My Korea Plans & the Korean Folk Village (한국민속촌)

Hello everyone! I'm very excited to begin blogging about my upcoming trip to Korea. As you can see in the navigation bar, I've already begun to set up categories for my posts, so I hope I can fill all of these during my trip. Let me begin my first post by sharing my plans with you briefly.

My church is kind of a world-wide body, so we have many locations around the world. There are many churches of ours in 서울 (Seoul), as well as several sister's houses. Sister's houses are pretty much dorms for college girls in our church, often offered at a lower rent, but also including somewhat strict living guidelines (mostly about attending church meetings and reading the Bible). I'll be staying at a sister's house for one month during the summer, and they're kindly only charging me about $160! Also, since I'll be there during their summer break, the guidelines are not as strict. The house is in 신촌 (Shinchon), but within walking distance of 홍대 (Hongdae). Shinchon often has spontaneous kpop performers in the streets and Hongdae is a youthful district famous for its clubbing culture, but I prefer the cute cafes there!

After one month, I'll go on a trip with a friend to 대전 (Daejeon), 대구 (Daegu), 부산 (Busan), and 진주 (Jinjoo) while staying with people from our church before joining our church for a college conference in the countryside. After the conference, I'll go back to Seoul to meet my sweet friend Sara from Canada, then we'll take a two day trip to 강릉 (Gangneung), where there is a beautiful beach!

I'll then return to Seoul and spend a week with someone from my church, but I'm not sure who that will be yet! I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of Korea this time and spending an even longer time there (7 weeks!).

I thought I'd start with a great experience I had last year at the 한국민속촌 (Hanguk Minsokchon), traditional Korean Folk Village. In short, the folk village is a place meant to emulate the style of living during the Joseon Era (the last Korean dynasty). In fact, my host mother said the homes here were just like the ones she lived in as a child! If you want to learn more about the Folk Village, check out the official Korea Tourism Organization's page for it here.

My host friend and his mother took me to the folk village on a day that was predicted to rain, so it wasn't crowded at all! Admission for 19+ is ₩15,000, which is $13.60 in USD. Not bad!

Have you seen the drama My Love from the Stars? I haven't yet, but I'd like to! Apparently some scenes were filmed here. I've been told many historical dramas film here too!

This is the kind of home my host mother said reminded her of her childhood. Notice the short table outdoors? There was another structure similar to this one where we purchased traditional cold tea (too bad I didn't get a picture!) and we sat at a table like that on the porch outside. 

I was really fascinated by the crops and flowers, so actually I have a ton of photos like these. It was hard to narrow them down!

Pardon my hand there-- I was trying to sneak a shot of this family on the platforms! I saw the platforms quite frequently in parks or just in random places. There was even one next to the subway station by our apartment! I think there might be so many because the elderly are more active in Korea, and thus need to rest more. Of course, people of all ages use them! That's just my theory.

Of course, this one is more traditional in style. They're for resting, even sleeping like you can see the family doing here. Shoes are not allowed on the platform, so you have to take them off before climbing on. It's amazing that even in public places, people sleep comfortably with their stuff out in the open. 

A river ran through the middle of the village. There was even a short bridge made of stones that we crossed at one point. 

What traditional folk village would be complete without Korea's national flower? In Korean it's called 무궁화 (Moogoonghwa), but in English we call it Rose of Sharon. 무궁화 is able to withstand insect bites and faithfully blooms yearly despite some of Korea's harsher winters. 무궁 (moogoong) actually means immortality. Thus, 무궁화 became a symbol of the Korean people's endurance and perseverance.

We've actually had a Rose of Sharon tree in our backyard my whole life, but we recently had to take it down due to strong wind damage. 

The folk village had many activities and shows to watch! This performance was some kind of folk dancing group. Later on, we also saw a group of Mongolian horse riders perform equestrian tricks!

Traditional seating for the restaurant! See what I mean about it being pretty empty? We ate something, then took a nap while waiting for my host father to pick us up.

At the end of the day, it began to rain, but thankfully we'd brought umbrellas. I really recommend going here, especially on a weekday or before the summer holidays when it's emptier. That way, you can have a more peaceful experience.

한국민속촌 is actually located in 용인 (Yongin), which is fairly far from the center of Seoul. If you take public transit, it could be around 2 hours. Since I lived in 과천 (Gwacheon), I think it took us closer to an hour and a half.

Korean Folk Village 
경기도 용인시 기흥구 민속촌로 90 (보라동)

90 Minsokchon-ro, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do