Freezing in Seoul, But Enjoying the Snow

"Hot soup season".  That's how the Korean winter was described in a newspaper when Seoul experienced its first cold spells in late November of last year.  Koreans eat a lot of soup in all seasons, but in winter, eating soup to stay warm just might be a survival necessity.  Why?  Because many Korean buildings are poorly insulated, making the winter cold particularly difficult to bear.

The "poorly insulated Korean building" category includes most of the buildings at my place of work.  But in Busan, the winter is not so harsh.  Still, to stay warm on the coldest winter days, extra layers of clothing must be worn, even indoors.

In Seoul, poor building insulation is a far more serious problem.  I learned this the hard way when I visited Seoul during one of the coldest weeks of the winter, the first week of February of this year.  Actually, during the first week of February, record low temperatures were recorded in many parts of Korea.  And my hotel room was uncomfortably cold!  To stay comfortable during the night, I had to sleep with my long underwear and my tuque on.  To make matters worse, after spending the night in an under-heated hotel room, I found it difficult to warm up during the day as many other public buildings were also not particularly well heated.  Not surprisingly, spending a few days in Seoul in these conditions weakened my immune system, and I caught a cold.  And I could not help but wonder how Seoul's residents cope with such cold weather, especially if their homes are also poorly insulated and insufficiently heated.


In spite of the cold, I was happy to see Seoul in winter.  The city center looked quite different under a blanket of snow.

Seoul's snow covered rooftops, in early February.

Snow in a park, in downtown Seoul.

Looking towards BukAk mountain (북악산), on a cold February day.

Snow-covered InWang mountain (인왕산), on a cold February day.

Looking towards downtown on SeJong DaeRo (세종대로), on a cold winter day.

DeokSu palace (덕수궁), near Seoul city hall, in winter.

But most beautiful of all were the buildings and the grounds at GyeongBok palace (경복궁).

One of the gates inside 경복궁.

A pagoda on the grounds of 경복궁.

Snow-covered roofs in 경복궁.

The moon rising over a roof in 경복궁.

Some of the buildings of 경복궁, in winter.

인왕산, seen from behind a building in 경복궁.

Seoul tower in the distance, seen from 경복궁.

인왕산, seen from the grounds of 경복궁.

Another view of 인왕산, from the grounds of 경복궁.

A gazebo, a frozen pond and 북악산, seen from the grounds of 경복궁. 

Classic Korean Films at the 2011 BIFF

As part of the 2011 Busan International Film Festival, a series of classic Korean films is being presented.  More specifically, eight of the films of Kim Ki-Duk (김기덕), a well-known Korean filmmaker, are being shown as part of the 2011 BIFF.

김기덕's career spanned two decades, beginning in the early 1960's, and ending with his retirement in 1977.  During that period, he created a diverse array of films, one of which is a horror film called Monster Yonggari (대괴수 용가리), about a Godzilla-like lizard-monster that terrorizes people.  His debut film, for which he won an award, is called Five Marines (오인의 해병).  It is a war story, taking place during the Korean war.


Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to watch 김기덕's Barefooted Young.  The title of this movie is 맨발의 청춘 in Hangul, or 맨발의 青春 in Hanja.  It is a story of a young couple who are in love, but who cannot be together, as they are from different social classes.  The woman is from a well-to-do family, but the young man has had a rough life, so rough that he's had to turn to gangsterism to survive.  They meet accidentally, start seeing each other in secret, and fall in love.  But the young woman's family does not accept her relationship, and so she runs off with her beau.  They end up committing suicide.

I really enjoyed the movie, even though I thought that the couple's suicide was a rather extreme turn of events.  I thought that it realistically portrayed what life might have been like for some people in Korea in the 1960's, only about 10 years after the end of the Korean war.  In addition, it contained beautiful footage of Seoul, and I greatly appreciated the opportunity to see what Seoul looked like about 50 years ago.

Coming home after the movie, I was happy to have seen a Korean movie at the BIFF, something that I failed to do during the 2010 PIFF.  I was also intrigued by the images of Seoul that I had seen in the movie, and set out to find old pictures of Seoul on the internet.  Interestingly, I found a photo archive containing vintage pictures of Seoul, some taken as early as the beginning of the 1900's.  I also found a blog, written in Korean, containing photos of Seoul in the 1960's, including a few pictures of Seoul's central train station.  Seoul's old train station still exists, but does not appear to be used any more.  Finally, I found the blog of a retired American army chap, on which he posted pictures that he took while posted in Korea.  Of note on this latter blog are photos of slums formerly located in and around Seoul.  I imagine that after the war, many Koreans would have been very poor.  Thankfully, things have greatly improved since then.