We did a lot of walking Saturday. After leaving Insadong we traveled northeast to Changdeokgung Palace. On our way we stopped at Tapgol Park. Previously, the Wongaksa Temple stood where the park is now.

The park is also important to the March 1 independence movement, as it was apparently the first place the Korean declaration of independence was read.

At Changdeokgung, we found we had missed the last English tour by an hour, but we wandered around outside and took some pictures. (We’re going to see if it’s possible to tour the palaces at night.)

From Changdeokgung we walked west to Gyeongbokgung Palace in Gwanghwamun, the part of Seoul we’re most familiar with.

Gyeongbokgung tours were not available either, but it was impressive to see the building against the backdrop of mountains. The original structure was built in 1394. The signs around the palace read that the palace was razed by the Japanese during the 1592-98 invasions. Our guidebook says that, in fact, disgruntled palace slaves burned the building during the invasions to erase the records of their service, and that the Japanese didn’t dismantle much of the palace until the colonial period. I’m not sure which story is correct, and I was also left to wonder which of the palace’s buildings are original and which are the reconstructions from 1990.

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