Today, I visited Namsan Hanok Village.  ¡°Hanok¡± is Korean traditional house. Namsan Hanok Village is a place where traditional Korean houses of Joseon Dynasty are kept until now and located in downtown Seoul. Do you know how different the life was in Joseon Dynasty compared to today? I am going to tell you about bathrooms, heating systems, and Jangdokdae.

     First, I will tell you about bathrooms. You know how we wash our faces, take showers, and use the toilets in the bathrooms, but the noblemen in Joseon Dynasty were different. They washed their faces in their rooms, took showers with their clothes on, and used chamber pots instead of going to toilets in the night. I would be very uncomfortable if I had my clothes on while taking a shower. I want to know how the noblemen felt. I feel sorry for them!

     Next is the heating system. Korean people slept and lived on the floor. So in cold winter the ondol (warm stone) kept the floor warm, which is a traditional Korean floor heating system. Even these days, we have kept the floor heating system in our homes. Western people would probably not know how warm the floor heating system because they don¡¯t have that system. It was freezing when I went to my aunt¡¯s house in America because I was too used to Korean floor heating system.

     Lastly, it is about Jangdokdae. Jangdokdae is a container which stores food such as Kimchi, soy beans, soy sause, and pepper paste in old times. It is made out of special clay which only lets fresh air through,  not water and dirty things. Today instead of Jangdokdae we keep Kimchi in Kimchi refrigerator. There is no space to put Jangdokdae in our modern homes, but we can still see Jangdokdae in country side.

     In conclusion, I felt like going back to Joseon Dynasty times because there were lots of Hanok around me. Our ancestors were very wise and scientific to invent the floor heating system and Jangdokdae. I wonder how they found that special clay to make Jangdokdae! I hope we still keep the Korean traditional systems in the future too.

 

     Thanks for reading!