Today, I went to Gyeongungung palace. It was very hot and sunny, but I still enjoyed the tour of Gyeongungung. It was especially interesting because there were lots of Japsang figures on the roofs of each building (except Seokeodang), which I later learned their names. Also, there was a water clock nearby the Daehanmun (´ëÇѹ®).

According to the text book, Japsang are small figures that people put on the roof. I was said to have its own power, and could protect the building from fire. I learned that the first figure of Japsang that was on the roof was Master of Buddhist Monk named »ïÀå¹ý»ç, and the second figure was a monkey named ¼Õ¿À°ø. The third figure was a pig named ÀúÆÈ°è, and the fourth was an imaginary water ghost named »ç¿ÀÁ¤. Our teacher told us that these four figures were all characters from the story ¡®Journey to the West¡¯, which is a Chinese story. These Japsang could be described as heroic figures.

The water clock was the most interesting thing that I saw today in Gyeongungung palace. Made by À念½Ç in 1536, the water clock had a device to tell time automatically. It was written in the textbook that the drum, bell, and gong installed in the water clock marked the time. Also, the water clock, which had no automatic time signal, was No.229 national treasure, which showed how important and how ingenious the water clock was in the Joseon Dynasty.

I learned various things besides facts about the water clock and Japsang figures. And I thought that Gyeongungung palace contained lots of interesting history and facts. The appearance of Gyeongungung palace was very beautiful, but I felt a bit disappointed when the teacher told us that this palace contains some western-style buildings, because I thought that people were losing the cultural spirit of our own country. In the future, I hope that people of our country would use our own style to build our buildings to represent South Korea.