Jongmyo Shrine

This guide to Jongmyo Shrine in Seoul opens in 1592 as Japanese armies burn the royal palace, and someone hides the shrine's sacred spirit tablets in a commoner's house before they can be lost. It traces the shrine back to King Taejo, founder of the Joseon dynasty, who built it before his own palace because tradition demanded the ancestors get a home first, and follows how the plain wooden hall grew wing by wing over centuries into one of the longest wooden buildings in Asia. Stand in the long courtyard in front of the main hall, Jeongjeon, to take in its full length.