Provisional Capital Memorial Hall

This guide to the Provisional Capital Memorial Hall in Busan starts with an incongruous detail: President Syngman Rhee's writing desk and a poem-covered folding screen sitting inside a building that was never meant to house a president. Built in 1926 as the residence of Korea's Japanese colonial governor, it became Rhee's home and office after Seoul fell within days in the summer of 1950 and the government retreated south. You'll hear how Busan swelled past a million people as refugees poured in from Seoul and from evacuations like the one at Heungnam, and how families built shelters on the very hillsides behind this building. Look at the folding screen up close before you decide what it's really a picture of.