There’s something jarring and otherworldly when I visit temples and palaces, especially those located in urban areas. It is mostly that disconnect between the future and the past, having that no small piece of the historical ancient in the middle of a thriving metropolis. The Bukchon Hanok Village is one of the most popular tourist-y places to visit in Seoul, but it wasn’t only until my 3rd visit to the City that I actually got around to checking it out.
Check out the official Seoul page on Bukchon here.
The Seoul homepage dubbed Bukchon as a “street museum”, which I’d have to agree with. Unlike cultural themed parks (like the Korean Folk Village, for example, which I blogged about in three parts: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), however, this is not mainly maintained as one. You’ll see why later.
While walking around Samcheongdong, you will definitely not miss the buildings with distinct architectural styles and designs like that of days of old Korea. As we started our leisurely stroll up the hill to Bukchon, we found more and more of these traditional designs.
History Right Here
Bukchon is a large area flanked on both sides by the Gyeongbukgong and Changdeokgung. The word “Bukchon” literally means “northern village”, and it served as the residential district for the high-ranking officials and nobility during the Joseon era.
The entire village is not flat, and if you walk around, you’d find yourself going up hills as you go through maze-like alleys. And it’s quite huge, too. In fact, Samcheongdong is technically just one part of the entire Bukchon area.
Our goal here is go to the middle of Bukchon, where the concentration of the traditional houses, or hanoks, as they are called in Hangul.
It’s a Maze. No, really, it is.
It’s easy to get lost in the maze-like alleyways and narrow streets, especially when the buildings start to look the same. Which is understandable, since they adhere to the hanok or traditional architecture.
A Village In The True Sense Of The Word
The Bukchon Hanok Village is, first and foremost, a residential area with “countless hanoks” (apparently, not even the official site of Seoul has a definite count how many hanoks there are in the area). But the buildings are not limited for that alone, since there are also many restaurants, shops, stores and other commercial-purpose hanoks.
Like this OWL MUSEUM, for instance.
We only stumbled upon this by chance as we were trying to find our way around the alleys. Officially, it is the Owl Art and Craft Museum. We didn’t go in there, however, even if it was tempting. I guess we were both bent on finding the heart of the village and didn’t want to get distracted.
As the name implies, this is an owl-themed museum, with over 2000 owl-themed items from countries all over the world.
This also used to be a private residence, but was repurposed into a museum while still staying true to its hanok origins.
Maybe it was because the weather isn’t all bright and sunny, but there were only a few people about, so the place was also relatively quiet. That kinda made it hard to find our way around, but then again, we threw away any concerns of getting lost and resolved to just continue walking, because as long as we can still identify where we are on our walking map, then we’d be fine.
These houses, though. These facades are so stately yet homey at the same time. All the doors are closed, by the way, except for a few that showed glimpses of the front yards.
I have seen numerous Korean dramas – especially those weekend family dramas – with these types of sets as the houses of the characters. The door actually leads to a front yard or patio, and not directly into the interior of the home. You can actually take a glimpse of that in the photo below.
Incidentally, the drama (now finished, by the way) “Good Thief, Bad Thief” was filmed here. Some days tourists can actually see the actors and production crew at work. I guess that day was not one of those days, because we saw no trace of them.
There were several doors with signs reminding people that yes, this is still a residential area. People still live here, so please, do not make a lot of noise.
Imagine how that would be like, though, having your home as a part of a “museum” set up. I bet some of them feel like their privacy is being invaded, especially during summer or peak season, when the crowd is at its thickest.
If you feel like exploring more, you can go further into the narrower alleyways and find the best of luck in finding hidden cafes and restaurants. We were both still full from our Innisfree Green Cafe snack that the thought of hunting for gastronomic gems did not occur much to us.
This “picture gallery & book cafe” wasn’t all difficult to find. Unfortunately, it was not yet open. Maybe it operates later in the day…?
I find the name cute, though. “Book Chon-i”. A play on the name of the village.
This is one of the more defining spots of the Bukchon Hanok Village, showing a glimpse of the downtown area with its tall and modern buildings. One length of the street is undergoing renovation, though, which kinda iffed me a bit, but if you think about why they are doing this, I can let it go, haha! Maintaining the place definitely wins over entertaining tourists at all times, after all.
Maaaan~ What I would give to be able to enter one of these houses…..
There are large signs that go “This is a residential area. Please talk quietly.” The signs on these doors are more direct. “Silence please.” And translated in Chinese and Japanese. LOL.
There was another entryway that had postcards and card magnets on the steps and a box where anyone buying them will drop their payments. Interestingly, no one is manning this “store”, probably banking on people’s honesty.
We kept on walking, this time, with the end goal of finding our way back out into the main streets.
And then we stumbled on Granhand!!!!
Again, I first saw and heard about Granhand on another of Joan Kim’s vlogs, and I thought the concept was interesting. On the door was a sign that said no to photography and videos, though.
BUT! I asked the staff inside and they had no problems with me taking photos and videos. So yay~ (Check out Granhand’s official site and yes, they do international shipping.)
So when you enter, the first door you’d come to would lead you to their outer shop, with shelves filled with their signature products, such as fabric sprays, multi-perfume, candles, diffusers, oil burners and sachets. I purchased a bottle of their multi-perfume and a couple of sachets.
And they even personalize the bottle by printing your name on the label.
We were also allowed to go further inside, to another area with an indoor garden with such calming scents.
But they also let us into their Granhand Lab, where most of the oils are located, and where some of their scent workshops are conducted.
There were various other shops in the area, selling everything from souvenirs to stationeries. Oh, and there’s also a hanbok rental place, presumably for those that want to go around Bukchon wearing the traditional garb of the Koreans.
We did see some other visitors wearing them, most of them Chinese, while we were walking around the area.
This is a place I wouldn’t mind getting lost in. And does it even count as being “lost” when you’re actually transfixed by what you’re seeing?
But really, I’d love to enter one of those houses. And no, our entry to Granhand does not count, because I want to see what a real hanok house looks like. One with actual people actually living in them.
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