Jongmyo Shrine

Unclaimed

The English tour at 12pm on Wednesday was excellent. Our tour guide was very animated. Some parts are under renovation currently. Best time to visit is the first Saturday in November this year when the rituals will be performed. Usually they are performed twice a year now on first Sunday of May and first Saturday of Nov. They used to be performed 5 times a year in the beginning. The exhibition hall offers lots more information about the spirit tablets of the kings and officials as well as the rituals and foods of the ceremonies. Well worth visiting the exhibition hall to understand in greater detail what was explained in the tour. There is even a Lego model set created by Colin Jin who used 20,000 blocks to create musical instruments and figurines performing Jongmyo royal ancestral ritual.

The place is good and full of historic. There is a local tour available as this place needs the guide to take u to all parts of the shrine. The best time to visit is when there is a ceremony which is available twice a year in May and November. One thing I don't like is it's hard to access as the entrance is quite confused on the map.

Lovely peaceful shrine complex of about 10 different buildings. Delightful walk through the grounds. Plenty of explanation provided and there are free guided tours regularly during the day. The day I visited it was free entry but it was included in my combination ticket anyway. Great value to see the five palaces of Seoul for only 6000 won.

Highly recommended if you are interested in Korean history and culture. You must join one of the tours upon visiting and we happened to arrive just about 5 minutes before the English tour started, which was lucky. The tour guide was very friendly and bubbly. But she was speaking at breakneck speed (less would be more) and the loudspeaker system she used didn't help much. I hardly understood a word (confirmed by my wife). Still, the grounds themselves are astonishing and I'm super glad that we visited.

An excellent place in Seoul to see the ancient heritage of Korea - so we'll preserved. The shrine is situated on sprawling grounds with thousands of trees with well laid out trails leading the visitors from one building to the next. In popular belief - the middle stone "median" is not meant for humans to walk on since it is believed that spirits of ancient royalty walk there. This heritage site deserves a good couple of hours. A very peaceful experience. Entry is 1000 Won - from the ticket booth located to the outside right of the main gate.