Hanok Stay Experience: Bukchon Hanok Village

Hanok is a traditional Korean house. While participating in the 'Hanok Stay Experience' program we visited the Bukchon hanok village. It is a beautiful area in Jongno-gu, Seoul with hundreds of hanoks there. At first, when we arrived there, I thought: "OMG! Am I in the ancient Korea?" Because the whole village is packed with traditionally built Korean houses – hanoks, it looked like a real ancient city. I would wear Korean traditional dress – hanbok – and walk down the streets :) Each hanok is amazing. At first it seems like all hanoks look same, but if you watch carefully, you will see that every hanok is unique, and some are made of different kinds of wood. Some of the hanoks are modern, and some are really old.

Souvenir shop

Also some people might find the Bukchon village attractive not only because of the hanoks. As for me, I was very surprised to see lots of shops with unique and creative designs. I am sure everything in the village was made by men of a good taste. To my mind, Bukchon village is a place where tradition and modernity meet.

Professor of the Seoul National University, Nah Seoung-Sook is determined to preserve and distribute
Korean Urishi culture through her unique art works 

Except for shopping and souvenir shops, there are lots of traditional Korean workshops, such as Kyung-Shin Workshop: Kim Kyung-Shin has patented methods for combining precious metals with hanji (traditional Korean mulberry paper) to make earrings, brooches and necklaces. Traditional Korean Liquor Workshop: Kim Taek-Sang has researched the traditional methods for brewing and distilling traditional liquors, such as makgeolli (raw rice wine), yakjuin (medicinal wine), soju (distilled liquor) and many others workshops, which you can visit and experience Korean culture.

Choong-Ang High School

Walking down the streets of Bukchon village I was very surprised to see Choong-Ang High School, where several episodes of the most beloved Korean drama – Winter Sonata – were shot. I watched the 'Winter Sonata' series when I was 14 years old, and it was the first Korean drama that I saw! The first 3 episodes of the drama showed school life in Choong-Ang High School, and it was the place where the main characters Joong-Sang and Yu-Jin met each other. I love it!

So, by this time your desire to experience the Bukchon hanok village must overgrow your laziness :) Go there and take as many vivid pictures as you can! Or, if you don't have a camera, watch mine (I took more than 500 hundreds pictures on the weekend). Click on a pic to enlarge it! *^^*

Bukchon map With mayor of Jongno-gu	Title in Hanja Introducing hanok
Director of the village	hanok
Spring garden	pottery shop
cute dolls on the stairs say welcome	yellow flowers on the high wall
little hanok	very creative
Some restaurant	Pink flowers on the wall
be quiet please	Korean traditional snacks
beautiful hanok	scenery of hanoks