The Place Seochon Literary Tour: The Chungwoon Literature Library

What could today’s “The Place” be?

Check out the amazing giwa roof tiles behind me!

Today’s “The Place” is the Chungwoon Literature Library!

Wow, isn’t it beautiful?

It’s really a sight for sore eyes.

And it’s totally different from what we expect a library to look like.

Because it’s a library built as a hanok (traditional Korean house), there’s a distinctly Korean feel to it.

Hello?

And you’d be right! It is!

Remember to take your shoes off when you enter a hanok!

Ta-da!

It’s all ours!

Locals gather here for book clubs and creative activities.

And that’s not all!

There’s so much you can do here, so if you’re interested, come swing by!

Now we’re on our way to the reading room, so I think we’ll need to be quiet.

There are people using the room right now, so I’ll just give you a peek at what it looks like inside.



Time to take a break.

Please take off your shoes here too!

What did he see?

Is this a library or a hotel?

What a view…!

In the Joseon dynasty, there was an institution called the Doksodang,

This was a system in which a library would be built in a place with a beautiful view

and the king would allow brilliant, hardworking subjects to stay there and read.

What happens when you read with such a beautiful view laid out before you?

It recharges your batteries!

Don’t we all need to take some time to recover after the daily grind?

Then come on down to the Chungwoon Literature Library!

The gorgeous Inwangsan Mountain is right next door too, so it’s perfect!

I give it two thumbs up.

See you next time, everyone!

Goodbye!

Translated by Jean Kim