Seoul Lantern Festival

Last month, our friend Kimberly came for a visit. She and David were good friends at DLI (she's a Chinese linguist) and she also lived in Hawaii while we were there. She just got out of the Navy and decided to come visit us before she heads to Massachusetts to start school. We're so glad she came. She was a great house guest and we just love showing off our baby to all our friends.

The last full day that Kimberly was here we went to the Korean Folk Village (which I've written about before) during the day and then to the Seoul Lantern Festival that night. I guess they do this every year, but this year they brought out the lanterns earlier than usual in honor of the G20 Summit which was held here in Seoul.
It was simply amazing. I'm so glad we went. (Especially since it was one of the last nights it was open.)
The lanterns, all made of paper, were breathtaking all lit up. (I wonder how they protect them if it rains.) Some were quite intricate and others were just amusing.

The Cheonggye Stream runs through much of downtown Seoul. It used to be boarded up and was the site of an elevated highway but when Lee Myung-bak (Korea's current President) was mayor of Seoul, he had the highway torn down and the river area was re-vitalized. Now, the river has several bridges and walk-ways spanning it on all sides and is a beautiful and pleasant place to visit.

Here's a guardian, typical of what you see in most Buddhist temples.

And here's the temple with giant koi. Seriously, that fish is just as big as the building.

And in honor of the G20 Summit, they had lanterns representing countries from around the world. Like the Christ statue in Brazil.

And Big Ben.

And Lady Liberty herself.

The lanterns stretched down several blocks. There were so many more than I was expecting.


And there were several which looked like many of the things we'd seen at the Folk Village earlier that day like water wheels and dancers and a traditional wedding party.

Lotus flowers are always fashionable in Asia.

And star-crossed lovers, apparently.

This was the coolest lantern. Koreans are insanely proud Yi Soon-Shin's turtle ships. You see replicas of these supposedly impregnable ships everywhere you go in Korea. The sails on this lantern moved up and down, the oars rowed from side to side and the cannons spurted fire. Of course, my camera didn't really capture all of that.

And tigers, of course. I think they had all the animals from the zodiac signs, but I like the tigers best. (Even though I'm a dog.) Zara was born in the year of the tiger, after all. :-)

After walking along the river to the end of the exhibit, we then walked to Insadong, a long street which is famous for its authentic Korean crafts like celadon pottery, scrolls, calligraphy, and fans. It's become one of my favorite places in Seoul. Plus, we found an absolutely delicious Chinese restaurant above one of the shops there. I can't wait to eat there again. Their sweet and sour pork was the best I've ever had. I only wish they delivered to our house, but I think we're a little outside their typical delivery range. Pity. I could really go for some Chinese food right now.