Korea Brand Expedition: Chungcheong-do – Gongju National Museum

Gongju National Museum has been opened in 1940 by the Association of Gongju Historical Artifacts, collecting relicts related to Baekjae era since 1934. The museum’s collection contains more than 20000 objects including 19 National Treasures and 4 treasures excavated from Tomb of King Muryeong in 1971 and other sites in Daejeon and Chungcheong-do area.

The museum holds permanent and special exhibitions of academically important artifacts to enable visitors to appreciate them.

The exhibit hall is divided into two parts. The first room displays the relicts from the Muryeong tomb, such as gold and silver ornaments of the King and Queen, Chinese ceramic, glass beads, or even Queen’s tooth. You can also see a full-scale model of the tomb and wooden coffins.
The second room displays chronologically the relicts from the Chungcheong-do area. The gallery exhibits important cultural properties that show the historical trend and changes.

The outdoor exhibition is located in a garden of over 70 years old pine and cherry trees, lets you see many relicts excavated from the entire Gongju district.

Gongju National Museum provides various cultural events and courses in cultural education as an opportunity to understand and appreciate traditional culture, history and art of Korea.

Korea Brand Expedition: Chungcheong-do – National Science Museum in Daejeon

National Science Museum had been established in 1945 in Seoul, but its location has been changed to Daejeon in 1990. Currently it’s located in Daedeok Valley, near Expo Science Park.

National Science Museum consists permanent and special exhibition halls featuring Korean weapons or folk musical instruments, outdoor display space, movie theater, planetarium, and so on. The range of engaging exhibits on display at the Museum is enormous. It displays over 4000 items based on technology and natural science. The mission of this national all-round science museum is to help visitors understand the mystery of the nature and the harmony of it. It gives people a great opportunity to explore and easily understand the wonders of nature.

The Astronomical Hall, which is the largest dome in Korea, is the heart of the Museum. From here, you can see the phenomenon of the celestial sphere and the human development of space. The space theater gives an opportunity to see the re-created appearance of a night sky and a magnificent view of space development.

The Nature History hall includes approximately 2200 items coming from the astronomical department, the anthropology section, the Korea’s nature department dealing with the biological environment (such as fossils and mineral resources) and the biotic environment (such as mammals, birds, fishes and plants).

After getting familiar with the exhibit on how Korean paper hanji is made and the way the books were printed with movable metal type, you can experience the art of Korean metal type printing yourself.