5 reasons to stay at a hanok while traveling in Korea
The various rooms of Rakkojae (Seoul) lit up like latticed lanterns. Britain has its cottages, France its gîtes, the United States its ranch houses; in South Korea, the iconic -- to say nothing of charismatic -- house is the hanok.
As a traveler, why would one put up in a hanok, as opposed to a beachfront condo, a mountain cabin, a moldy bed-and-breakfast or most of all, a high-rise hotel?
Sure, there are inconveniences to staying in one for an extended period of time.
"Although our bathroom is modern, it can be uncomfortable as it is in a separate building," says Lee Gyeong-hak, who lives in Hyangdan, a hanok in Yangdong Village, Gyeongju, that has been in his family for almost 500 years. Hyangdan welcomes travelers as long as they make reservations in advance.
Joanne Lee, another member of the Lee clan who often stays at Hyangdan, agrees, warning that you will of course have to "give up convenient shower facilities."
For Joanne Lee, hanok also have an indescribable charm.
"Everything about hanok, from the shape of the columns to the shape of the eaves, from the architecture of the kitchen -- none of these are the way they are for no reason; hanok is the direct result of our ancestors' wisdom and science. And of course, if you stay there, you will always have a story to tell," she says.
With affluent neighborhoods like Bukchon -- Seoul's chic hanok quarter -- it's hard to believe that hanok were once a sign of poverty, considered old-fashioned and uncomfortable.
Now hanok are trendy, both as day-trip photo-ops or actual accommodations.
Travelers are increasingly opting for hanok when they choose their lodging, and the industry is starting to catch on, if hanok-based hotels (like Ragung or Odongjae) are any indication.
The popularity itself isn't so surprising. The real surprise is that this hanok revival isn't just stylish posturing, or contemporary idea-starved designers pawing through the past to fetishize anything vaguely "historical." There is more merit to hanok than simply beauty and novelty -- or rather, hanok's beauty is more than just wall deep.
They've acquired a double halo of environmental friendliness and elegance as well as historical relevance.
Standing out
Broadly defined, hanok can refer to any traditional Korean house.
Traditionally, only nobles (yangban) were allowed to use clay tiles for their roofs, while farmers and the rest had to make do with thatch. But as far as appearance goes, what we consider hanok today resembles the residential Chinese architecture of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Hanok, however, differ from their Chinese counterparts in significant ways. And some of these differences are what contribute to the remarkable practical -- mental and physical -- benefits to sleeping in a hanok.
By definition it is difficult to transcribe, and distill into digestible reasons, indescribable charm -- that's something you need to experience for yourself.
But for anyone who has not yet felt it, here are at least five reasons you should try:
1. Harnessing nature
The typical urban traveler usually finds themselves suffocating in overheated rooms in the winters and freezing under the blast of arctic air conditioning in the summers.
With hanok, there's no such seasonal paradox.
The secret lies in the architecture.
First, there is the depth of the eaves, which act as a shade from the summer sun.
"It's comparable to the shade cast by a big tree," writes Shin Yeong-hoon in "We Should Know About Our Hanok" (우리가 정말 알아야 할 우리 한옥).
But the eaves do more than simply act as beach umbrellas.
"In the winter, the sun, which is low in the sky, enters and warms the rooms. Warm air rises. And even if the warm air is pushed out by the colder air, the deep eaves act as a blockade, and the warm air lingers," writes Shin.
Hanok are also characterized by their dual flooring, ondol and maru, which fit together like yin and yang. Ondol is stone flooring for the winters, heated from below by a fire in a heating system unique to hanok. Maru is raised wood flooring which is both porous and cool in summer. This dual floor design marks how hanok deviates from the typical Chinese architecture of the Tang era.
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2. Primary materials
Sure, it feels kind of nice to sip iced margaritas in chilled hotel lounges while outside the traffic looks warped because of the heat. Or to feel the reassuring blast of cold air from an open department store door. But it doesn't feel as nice when you think about the electricity this eats up. Or the effect that it all has on the ozone. Which is why most of us don't think about it, for good reason.
But at hanok you can think about it, because the conclusion won't make you feel guilty, but on the contrary, virtuous. In fact, if you don't mind being called a self-righteous tree-hugger from those boarding at hotels, you can even talk about it.
We can already surmise that hanok are good for the environment because the houses have efficient heating (you just build a fire under the floor) and you don't need wheezing air conditioners.
But there are also the ingredients of the hanok itself.
"The primary materials used to build hanok are wood and clay," says Lee Gyeong-hak.
Even at their fanciest, such as in the case of Hyangdan -- originally the home of Lee Gyeong-hak's ancestor, prominent Joseon scholar Lee Eon-jeok, and now a part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Yangdong Village) as well as a National Treasure No. 412 -- hanok basically consist of stone, wood, mud and paper. All biodegradable materials that will return whence they came.
"Hanok produce none of the same pollutants that arise from modern architecture," writes Shin.
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3. Purifying red clay walls
The floors, walls and roofs of hanok are all grouted with mud. And not just any mud, but golden mud, or "red clay," if we are being literal with the translation.
Besides the heating and cooling benefits of red clay in the architecture, hwangto's proximity to the residents is also believed to be beneficial to their health.
Hwangto is known to have purifying and detoxifying properties, as well as emitting far infrared rays. This might sound like new age quackery to those who usually rely on vitamin pills and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, but none of this is exactly new. There are entire lines of hwangto wonder products with a variety of health benefits, such as the "hwangto pillow" from Tohwangto, which is supposed to aid in comfortable sleep.
And while the wise consumer would probably do best to avoid putting too much faith into these cure-alls, sleeping in a room lined with hwangto certainly can't be worse than popping several ineffective sleeping pills in a large and sterile hotel room with the fumes of new paint tickling your nose hairs.
"We once had visitors from the most expensive apartment complex in Seoul," says Lee, of his ancestral home. "They told me that they always sneezed when they awoke in their apartment, but felt much better after a night's sleep in Hyangdan."
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