Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Chamchiman]

Can anybody recommend any museums in Korea which are not national museums? I'm sure that there must be some interesting exhibits buried in small museums around Korea. For example:

1. There's a website which lists the Korean Association of University Museums - http://www.kaum.or.kr/english/1/index3.htm - and despite this being only a partial list (I didn't see the Hyejung Museum at KyungHee University (Suwon Campus) listed there) there are some 90 museums in the association. Some of them must be worth visiting.
2. During a recent trip to Jeonju I saw that there are both a calligraphy museum and a traditional wine museum near the Hanok Village.
3. Andong has the Andong Folklore Museum, which might be interesting, and the Soju Museum (which sends visions of Homer and Barney on the Duff Brewery tour dancing through my head).

My contribution is the aforementioned Hyejung Museum. It's a free and fascinating exhibit of old maps of Korea and the world that were largely donated by a private collector. If you can see past the inevitable East Sea and Dokdo political propaganda angle of some of the exhibited maps (maps showing "East Sea" or "Mer de Coree" - glorified with lengthy captions; maps showing "Sea of Japan" - caption-free), and you're a map geek like me, I recommend it highly.

Museum suggestions?

[bluelake]

Go up to Paju. There is a really neat archery museum there. See the following for more info:

http://www.koreanarchery.org/yyg/yjam.html

http://www.arrow.or.kr

Also, visit the Korea Military Academy (Nowon-gu, in NE Seoul); the Korean Army Museum there is very fascinating.

[mindmetoo]

Did you try the kimchi field museum at coex? Gotta make the hajira there at least once... for camp value.

[Vancouver]

o right! i heard about that kimchi museum. I'm planning on going to that wine museum in Jeonju when I go back to Korea and make some wine^^

[Chamchiman]

[bluelake]

Actually, I lived in Kyongju for sixteen years, and then moved to Heunghae, outside of Pohang two years ago. My wife still runs her business in Kyongju, so I spend time there, too. I occasionally drive through Angang when I feel like taking the backroads to KJ, instead of the highway.

[Smee]

Galbijim's down this second, so I can't provide links yet.

There's a Toilet Museum in Ilsan.

There's Hoam Art Museum in Yongin (south of Bundang in Gyeonggi-do) which supposedly has several large exhibits, including national treasures, and a nice garden.

In Jeollanam-do there's Daewonsa Temple Tibet Museum, with lots of artifacts and materials from Tibet.

I'll try to post more later.

[Mosley]

I actually went to the Soju Museum mentioned in the OP as I took a weekend trip to Andong. No, they don't let you roam freely throughout the distillery! Damned good thing too, I reckon. They have a few displays on hand. Two Korean girls tried their damndest to explain things in English. At the end, you're given a sample of Andong soju which doesn't taste like soju at all. More like Chinese "maotai" which tastes like toilet bowl cleanser w/sugar added.

Anyway, there are worse places than Andong to spend a day or two. If you're in SE South Korea, check it out.

[cbclark4]

I don't like these museums they forbid photography.

cbc

[captain kirk]

There's a sign just outside of Hapcheon (small town, between Jinju and Daegu) that says 'Hapcheon Museum 18km'. Yes, the 'Hapcheon (City) Museum' is, apparently, 18 kilometers from Hapcheon itself.

And it's an 18km detour away from the highway. One of these days...

[Hater Depot]

[Lizara]

Not a museum per se, but I really like the Knife Gallery in Insadong.

http://knifegallery.co.kr/

[ChopChaeJoe]

There's an auto museum in Yongin, pretty neat. I hear there's a gramophone museum in Wonju or Gangneung. Never been to it, but the Ho-Am art museum, also in Yongin. Museum of contemporary art in Gyeongju should let you know where the Korean avant-garde is.

[soju pizza]

There's a contemporary art museum in Bomun Lake near Kyong ju, and there's also the museum of contemporary modern art in Busan, which is awesome.