Your Own Personal Korea: Tourist Attraction in Korea ③: Jongmyo

In the second week after we got to Korea, we went to Jongmyo. Jongmyo is a Confucian royal shrine that houses the ancestral tablets of the kings and queens of the Joseon Dynasty, the last Korean dynasty that ended in 1910. One of our business contacts wanted to show this place to us because Jongmyo was a very meaningful place in the more than 500 year long history of Joseon. This shrine was also designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995. It is one of the nine UNESCO World Heritage sites in Korea as of 2009. The admission fee is only 1000 won (about one US dollar). It is closed on Tuesdays.

We watched a video about Jongmyo. The video is useful for understanding Jongmyo and has versions in different languages with Chinese, Japanese or English subtitles. Unfortunately, you can’t choose the language at a time you want. It automatically plays each version in sequence. When we entered the video room, it was playing the Japanese subtitled version and then continued to the Chinese subtitled version. We didn’t wait until the English version started.

The main hall called Jeongjeon is amazing architecture. It is very wide but still well balanced. Especially if you visit Korea in May, Jongmyo is definitely a place to go. This shrine holds an annual ancestral ceremony called Jongmyo Jerye on the first Sunday of May. Jongmyo Jerye was also designated as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2001. We’ve never seen this event, but we want to see it some time. We appreciate traditional events and places because they present unique parts of a country. Metropolitan areas almost look the same in many countries: tall buildings, shopping malls, crowds and pollution. The only difference is often just the language you hear.

If you visit Jongmyo, we would recommend that you go to Samcheongdong and Insadong nearby. They are both ‘commercialized’ traditional districts, but still have interesting elements you can enjoy. You can see traditional Korean houses, buy traditional Korean souvenirs and eat traditional Korean food. If you don’t have much time, Insadong will be a better choice. You will have fun looking around, though everything is more expensive there than non-traditional places.