SO we finally got around to doing some tourist stuff this weekend. We went to the Gyeongbokgung Palace and learned a ton of cool stuff about life at the palace. The palace is absolutely huge even after most of it was destroyed by the Japanese and during the Korean War. They didn't use any nails to build the structure. Bascially everything in the palace represents the heaven and the earth or the ying and the yang. The pheonix was everywhere representing peace. The king was represented by a dragon. A dragon with 5 claws represented the king and 4 the crowned prince.
Back in the day in Korea they made fires under the buildings to heat the floor since Koreans sit and sleep on the floor. The King's bedchambers were small and did not have any furniture so that assisins couldn't hide in his room. 8 ladies in waiting stayed in the rooms surrounding the king and had to stay up all night in case he needed anything. A portable toilet was brought to the king anytime he needed it and he had a personal doctor who examined and recorded everything that went in or came out of the king's body....smelling and tasting it if necessary.
The queen was never allowed to leave her quarters on the palace, which were seperate from the king. The king always had 8 concubines from the 8 most powerful families. Of the 28 kings only 7 were sons of the queen.
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