'Hyangwon' means the fragrance spreads far and wide. Hyangwonjeong was a private resting place for the royal family. The pond is squared and the island at the center is round. The square pond symbolizes the earth, and the round island symbolizes the sky.

 

King Gojong came to learn about electricity, eight years after Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb. He contacted Edison, requesting a generator and a technician to install it.

Edison was very happy and he wrote about this business in his diary. The water necessary to run the generator came from Hyangwonji. In March 1887, the first electric lights were lit in Joseon This was two years earlier than China and Japan. People believed that this light was made from water and called it water-fire.