More Crowds

I headed to the palaces today, only to find that EVERYONE else in Seoul also thought that would be a good thing to do today. I took a look at the lines to get tickets and decided I'd come back another day, but first I snapped a couple pictures.

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The main entrance to Gyeongbokgung, the largest palace in Seoul

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Standing in the main entrance of Gyeongbokgung and looking at the crowds in front of the secondary entrance. This is as far as I could go without a ticket.After deciding to forego the palaces, I stopped by a Buddhist temple called Jogyesa on my way back to the subway station. The main hall was quite crowded, but I think that's because only half of it was open due to renovations. The temple grounds were pretty quiet and a nice reprieve from the busy-ness of everything else. Here are some photos.

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The main hall

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Where you leave your shoes when you enter the main hall

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A detail of the beautifully decorated exterior walls of the main hall

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This lacebark pine tree at the side of the temple is over 520 years old! These trees are native to northern China, but there are a few of them in Korea. The largest, and therefore oldest since they are very slow-growing trees, are designated as national monuments, including this one.