Dongnimmun Arch (Independence Gate)

This guide to Dongnimmun Arch in Seoul begins at the exact spot where Korean officials once knelt to greet tribute-collecting envoys from China, until that old gate came down in 1895. It follows Seo Jae-pil, a onetime coup plotter who fled to America, returned as Philip Jaisohn, and rallied ordinary Koreans to fund a monument in its place, plus the Swiss architect and Korean stonemasons who spent about a year raising it. Two weathered pillars from the original gate still stand just beside it.