Ham Seok-heon’s House in Ssangmun-dong, Dobong-gu, will open its doors in September to serve as a memorial hall. After a year of remodeling, the old house where Ham once lived has been modified into an exhibition room and various spaces for citizens, while preserving as much of its original form as possible. The memorial hall...   Read more

Suwon Hwaseong Fortress, with a total length of 5.7 kilometers and spanning an area of 1.2 square meters, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the masterpiece of King Jeongjo of the Joseon Dynasty and features dozens of facilities, including four gates, especially Paldalmun Gate. Near Hwahongmun Gate, north of Hwaseong, there remain the...   Read more

Trekkers down from Inwangsan Mountain or tourists to Bukchon often visit this famous spot in Hwa-dong, Jongno-gu. It was the location of Kyunggi High School, the most renowned school for elite students in the 1980s, and became Jeongdok Public Library when the school moved to Gangnam. It is also the scene depicted in Inwangjesaekdo (“After...   Read more

During Korea’s modernization period, the street in front of Incheon’s Jung-gu Office was the center of Japanese leased territory. Shaped like a grid, the street was also the center of Japanese finance in Incheon. In front of the old Japanese consulate (presently Jung-gu Office), there were three private banks. The numbers attached to the banks...   Read more

If you walk from Tapgol Park through the small alleys toward the entrance of Insa-dong, you will find Seungdong Church, which was a main building in the area before the street became known as Insa-dong. Though it is now overshadowed by skyscrapers, it was once a magnificent monument erected against the backdrop of Bukhansan Mountain....   Read more

On a desolate mountain road in Banghak-dong, Dobong-gu, where the Bukhansan Mountain trail begins, there sits Gansong Jeon Hyeong-pil House, the restoration of which has been underway since it was designated as a registered cultural property in 2012. After his uncle, who had raised him, died, Gansong built a tomb near the house and continued...   Read more

The Catholic Medical Center was opened in 1936 with 25 beds in a wooden two-story building, and three years later, it was renamed “Myeongdong St. Mary’s Hospital.” It is now called the Catholic Center and is located at the intersection of Samil-ro and Myeongdong-gil, a street bustling with 1.5 million people every day. The initial...   Read more

When Incheon became the leased territory of Qing China in 1884, the first Chinatown in Korea was built. This Chinatown is the symbol of the Incheon Treaty-Port era, when the area became filled with Chinese foods and culture. jajangmyeon, the first food Koreans regularly went out to eat, was originally noodles mixed with the soybean...   Read more

To modernize Korea’s dilapidated agricultural and fisheries distribution facilities and improve the distribution system, Korea’s rule of “one market per city” was abolished in 1976, and the Act on Distribution and Price Stabilization of Agricultural and Fishery Products was enacted to transform the existing distribution structure, which had become bogged down by trade on consignment,...   Read more

Standing in front of Underwood Hall, Stimson Hall, and Appenzeller Hall on the campus of Yonsei University in Sinchon is a British residential-style dormitory building. The building was named after, and in honor of, Dr. Pinson of America’s Southern Methodist Church, who made a major contribution to the fundraising effort for the construction of the...   Read more

210 Hyeonchung-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul. Seoul National Cemetery, the first national cemetery in Korea, is nestled among the ridges of Gwanaksan Mountain alongside the meandering Han River, with Gongjakbong (Peak) at its center. The site of the cemetery was selected after an 11-month survey that was carried out during the Korean War, when the number of...   Read more

Built about 120 years ago, one machiya (traditional Japanese wooden house) still remains near Incheon Harbor. It once housed a cargo company called “Daehwajo,” which was established around the time of the opening of Incheon Port, where poor Korean laborers went back and forth to work every day. This was the center of the Japanese...   Read more