Like other living museums such as Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia or Skansen in Stockholm, Sweden, the Korean Folk Village depicts life during an earlier era.

The village, about 90 minutes by subway and bus from Seoul, covers 243 acres and is a collection of more than 260 buildings from around the country dating to the late Joseon era. The wooden structures have thatched roofs, and judging by the implements and fall corn hung up to dry, these would mostly have been inhabited by farmers. The more substantial stone buildings topped by tiles would be examples of residences of a nobleman and his family.

Betty Gordon / AJC (ENLARGE)

Wooden spirit poles, such as these at the Korean Folk Village outside Seoul, traditionally marked the entrance to a village or temple and acted as guardians to ward off evil spirits and protect the residents from disease.

Betty Gordon / AJC (ENLARGE)

'Hammering Man' by Jonathan Borofsky is a 72-foot-tall, 50-ton steel statue outside the Heungkook Life Insurance Building. A law states that every high-rise building must have a sculpture.

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Costumed re-enactors can be found weaving cotton, tending crops, making pottery, shaping brass or performing other work (not all crafts areas have demonstrations every day). The buildings range from a Buddhist temple to a brewery to a herb shop to a paper workshop and a blacksmith's livery. The wooden-thatched motif carries over to a large outdoor food court, where your order may be prepared before you on a large griddle. You can try traditional dishes such as chicken stew with ginseng, pancakes with green onions or rice and meat soup with Korean sausage.

Also on the grounds is an amusement park complete with carousel and several museums. A well-stocked gift shop sells some of the crafts fashioned in the village, such as masks, wooden bowls, chopsticks and figures. Several times a day, a traditional wedding is re-enacted and dancers, musicians and acrobats perform.

Unfortunately, there isn't much in the way of signage to put things in context. For that, head to the National Folk Museum on the grounds of Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul.

In three large exhibition halls, you'll learn about lifestyle, livelihood and the life cycle of ordinary people and of the aristocracy. For example, in the latter, the displays follow the progress of a child born to a nobleman from birth to death. Almost everything is imbued with meaning, including the mother-to-be's dreams (a big animal predicts the birth of a boy). At the feast on the occasion of his first birthday, the boy's choice from a scattering of objects would supposedly foretell his future. If he picked up the money or grain, he'd become a millionaire; if he went for the arrows or bow, he'd be a general. The display continues on up through his education, marriage, civil service exams and possible career as an official.

At the open-air exhibit, you'll see a millstone, spirit posts and stone statues representing military and civil officials. And there will probably be kids running around as this is a popular stop for school field trips.

Korean Folk Village: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. winter, 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m. summer (30 minutes later closing weekends and holidays). Adults, about $12; adolescents and senior citizens, about $8; children, about $7. 107, Bora-dong, Giheung-gu, Yong-in City, Gyeonggi-do. 011-82-31-288-0000; www.koreanfolk.co.kr . Subway line 1 (purple) to Suwon Station. Exit the station and turn left; find the small tourism building. You can purchase your ticket here, which includes round-trip shuttle service to the village.

National Folk Museum of Korea: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. daily March-October, until 7 p.m. Saturdays; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily November-February. Closed Tuesdays. Adults, $3; ages 7-18, $1.50; under 6 and over 65, free. Subway line 3 (orange), Anguk Station, Exit 1, or Gyeongbokgung Station, Exit 5; or subway line 5 (light purple) Gwanghwamun Station, Exit 2. 1-1 Sejong-ro, Jongno-gu. 011-82-02-3704-3114, www.nfm.go.kr .

National Museum of Korea and 'Hammering Man'

At some of the world's great museums, such as the Louvre in Paris or the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, the collection is so extensive and the buildings so endless that you know you can't possibly see everything.

This is not the case at the National Museum. In about four hours, you can review a sizable part of the 11,000-piece collection covering the history and art of Korea. The English text is excellent and audio guides are available.

Opened on Oct. 28, 2005, and covering 76 acres, the National Museum's modern geometric shape is meant to evoke a fortress. It's fronted by a spacious plaza and reflecting pond. The gleaming marble East Wing has three floors with six galleries each and the West Wing houses an 805-seat multipurpose theater and a children's museum.

The archaeological tour begins on the first floor with artifacts dating to the Paleolithic era, moving through all the major periods in Korean history such as the Silla and Three Kingdoms and the lengthy Joseon (also spelled Choson) dynasty (1392-1910). Wander over to the historical gallery for an explanation of hangeul (Korea's 24-letter alphabet invented in the 1440s under King Sejong's rule) and examples of Korea's contribution to woodblock printing. On the upper two floors are galleries of Korean art, including landscape, animal, genre and royal court paintings; portraits; calligraphy; woodworking; Buddhas; and exquisite ceramics highlighted by a distinctive blue-green celadon incense burner and a white porcelain jar decorated with bamboo and plum tree paintings.

The second floor also has art from other Asian countries such as Japan and China that collectors have donated to the museum.

Among the don't-miss treasures is the "Maitreya in Meditation," also known as the "pensive bodhisattva," a lovely 3 1/2-foot-tall gilt bronze statue with the fingers of its right hand resting lightly on its right cheek and its right leg crossed at the ankle over its left knee. The slim, seated statue has its own darkened room and is displayed in a glass case with a spotlight.

While you're sightseeing, you'll note the abundance of sculpture and public art installations. You're guaranteed to see pagodas and sculptures of Buddha, and possibly something more personal such as the young woman who was assembling aqua-painted rectangular boxes on a gray-tiled spot near some trees. In that she had just started on the right-hand corner, I have no idea what the finished shape looked like or signified, but she was going about her work with an artist's single-mindedness.

Certainly one of the largest sculptures is American artist Jonathan Borofsky's "Hammering Man" (2002), which stands silently outside the Heungkook Life Insurance Building. The 72-foot-tall, 50-ton, painted-black steel statue is similar to other "HMs" that Borofsky has erected in other cities. The left foot is positioned slightly in front of the right suggesting balance or forward movement, his palm-up left hand is extended outward and his right hand, which moves up and down, holds a hammer.

"My vision was to have as many of these hammering around the world at the same time as possible to tie us in as one installation, one people working," the artist told Carnegie Mellon Magazine in 2002.

National Museum of Korea: Subway line 1 (purple) or line 4 (blue) to Ichon Station, Exit 2. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursday-Fridays; 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays; 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays; closed Mondays and New Year's Day. Adults (ages 19-64), $2; students (ages 7-18), $1; senior citizens, free. 168-6, Yongsan-dong 6ga, Yongsan-gu. 011-82-2-2077-9000; www.museum.go.kr .

"Hammering Man": Subway line 5 (light purple) to Gwanghwamun Station, Exit 6.