I had a bit of time Sunday evening, so I went down to Dongdaemun to shoot the landmark (and newly restored) Heunginjimun Gate, Seoul’s old eastern entrance. I’d originally wanted to photograph it from the other side, but the buildings I wanted to climb were locked. Alas. I also left my hat on the roof [...]
Got my sensor cleaned — no, that’s not some crude sexual reference; there was serious dust on my sensor — at the Nikon service center in the Korea Chamber of Commerce Building in Namdaemun today. Had some time to kill in the evening, so I swung by Dongdaemun History & Culture Park to take some [...]
Better known as Dongdaemun (“Great East Gate”), Heunginjimun (“Gate of Rising Benevolence”) served, like the common name suggests, as the eastern entrance to Seoul throughout the Joseon Dynasty (1392—1910). The original gate was built in 1396, when the city walls were first erected. The current structure, meanwhile, dates from an 1869 reconstruction under King Gojong. [...]
OK, let me get this out of the way first — I was no fan of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park project (see official site here). In fact, I downright hated it. The destruction of the landmark Dongdaemun Stadium, where much of Korea’s sports history was written, was symptomatic of the authorities’ lack of [...]