Sight-seeing

A club at my school offered a field trip for the exchange students to 경북궁, or Kyeongbokgung/Kyeongbok palace. It was built in 1395, but most of it destroyed by Japanese, and then reconstructed in 1865. The royal family lived there and entertained there. I was absolutely amazed by how huge it is! And it's only about 1/4 the size that it was originally, I believe.

Look at the pretty mountains in the background!

One thing that kind of blew my mind is that it is in Seoul. You can see mountains in one direction and city buildings in the other. And like I said, Kyeongbokgung is huge, it's amazing that it's inside of Seoul. Kind of gives perspective on how big Seoul is. 

I believe this is a throne room or something?

The Empress's quarters. 

This is a picture of my group. I'm in the white in the middle, my roommate Caitlin is right next to me. This picture was taken outside of the place where Empress Myeongseon/Queen Min was killed in 1895 by Japanese. She was very politically active and was considered by the Japanese to be an obstacle in their goal of overseas expansion. 

My favorite place in the palace!

Me! ^.^