Hanok Village In Samcheong-dong

If foreigners visit Korea, they should visit Samcheong-dong. In Samcheong-dong, there are many Korean traditional style houses. Hanok is a term to describe Korean traditional houses.

Hanok is made of soil, timber, and rock. Therefore, Hanok doesn’t cause pollution. Hanok’s windows and doors are made of hanji, Korean traditional paper. The shapes of Hanok differ from region. In the south region, Hanok is built in a straight line like the letter “I” because of the warm weather. Straight shapes allow good wind circulation. In the northern region, Hanoks are box shaped to blocked the wind. In the central region, the shape of Hanok is like the letter “L”, that is a mixture of the northern and southern region’s shapes.

Koreans don’t use fireplaces. Instead of a fireplace, we have a heated floor. In Hanok, there is a Agungi, a Korean style furnace. When you make fire in Agungi, the stone under the floor is heated. It makes whole house warm because warm air rises. I think this system is one of the most scientific heating systems in the world.

These days, most houses don’t use a fan heater anymore. Instead, we use a boiler in a similar way to Hanok’s heating system.
I think Hanok is very unique stlye house, so foreingers will be very instrested in hanok!