On Tue, 6 Mar 2001, Violet Ciotti wrote:

> Greetings and Salutations!
> I was wondering if anyone has been to Seoul, Korea and could suggest any
> Galleries, Museums and or Archeological sites to visit.  I'm traveling
> sometime in May.  How about other attractions and or open-air museums?  Any
> information would be greatly appreciated.  You may contact me on or off the
> list.

======================

Violet:

Further to Greg's reply:

The National Museum in Seoul is in temporary accommodation adjacent to the
old Royal Palace site pending completion of the new building, but the
collections are still well worth seeing, and there's a fine folklife
museum on the same site.

The War Memorial Museum is huge, and has a very good chronological general
history of the Korean peninsula in addition to the military history side
(which is also very well one).  Also in central Seoul the Ho-Am Art
Gallery has both Korean and western collections.

Within less than an hour by road (and presumably accessible by train also)
at Kyonggi in Yong-In province, are two outstanding museums: the new
Kyonggi Provincial Museum, with archaeology, history, art etc. and the
Korean Folk Village Museum - probably the best "open air" museum in Asia.

If you can manage a couple of days away from Seoul (or a day visit if you
fly and get a local car with an English-speaking driver) the four hours
or so high speed train journey to Kyongju is a "must". Newly added to the
World Heritage List, this is the 7th - 9th century centre of Korea's Silla
Dynasty - arguably amongst the two or three most advanced civilisations in
the world at that time, with stunning arts and crafts etc. In addition to
the huge modern Kyongju National Museum with its world-class collections
of the Silla period and both earlier and later periods, there are bout a
dozen internationally important ancient temples and other monuments in the
town or within half an hour or so's drive.  Kyongju also now has some very
reasonably priced top class hotels if you want to luxuriate yourself for a
few days!

Most of the major museums have web sites with at least some English
language pages. The most up to date list is probably that of ICOM Korea:
go to http://www.icom.org and then click on National Committees for the
link to the Korea National Committee.


Patrick Boylan

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