Infiltrating Cheong Wa Dae

The protests have turned into more of a celebration following the president's impeachment and now arrest.

I tried getting to Cheong Wa Dae by walking, but there was still a pretty sizeable rally out front.

Finally I was through.

I followed a road around back where I could see some of the presidential compound looked to be in pretty bad shape.

Interesting propaganda in this neighbourhood.

I followed around the back wall of the presidential palace. Nobody really minded that I was here.

Around a corner, I saw they were doing some work on the wall.

Scaffolding means I can go up.

To the left is Bugaksan, and to the right is Korea's abandoned presidential palace.

Nice security measure bro.

Little known secret, there are actually two walls, hiding a passage traditionally used for evacuation. I've gotten over the outer wall, but still have to get through the inner wall.

All I had to do was crawl through a five-meter-long hole.

And the other side is inside Cheong Wa Dae grounds.

I ran into this statue back there. You can see the roof of Cheong Wa Dae below us.

Coming closer, there was some construction work going on here.

This was taped to the fence. Someone around here lost a dog.

They've been working hard to restore this building. I guess it's easier to do the work when nobody's living there.

Graffiti on the wall.

It looks like I'm not the first one to slip inside. Previous people made a bit more of a mess.

And the graffiti just got meaner.

Someone left her slippers. Soonderella?

I would've expected the president to have nicer washrooms for her guests.

I hope prison provides free footwear.

This is the lobby to one of the buildings.

Nice detial on the ceiling.

The interior was nice enough.

I found a dining room.

With food still. Not real food of course.

And floor seating for those who prefer that.

This hallway led me into complete darkness.

More shoes.

Okay, this is kind of weird.

Huh, I wonder what was done in this room.

Any idea what this was?

Huh...that's pretty weird.

A break room for security.

And some light reading material for the guards.

Heading upstairs.

Up high, I found what looks like a dish and earphones, aimed in the direction of the protest.

I went down, all the way down to the basement levels. There sure were a lot of them.

Very, very deep underground, I found this tunnel, with a sign saying "Gwacheon: 20 kilometers."

After about four hours of walking, I emerged at night, near this trashed government building, wondering where the hell I was.