City Hall, Seoul

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South Koreans are known around the world as passionate and avid rallyist!. My Guide told me that practically everyday, there are rallies conducted at the city hall area on an infinite amount of grievances like agriculture subsidies, politics, fuel prices, anti-north korea, etc. Recently the rallies were against US Beef since there were unfounded rumours circulated that when you eat US Beef then you will die of Mad Cow Disease. Personally I think this is Xenophobia at it's worst.

City Hall was constructed in 1926 in a gothic style reminiscent of something from New York City, Chicago, or possibly Batman. It was built during the Japanese occupation and has always housed the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

City Hall Plaza is the open area in front of City Hall. It was just rebuilt in Spring 2004 from a huge, unsightly intersection to a green open area.

Also in the area of City Hall are Deoksugung Palace, the Anglican Cathedral dating from 1926, and the major business hotels of Seoul such as the Westin Chosun Hotel, the Seoul Plaza Hotel, and the Lotte Hotel.

The redesigned open area in front of City Hall has become a popular spot for public celebrations and demonstrations.

This building was built in 1926 to house Seoul Metropolitan Government. It is designed in a gothic style with a large-size circular wall clock. This clock is synchronized by external satellite aerial GPS and at noon, the clock strikes 12 times with the melody of the traditional Bosingak bell.

Seoul Plaza re-opened on May 1, 2004, as the newly renovated place around the fountain area in front of Seoul City Hall. The fountains are neat as the heights and directions of the water columns can be controlled and 48 lights are installed around the grass square to light up the night. Large-scale cultural events are often held on the grass square as well.

We are still in downtown Seoul area and another intersting spot is the city hall and the grand square in front of it..

This are is covered with the city hall building on one side.. The historical palace on the left side and some other business buildings on the other sides..

City Hall is in downtown Seoul. It was built in 1926 to house Seoul Metropolitan Government (those nice people who publish Seoul's Best 100).

There is a spectacular light show here during the Hi Seoul Festival.

SKorea launched its first high speed train(KTX train) sometime in April 2004. I was very lucky to be the first few passengers to try it. I took a high speed train to Busan and it took about 3 hours. It was pretty much a smooth ride but the seats were rather narrow and you can really feel like a sardine if you have long legs. The ride cost about 45,000won.
To catch the train, take a subway to their spanking new Seoul station in the heart of the city. Buy your ticket from the counter ( Just say , "Busan", "KTX" ) and hop on the train.

This can be a scary scene to little kids because it looked like a real. And actually, this made one kid next to me cry!

These characters are called "Jang seung" in Korean. Long time ago, in country area, people could see these characters in every border or entrance to towns.
They played important role not only as a milestone but as a guardian. On top of that, people believed that they can be protected from evil spirits and diseases by these characters. Also, it has something to do with religious thing, so those were the sacred object that people couldn't even touch.

I am still amazed that they made this with light.

Fire on top of the hotel???