The Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch will run a tour Saturday of Seochon, an area west of Gyeongbokgung in Seoul that is home to traditional Korean houses and Japanese colonial period homes that has received renewed attention as a tourist spot.

The afternoon excursion will move through the area from Gyeongbokgung Station to the Sajikdan, an altar built in 1394 for biannual harvest rituals, and Geumcheon Market, stopping at points of interest along the way.

They include the revived Tongin Market, a traditional market selling mostly food, and modern galleries in the area.

Further along will be some hanok, or traditional houses, including the Yi Sang-beom house and the Yi Sang’s House, which sits on the site where the early 20th-century author lived.

Registration for the tour closes Wednesday.

On June 27, the RAASKB will host a talk on the Soviet Union’s forced movement in 1937 of 172,000 ethnic Koreans from the Russian Far East to Central Asia.

Speaker Victoria Kim, the author of “Lost and Found in Uzbekistan: The Korean Story,” will discuss the changing narrative of the deportation and the re-definition of the Korean identity currently taking place across Central Asia.

For details on either event, visit raskb.com.

(paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)