"130 Years Ago 'Hot Place' Jeongdong"... Jeongdong Night Walk on the 13th-14th of This Month

Walking along Jeongdong-gil to watch performances and experience modern culture
Embassies of the UK and Canada in Korea also open to the public

The Jeongdong Night Festival will be held from the 13th to the 14th of this month in the Jeongdong area of Jung-gu, Seoul. During the festival, 33 facilities including Deoksugung Palace and the Seoul Museum of Art will participate, offering nighttime openings, performances, exhibitions, and special lectures. (Photo by Jung-gu)

“Jeongdong Night Walk (Jeongdong Yahaeng),” where you can feel the atmosphere of Jeongdong’s night streets alive with modern history, will be held again this fall.

Jung-gu, Seoul (District Mayor Kim Gil-seong) will host the historical and cultural festival “Jeongdong Night Walk” from the 13th to the 14th of this month around Deoksugung Palace and the Jeongdong area of Jung-gu. Jeongdong, which fully preserves the history of the Korean Empire, is a unique place where you can feel the modern era’s charm and a historical site vividly marked by the pain of losing the nation. About 130 to 140 years ago, it was the diplomatic hotspot of the Korean Empire and the “hot place” where new things first arrived.

It is also rich in “firsts,” including Paejae Hakdang (1885), the first modern educational institution; Ewha Hakdang (1886), the first private women’s educational institution; Jeongdong First Methodist Church (1887), the first Western-style Protestant church; and Deoksugung Seokjojeon (1910), the first Western-style building. This year’s Jeongdong Night Walk highlights Jeongdong, which embraced dreams and hopes without despair amid the whirlwinds of modern history, under the theme “Meeting at the Center, Rendezvous of Dreams.”

From 6 PM to 10 PM on the 13th and from 2 PM to 10 PM on the 14th, various programs will be held focusing on Yaha (夜花, nighttime opening of historical and cultural facilities and cultural performances), including Yaro (夜路, historical guided tours), Yasa (夜史, Deoksugung stone wall path experience programs), Yagyeong (夜景, nightscape), Yaseol (夜設, street performances), Yasik (夜食, food), and Yasi (夜市, art markets and workshops).

Thirty-three facilities, including Deoksugung Palace, Seoul Museum of Art, Jeongdong First Methodist Church, National Jeongdong Theater, Seoul Museum of History, Seoul Anglican Cathedral, Paejae Hakdang History Museum, Ewha Museum, Embassy of Canada in Korea, and Embassy of the United Kingdom in Korea, will participate with nighttime openings, performances, exhibitions, and special lectures.

At 7 PM on the 13th, a royal palace music concert will be held in front of Junghwajeon Hall at Deoksugung Palace. Performers include LUN8, Gyeonggi sorikkun (traditional Korean singer) Lee Hee-moon, traditional musician Ha Yoon-joo, tenor John No, pianist Cho Young-hoon, and soprano Lee Hae-won.

At Deoksugung Jungmyeongjeon, the site where the Eulsa Treaty was signed, visitors can view various visual materials and character models to learn about the background of the Eulsa Treaty, the dispatch of the Hague Secret Envoys, and Emperor Gojong’s efforts to restore national sovereignty.

The Embassy of Canada in Korea, which is usually closed to the public, will be open for 40 minutes from 7 PM on the 13th. The Embassy of the United Kingdom in Korea will be open for 30 minutes each at 3 PM, 4 PM, and 5 PM on the 14th. The British ambassador’s residence is the oldest diplomatic residence in Korea and features a British-style garden. Only 20 people per session will be selected by lottery, and advance applications can be made on the Jeongdong Night Walk website until 5 PM on the 4th.

The pipe organ concerts held at Jeongdong First Methodist Church and Seoul Anglican Cathedral are the highlights of Jeongdong Night Walk. On the 14th, after the concerts at Seoul Anglican Cathedral at 4 PM and 5:30 PM, visitors can tour the interior of the cathedral for 20 minutes, where Romanesque style blends with traditional Korean architectural styles.

Additionally, there will be the “Hwatong Concert” at Ewha Girls’ High School Centennial Hall, “MOBning” performances in front of Paejae Hakdang History Museum, Salvation Army Brass Band performances, “Jeongdong Dahyang” at the outdoor yard of National Jeongdong Theater, and various special exhibitions and performances at Seoul Museum of Art, Sunhwa-dongcheon, Donuimun Museum Village, and Seoul Museum of History.

The Jeongdong exploration program “Let’s All Take a Jeongdong Tour” operates every hour on the hour and every half hour during the festival, with 20 Korean-language guided tours and 4 English-language guided tours. The 90-minute course visits National Jeongdong Theater, Jungmyeongjeon, the former Russian Legation, Ewha Museum, Jeongdong First Methodist Church, Paejae Hakdang History Museum, and Seoul Museum of Art.

The “Emperor Gojong’s Path” guided program departs at 4 PM and 6 PM on the 14th. It is a course walking with cultural tourism guides through Cecil Maru, Salvation Army History Museum, Emperor Gojong’s Path, former Russian Legation, Ewha Museum, Jungmyeongjeon, Paejae Hakdang History Museum, and Seoul Museum of Art. Both programs can be joined by pre-registration on the Jeongdong Night Walk website or on-site registration at the guide headquarters in Paejae Children’s Park.

Guided tours of Jungmyeongjeon at Deoksugung Palace will be held every hour and half hour from 7 PM to 9 PM on the 13th and from 3 PM to 9 PM on the 14th. Those wishing to participate can register on-site.

Along the Deoksugung stone wall path, various programs connect the modern and contemporary eras, such as making maps of the Korean Empire, writing the Declaration of Independence, and replying to Emperor Gojong’s secret letter appealing to the world about the unfairness of the Eulsa Treaty.

Kim Gil-seong, Mayor of Jung-gu, said, “If you imagine the students of Paejae Hakdang and Ewha Hakdang shyly meeting along the Deoksugung stone wall path, and the students who secretly copied the Declaration of Independence hiding behind the pipe organ, you can truly enjoy Jeongdong Night Walk,” adding, “I hope you enjoy this meaningful time at Jeongdong Night Walk, a point where the historic moments of over 100 years ago meet the present and create new ‘encounters.’”

Started by Jung-gu, Seoul in 2015, Jeongdong Night Walk is Korea’s first cultural heritage night walk. Every year, more than 200,000 Seoul citizens and foreign tourists visit, and it is regarded as a successful local festival model with benchmarking continuing nationwide.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.