Key areas
Seoul, with its satellite cities of Suwon and Incheon, is the world’s third largest urban conurbation after New York-Newark and Tokyo-Yokohama. It is an enormous, modern sprawl, bisected by the Han river. The old part of Seoul is Gangbuk (‘river north’). Virtually everything south of the river has been built up since the 1960s.
The southern area, or Gangnam (‘river south’, also the name of a specific district) is the most desirable place to live. The districts below are listed north to south. Downtown The central business district, or CBD, is within the old city gates (two of which still exist). The heart of this area is the Gwanghwamun intersection.
It radiates out to the areas of Jongno, Euljiro and Myeong-dong. Many banks and multinational head offices are based here, as are City Hall, the old palaces and traditional markets. Jongno is a shopping and entertainment centre. Myeong-dong is a paved pedestrian precinct ringed by upscale department stores. The adjacent Namdaemun market is a great place for a haggle. Seoul Railway Station is just south of Namdaemun Gate.
Insa-dong Just off Jongno, this revamped tourist area is meant to be a recreation of Olde Korea. One main road and lots of small alleys hold restaurants, gift shops and art galleries. Just north of Insa-dong, next to Biwon, is Bukcheon, the only area of Seoul where any attempt is being made to preserve traditional houses. Samcheong-dong This quiet area to the northeast of Gyeongbok Palace is possibly the prettiest district in town.
A narrow, tree-lined road runs through a neighbourhood of small shops, art galleries, restaurants and wine bars. Sinchon and Hongik Being home to three major universities, Sinchon is Seoul’s lively student quarter, well known for youth-centred nightlife at student prices. It’s adjacent to the Hongik University district, an area famed for its arty population and its club and rave scenes. Mapo A modern, up-and-coming area between the CBD and Yeouido island. A mixed residential/business area. Yongsan/Itaewon Yongsan is the home of the giant US 8th Army base, previously the garrison of the hated Japanese colonial troops. Adjacent to the base is Itaewon. Once a dodgy slice of Wild Wild East, catering to the sexual needs of GIs, Itaewon has transformed itself into an expat hangout. It offers many mid-priced bars, foreign restaurants and shops, but traces of sleaze remain, notably around the aptly named Hooker Hill.
Yeouido This island in the Han was Seoul’s airstrip as late as the 1950s. Now it’s Seoul’s financial district, home to banks, securities houses, multinationals, the National Assembly and Seoul’s tallest building (the 63 building). Sometimes called ‘Seoul’s Manhattan’.
Gangnam This broad, high-rise canyon is a youth-focused entertainment district, with cinemas, shops, restaurants, bars, etc. Teheran-no/Samseong-dong/COEX Teheran-no is a wide street lined with skyscrapers housing Korea’s venture firms. Nowadays, high rents are forcing many high-tech entrepreneurs out and they’re being replaced by big business. Home to the huge COEX conference centre and underground mall.
Apgujeong/Cheongdam-dong These adjacent districts are the ritziest, priciest parts of town. As well as high-end department stores, the area is famed for its plethora of palatial Korean and foreign restaurants, cafés and bars.
The ostentatiously-decorated foreign restaurants in this area tend to cater to very rich locals.
Getting around
Seoul suffers from appalling road congestion. Allow sufficient journey times, and be prepared to escape roads by hopping on the subway.
Buses in Seoul are cheap—the basic fare starts at 32p and fares on a chaseok, or express bus, start at 70p. However, routes can be confusing as most information is in Korean. Also, buses are at the mercy of Seoul’s fearsome traffic conditions.
The subway is extensive, clean, safe and simple to use. All station signs are written in English as well as Korean. Basic inner-city fares start at 38p (check out www.seoulsubway.co.kr). To get from Gwanghwamun in the north to COEX in the south takes about 40 minutes.
There are two kinds of taxi—black mobeom taxis and grey regular taxis. While mobeoms will always pick you up, regular taxis may pass you by if you’re not going where they want to go. However, they are extremely reasonable: the minimum fare for a regular taxi is 90p, compared to [00a3]2.20 for a mobeom. There is a 20% surcharge on fares from midnight to 4am. All taxis have mobile phones in them and a number you can call (posted up inside the taxi) if you’re having difficulty explaining where you want to go in English. It is often best to get the cabby to phone your destination to get directions, rather than presenting him with an address.
Shopping
For fashion items, head for Myeong-dong where there are hundreds of boutiques. Western sizes aren’t always available. For designer brands, Lotte Department Store in Myeong-dong, the Hyundai Department Stores in COEX and Apgujeong-dong, and the Galleria Department Store in Cheongdam-dong (considered the most exclusive shop in Korea) are the places to visit, but English is not widely spoken.
The labyrinthine Namdaemun Market, adjacent to Myeong-dong, offers food products, fashion and household goods at excellent prices. Open 24 hours, the liveliest time to go is around midnight when the wholesale buyers arrive. A visit to Korea is a great opportunity to stock up on the health-giving root ginseng. The best place for this is Namdaemun. Dried seaweed (gim), a popular, salty snack that goes well with beer, can also be bought in giant packs here.
Even larger than Namdaemun is Dongdaemun Market, sometimes claimed to be the biggest market in Asia (and so the world). But while Namdaemun is clearly one market, Dongdaemun is basically a complex of smaller markets and high-rise discount stores. This is perhaps the only place in Seoul where you need to beware of pickpockets and purse-snatchers. There are separate areas in this market for clothes, foodstuffs, traditional clothing, toys, etc. Doosan Tower in the centre of the market is good for clothes. The giant Yongsan Electronics Market offers everything from washing machines to notebook computers, but English is not widely spoken. Software, manuals and operating systems are in Korean and prices aren’t noticeably cheaper than anywhere else.
