Jongno Street as the main thoroughfar of Seoul is a commercial and shopping district that connects Sejongno and Dongdaemun, the Great East Gate. Many landmarks are located in or near Jongno Street, and it continues to play a significant part in the city’s cultural and social life.

Jongno Tower, a 33-story office building and one of Korea’s tallest structures, gives a outstanding view of the street as well as the rest of the city. In order to get a view through the restaurant and bar at the top, however, you need to order a drink, and it can be expensive.

Tapgol Park, also known as Pagoda Park due to the Joseon Dynasty pagoda located at its center, is a historic landmark for its role in the struggle against Japanese colonial rule. Back in 1919, a countrywide non-violent demonstration was formed by the Independence Movement to criticize the Japanese occupation during that time. A short distance from the park is Insa-Dong, a narrow street lined with art galleries, second-hand bookstores, and antique shops. Called “May’s Alley” by foreign residents of the city, Insa-Dong is the best bet for finding antiques and reproductions in Seoul, especially chests of the Joseon Dynasty style. The street is closed to vehicular traffic on Sundays from 10am to 10pm.

Jogyesa is the primary temple of the Jogyu Order of Korean Buddhism and the largest temple within Seoul. Located west of Insa-Dong, Jogyesa becomes the center of festivities during the Lotus Lantern Festival, a celebration devoted to Buddha’s birthday.  Three superb golden Buddhas, each measuring 6 meters high, are kept within the temple, and the whole place feels like an island of tranquility amidst the towers of steel, glass, and concrete of the capital.

Another great heritage site in Jongno Street is Bosingak, a historic bell pavilion. The original bell used to toll the closing of the city gates at dusk and their opening at dawn; today, it resides in the National Museum and a reproduction is rung during New Year’s Day and other special events. Jongno, which means “bell street” derives its name from this important landmark. Jongno is also home to Bigak Pavillion, built in 1902 to commemorate the anniversary of Emperor Gojong’s coronation, his birthday, and the founding of the Korean Empire. Finally, to complete your historical exploration of Jongno Street, you can drop by Gahoe Museum, a private institution which contains 1,500 relics made up of amulets, folk painting, classical books, and other artifacts.

Near the entrance of Jongno Street is Dongdaemun Market, located near the Great East Gate. This is Korea’s largest wholesale and retail shopping district with 26 shopping malls, 30,000 specialty shops, and 50,000 manufacturers. Silks, clothes, footwear, sporting items, electronics, hardware, toys, and just about everything else is for sale here. Purchasers from all over the country like to take advantage of the wholesale prices during the early morning, so the place stays open from 10:30am to 5am for the benefit of shoppers.

May is a perfect time to visit Jongnu Street, as the Hi Seoul festivities celebrate several events on this road. A Lotus Lantern Festival also occurs t the same time, with a lantern-making workshop at Jogyesa Temple as well as a Buddhist Street Fair that is held in front of it. The temple gets pretty colorful during this time with the many vivid lanterns hung over its courtyard. The highlight of the festival is the Hi Seoul  Parade, where a hundred thousand individual lanterns of all shapes and sizes are on display. You can see lantern hats, lantern flags, and lantern pinwheels, in the shape of pigs, fire-breathing dragons, butterflies, elephants, and much more. The parade also involves participants from all over the world, from an African drum-and-dance troupe, flamenco dancers, Eastern-European dancers, and belly dancers.

During the street fair, stalls are operated by volunteers who distribute information and even books on Korean history. Cultural performances such as musical concerts and acrobatics involving the neol ttwigi (traditional see-saw) are also part of the celebration, not to mention making prints of Buddhist sutras from wooden blocks, martial arts exhibitions. The street fair culminates with the Grand Finale Joint Celebration, where all the participants join hands in song and dance.

Posted in Korea, Things to do

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Korea, Things to do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.