small minority of people who grow up in the Far East and retain my own individuality in conjunction with my heritage. Indeed, I found discomfort and difficulty to fit in; well, then, I find difficulty to fit anywhere
. My intense sense of personal freedom refrain me to plunge into sea of uniformity like national identity. When you describe the massive display of ‘modern Korea’ in terms of economics of merchandises – just look at our bathroom, and count how many containers of every sort are there ? 30 or more ? Do we really need all these to get a day by ? While Greeks tease and laugh about the luxury and pompous display of Trojan excess, it seems that we have all turned into modern Trojans! We lost all taste of simplicity and classical balance.
Well, as long as my dear daughters find themselves enjoying their trip and get excited about different culture, I will rest my rambling in peace.