The last Saturday of April I went with some of the hiking club members on a non-hiking tour of some historic and cultural sites. The first was Yeoju ("yo, Jew"), http://en.wikipedia.org/wikiYeoju the birthplace of the Queen Min, whose story was the basis of the musical "The Last Empress." (http://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/27/style/27iht-last.t.html)
Our guide, Jeong-ho, is one of the coordinators of the hiking club. I think he's also trained as a guide with UNESCO, so he knows a lot about Korean history and culture. Queen Min's birthplace didn't look particularly special, as she wasn't born into the royal family, but it was a pretty and peaceful area after the business and pollution of Seoul. Seeing it made me want to see the musical someday though.
Here's a picutre of me posing as Queen Min. The Koreans who saw us Westerners having our pictures taken got a good chuckle.
I also really like the tortoise and hare sculpture and water fountain there, though I'm not sure of its connection to the queen's story, if any.
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