The Westin Chosun Seoul cleans King Gojong's old residence

Hwang Kyung-ja, right, the hotel’s head of the laundry section, and her colleagues clean King Gojong’s bed in Seokjojeon at Deoksu Palace, central Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of the Westin Chosun Seoul

By Kim Se-jeong

Cleaning King Gojong’s old residence at Deoksu Palace has become one of The Westin Chosun Seoul’s corporate social responsibility projects.

Starting this week, 12 hotel staff — dry cleaners and cleaner crews — are cleaning the walls, carpets, floors, curtains and bed sheets inside the residence, known as Seokjojeon, which the Culture Heritage Administration (CHA) restored and opened to the public in 2014.

On Monday, the laundry staff took the silk and cotton bed sheets and pillow cases away from the king’s bedroom, cleaned them and then put them back on. Meanwhile, the floor cleaners polished the wooden and marble floors with a polishing machine and wiped the bathroom floor and tubs with wet towels. They also dusted off the carpets in the bedroom and the tea room with a vacuum cleaner.

“We are happy to be part of the project,” a hotel’s public relations staff told The Korea Times. “We were looking for things that we could do for the community and came up with this idea.”

The Westin Chosun Seoul is also part of Korea’s modern history.

Hwang Kyung-ja, a hotel employee for 25 years and head of the laundry section, shared her feeling about the project. “This is a very special project. I feel completely honored to clean the room of someone who once was the leader of this country. I feel so proud,” she said. She and her colleagues will be back next week to do the same for the queen’s room and to clean the curtains.

Hwang said although the room is pretty much empty and unvisited, regular cleaning is important.

“Leaving (the bed) unoccupied doesn’t mean they stay clean. It accumulates a lot more dust which is more difficult to clean after some time. A regular cleaning is absolutely necessary,” she said.

The CHA, which is responsible for the residence’s maintenance, is extremely thankful to the hotel.

“This is exactly what we need,” Kim Jae-eun, a researcher at the administration, said. “The offer came at the perfect time. We were reaching out to cleaning services for consultations.” For two years, CHA has not done much for the maintenance of the rooms, excepting for sweepings.

Seokjojeon was built over 10 years and was completed in 1910. The first floor has a reception room, grand dining room, and big meeting room for state affairs, while the second floor has the bedrooms for the king and queen, bathrooms, terrace, library and tea room. The basement, which is now used for the CHA’s offices, is believed to have been used for the residence staff.

King Gojong lived in Seokjojeon until 1919, when he died. Afterward, the building was used as King Yeongchin’s temporary residence, a meeting venue for Soviet and American officials before the Korean War and an art exhibition venue.

The hotel itself is also part of Korea’s modern history. Opened in 1914, it was built by the Japanese during the colonization and was a symbol of luxury and power.

It shares its property with Hwangudan, an altar where kings performed heavenly rituals wishing prosperity for the country. It was where King Gojong performed the ritual when declaring the Korean Empire in 1897.

After the country’s liberation in 1945, the Korean government took over the hotel and began hosting many high-profile political figures there, including the country’s first president, Syngman Rhee, who had his office in the hotel. In 1995, Shinsegae purchased the hotel. For more information about the cleaning project, call (02) 771-0500.