This gallery contains 4 photos.
Last week, I popped into the Museum to admire the whale bone in its natural history galleries, dropped by a streetside stall to have a cup of teh tarik (pulled tea) and – it being the Chinese Lunar New Year – also visited the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 9 photos.
The Westin Chosun Hotel is the grande dame of Seoul’s hospitality scene. It originated as an act of cultural desecration. In 1913, the Japanese destroyed the Hwangudan Altar – Seoul’s equivalent of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, where the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 15 photos.
In 1910, Imperial Japan annexed Korea forcefully, culminating a process that began with the Meiji Emperor in 1876. The Joseon capital of Hanseong was renamed 京城 – read as “Kei-jo” in Japanese, and “Gyeongseong” in Korean – and designated the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 16 photos.
In October 1897, King Gojong – the last King of the Joseon Dynasty – declared independence from Qing China and proclaimed the formation of the Daehan Jeguk, or the Korean Empire from the confines of the Deoksugung Palace. Just a … Continue reading
This gallery contains 26 photos.
We start our tour of Seoul from when it was called Hanseong 漢城, and ruled by the Joseon Dynasty (also transliterated as “Chosun”). The architectural heritage of the period remains in the form of five imperial palaces within the city … Continue reading
This gallery contains 13 photos.
And so at last we have left China, and made landing on Korean soil. For 500 years, the Korean Peninsula was a tributary state of Imperial China, first under the Ming Dynasty and then the Qing Dynasty. Korea itself wasn’t … Continue reading
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I don’t believe for one moment that Home is just one city. At least, it has never been that way for me. And I suspect that for many people – be it migrants, refugees, frequent travellers or even armchair travellers, … Continue reading
This gallery contains 12 photos.
The grande dame of Dairen’s hospitality scene was the Yamato Hotel 大和旅館, built in 1914 by the occupying Japanese on Nicholas Square. It was the equivalent of the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai, and the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, hosting … Continue reading
This gallery contains 26 photos.
In the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War in 1907, Russia surrendered the city of Dalny to the Japanese, who renamed it Dairen, and would rule it for the next 38 years. The city of Dalian today still retains significant vestiges … Continue reading
This gallery contains 15 photos.
The city of Dalian was established by Imperial Russia in 1898 as Dalny, within the larger Guandong Leased Territories. They would hold it for only seven years before relinquishing it to Imperial Japan. That said, they managed to stamp their own … Continue reading
Dream Of A City 