Cherry blossoms
Bongeunsa is a Buddhist temple in Gangnam. It was built in 794, but few of the original building remain.
Skyscrapers
It's hard to completely leave the city behind, but it's still peaceful and quiet, particularly if you just came from the COEX building.
Flowers
It's worth visiting in the spring, to see all the flowers. They also grow grapes, so if you go in the right season, you can pick them yourself. Unless I imagined that. I definitely had grapes once when I was there, but I'm not completely certain they grew them there. I find Korean grapes to be a bit too grape-y flavored. That probably says more about the quality of grapes in the US though. I've had some fantastic strawberries though.
Buddha
The state of Buddha is actually much larger than it looks in this picture, but I don't really like the other photos I took, so you'll just have to imagine it.
Temple Buildings
It took awhile to get used to all the reverse swastikas. You see it a lot on maps, it's a symbol for a Buddhist temple. It means the same thing in Japan, but I think it's more common to see it painted on the temple itself in South Korea.
Lanterns
I believe these lanterns are for Buddha's birthday. They put out lanterns for a lot of the festivals. I've seen lotus-shaped ones and all-white ones. I posted more photos of them here: Lanterns in South Korea
Man reading a newspaper
Not everyone was there to pray or sight-see. I think some people were locals trying to stay out of the heat. There are a lot of volunteers and monks walking around too. Quite a few people spoke English and were willing to talk about Buddhism - they have day programs where you can follow the monks around. Everyone I talked to were super-calm and peaceful. It's very different from the rest of Seoul. I imagine most temples are like that.
Side of temple building
To get there: Take Line 2 to Samseong. Take exit 6 and walk north (away from the big intersection). Take a left at the next intersection, and look for the trees (it's on the other side of the road, so cross over). I think you could also take Line 7 and get off at Cheongdam, but it's a longer walk. It's been a few years since I've been there, so it's probably a good idea to double-check before you go.
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