Special Exhibit

Yenching Travels refer to the visit to China made by the officials of Joseon as diplomats. The Yenching Travel Party was an official diplomatic party of the country, but it was also the window of economic and cultural exchanges. Travels that lasted months was the route for culture. The experience of the world where the East mixes with the West in Yenching where products and cultures from around the world was a shock indeed and changed world views. The Western studies represented by books of the West, Catholicism, and world maps were introduced through these travels. Also, the travel party exchanged actively with the intellectuals of China who had already been familiar with Western studies through conversation by writing.
The exhibition was divided into Part 1, Yenching Travels – Road to the World, and Part 2, New Encounter and Recording of Yenching Travels. Part 1 showed the path from the beginning of the Yenching Travel to the forest of civilization, Beijing, and related relics and Part 2 focused on the exchange between the literary people of China and silhak scholars as well as the recordings of Yenching Travels.