Lotte World Adventure - Folk Museum

I had mentioned in my last post that I went to the Lotte World Adventured with Terry after the Airsoft Convention at the end of January. Lotte World Adventure is the smaller "local" version of the larger Lotte World (one of Korea's major theme parks) and was located near the heart of Seoul in a mall with both an indoor and outdoor attraction setup. It certainly wasn't something I hadn't expected to see, but given the chance, I was glad to walk around and explore such a fascinating place.. Upon first arriving, parking was a nightmare. Terry and I had to park alongside another parking lane beside a row of parked cars (as stated before, parking is a moot thing here) before we came into the mall itself.


Lotte world is kind of like Disney world, it has their cute little characters and themes of different locations situated around a MASSIVE indoor ice-rink. We didn't really look at much, wasn't really banking on inspecting an amusement park (kinda get bored of them when you get older) and the fact there were a million kids and people around didn't help.

That did change when we went to the folk museum. It was tucked away. a bit of a walk upwards from the main ice ring. For the first moment, there were no people there; it was devoid of life and activity unlike the amusement park (shows what people are more interested in.)

The folk museum was almost like the National History museum of Seoul I had checked out last year with my Korean Language school group I went with. The same sort of information I found then was also present here. Starting with the three nations period, going to the two nations period but not going beyond the Occupation era when Japan took over. It had more emphasis on the older era, going from Prehistoric to early modern, which was a nice touch.

Interior of the castle

My favorite of course was the figure setups. After exploring most of the ancient era displays, showing off the artier, tools and cutlery and of course the living conditions of the time, we stepped into a massive main hall that was completely filled with massive figure scaled dioramas of the ancient times in South Korea, showing off a full view of the palace while a session with the Emperor was taking place. The detail level on this was amazing! Not only did it have the castle, but the surrounding buildings that made up the royal complex as well as a village nearby showing varying types of events taking place; from market day, to even a funeral. However, the castle itself was by far the most impressive; it was both the largest and most detailed, exterior and interior. I was amazed; of course there was plenty more, but for some reason, none of the other photos I took seem to be around anymore, so I'll make due with the castle; it was the centerpiece after all and quite a spectacle to behold.

Like I said, the folk museum was indeed a well worth experience, similar to the National History museum, this one however emphasised more on the figure representation of the past era's, bringing up to a Early-modern era (Japan occupation) before ending on a note of liberation after the Second World War. I didn't go much further than that, but the idea behind this one was to show the classical development of Korea from prehistoric to close to modern, and give a breathtaking idea of how beautiful the culture had been in the Folk Era's.