Walk half a block from Jegi-dong station in northeastern Seoul, and a massive traditional gate comes into sight. Beyond it, stores after stores sell mysterious ingredients out of big plastic bags. Shopkeepers dust the merchandise—mostly dried plant materials—in the open, sending particles flying in the air. Some corners are vaguely reminiscent of a butcher shop, with different animal parts—bear gallbladder, gutted geckos, and dried frogs—on display.
When it was built in 1909, the Grand Conservatory in Changgyeong Palace was the largest of its kind in Asia. After years of restoration, the conservatory has been opened to the public just last month. Is it a symbol of colonialists and capitalites tainting the royal legacy of the Joseon
Is the world’s oldest-known newspaper Korean? A Buddhist temple in South Korea recently claimed that it possessed the world’s “first” daily newspaper, called the Jobo. If the claim is true, the Jobo would be almost a century older than the Einkommende Zeitungen, one of the world’
