Seodaemun, Olympic Park etc

On Saturday, I visited possibly the grimmest place in Seoul: Seodaemun Prison. This was built in 1908 by the Japanese in order to imprison the independence fighters among others. There are several of the buildings remaining, including a couple of cell blocks and the execution hall. In the basement of one building, they have recreated some of the torture scenes using rather graphic mannequins. Water torture, the rack, floggings, bamboo under the nails, electrocution, sexual torture - it's all there. Below is the front gate and the chair used for executions (the trapdoor opened and the corpse was cut down and dragged out of the cellar underneath using a back entrance).





Later in the day, I came across a taekwondo competition being held in a public square. I am going to put the pictures up later because the connection is dead slow. Also, some pictures of Olympic Park.