Bukchon Hanok Village

Bukchon Hanok Village is an old residential neighbourhood in Seoul. Bukchon means “northern village” and hanok are traditional Korean houses with tiled roofs.

The area is a hilly maze of narrow streets and alleys, with homes, shops, museums and places of cultural interest. I didn’t discover this until after visiting but Bukchon Hanok Village was earmarked for renovation in the 1960s, and saved thanks to protests from the locals. Instead, many of the buildings have been restored rather than fully renovated or modernised.

Bae Ryeom’s House was constructed in the 1940’s, making it a modern building compared to its surroundings. The information booklet I picked up says:

“He loved plants so implanted orchids and flowers in pots and placed them in the reception room, living room and courtyard where he also planted magnolia, persimmon, and plum alongisde the lilac behind the reception room”.

The Cultural Heritage Foundation National Trust of Korea.

As a fellow plant lover, and fan of magnolia and lilac trees, I have no doubt his touches looked amazing.

These beautiful roof tiles (giwa) are made from baked soil or clay.

I loved the interior of this building. Light and airy, with a focus on wood, simplicity and hanji screens (paper made from mulberry bark). Shoes must be removed before entering these buildings and homes — not doing so is very disrespectful.

These traditional outfits are called hanbok. Chima is the skirt and jeogori is the short jacket. You can’t see it in the photo above but the strings used to tie the jacket are called goreum.

This man was selling some sort of nougat and I vaguely recall my friend saying it was made from potato (maybe). It was sweet and chewy but melted in my mouth once I started chewing.

We spent an afternoon in the village but it’s somewhere I could have easily spent a whole day; so many alleys and streets left unexplored!