Itaewon is an excellent place to buy sports shoes, casual clothing, leatherwear and eel-skin products—haggle hard. Bespoke tailoring is also economical in Itaewon, and traditional Korean furniture—chests, wardrobes, tea tables—can be bought here as reproductions or antiques. Most staff in Itaewon speak at least some English.
Gifts to buy
For handicrafts, antiques, art and Korean souvenirs, Insa-dong is the place. Items worth considering include traditional calligraphy ink stands (attractive desk ornaments), ornamental standing screens, lacquerware jewellery boxes, chests, and watercolour prints or calligraphic scrolls. Colourful paper fans and rural masks also make unique wall ornaments. If you’re looking for a really unusual gift, you might consider kimchi chocolates, spotted on a recent visit to Namdaemun Market.
Things to do
Seoul, like other Asian capitals, has bulldozed most of its past so, outside a few hidden oases of traditional housing, few old buildings remain. The two exceptions to this rule are palaces and temples.
Seoul grew up around its palaces, and they are architecturally beautiful. However, they were stripped of their furnishings during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), so it may be best to first visit the Seoul History Museum (see next column).
Gyeongbok-gung (Palace of Shining Happiness, Tel: 732 1932), the original Seoul palace, has attractive gardens and ponds. The National Folk Museum, which offers frequent performances of dance, music and martial arts, is also on the grounds. It’s closed on Tuesdays.
If you only see one palace, perhaps the best is Biwon (The Secret Garden, Tel: 762 8262). This was the pleasure garden and hunting grounds of Joseon royalty, and today can be visited only on guided tours. The English-language tours through this dreamy landscape of silent ponds, streams, forests and pavilions take place at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm. A Royal Guard changing ceremony is re-enacted here every afternoon except Mondays, when the palace is closed.
Like most Korean temples, Pongwon-sa, behind Ewha Women’s University in Sinchon, was built in the mountains and was originally outside the city. After looking in on the various halls, you can spend half an hour hiking up the forest trails to the top of the mountain.
In southern Seoul, there is the large and beautifully preserved 10th century Bongeun-sa temple, right next to the COEX exhibition centre—a terrific juxtaposition of ancient and ultra-modern. The two best museums in Seoul are probably the well-designed Seoul History Museum in Seodaemun, near downtown, and the giant War Memorial next to the US Army base in Yongsan. The history museum is a good primer before hitting any of the palaces. It aims to tell the story of both commoners and royalty in Seoul in days gone by. (Closed Mondays, Tel: 724 0114, website: www.museum.seoul.kr.)
The huge War Memorial is actually a museum, tracing the history of war on the peninsula from prehistoric times to the present (closed Mondays, Tel: 709 3139, website: www.warmemo.co.kr). The sections on the 1590s Japanese invasions, the Korean War and the part played by Korea in the Vietnam War are particularly good. If you plan to visit the Demilitarised Zone, or DMZ, come here first.
Some markets are worth visiting just to look at. Noryangjin Fish Market (open daily 10am-9pm) is a lively, briny place full of buckets and tanks brimming with writhing marine life from all around the peninsula: crabs, eels, fish, squid, even the occasional shark. Upstairs there’s a range of restaurants.
Then there is Gyeong-dong Market (open 9am-6.30pm), which specialises in herbal medicines. It’s a fascinating place full of herbs, fungi, wood bark, crushed insects, etc. The smell is unique, and there are (alleged) cures for just about everything here. Impotence seems to be a particularly common affliction, judging by the number of remedies.
Korea has fewer bath houses than in the past, but the surviving ones have gone upmarket to become highly elaborate sauna complexes or what are known as jimjilbang, which are unisex mini-resorts that often include gym and massage facilities as well. Many are open 24 hours a day. Try Chuncheon Oksangaok Bulgama (135-859 Gangnam Dogok 907-54, Tel: 346 1488), a small place with a jade theme and an outdoor area. Or the much larger Hwanggeum Oncheon (Seocho-gu, Seocho 2 Dong, 1332-4, Tel: 581 4888), which features saunas, gyms, massage facilities and sleeping rooms. Seoul may be unique among capital cities in that there are actual mountains not just around it, but in the midst of it. Mount Namsan is a city landmark. You can drive or take a cable car to the top, where the views are incredible.
Bugak, the area behind the Blue House (the presidential mansion) is an upscale residential neighbourhood with some spectacular roads. There are Buddhist temples on and around the wooded mountainside and even an ancient shaman’s shrine (kuksadang). In the evenings, you may see old ladies here praying at the ‘Vagina of the Earth Mother’ (a sacred spring), and sometimes shamanist rituals are held. These are not tourist attractions and can be eerie.
Real outdoors types may prefer the Mount Bukhansan National Park, a mountainous area of hiking trails studded with temples and hermitages.
Excursions
The DMZ—actually, the most militarised strip of land on the planet—is well worth a day trip. This will bring home to you the reality of Korea’s tragic division in a more direct fashion than any CNN report. It is possible to visit the truce village, Panmunjeom, explore a North Korean infiltration tunnel and gaze into the mysterious North. You may even meet young South Korean soldiers embarking on patrol. Foreign visitors can take tours with the United States Service Organization, or USO (Tel: 724 7003). Suwon is a satellite city one hour south of Seoul by subway and it’s home to Korea’s best-preserved Joseon dynasty castle. If strolling around the city walls jogs your bladder, you can visit Suwon’s pride and joy—the world’s cleanest public toilets! To get to Suwon, take subway line 1 to Suwon station, then take a taxi to the fortress.
The Namsangol Traditional Folk Village isn’t as kitschy as you might expect. It’s a replica of a traditional village inhabited by artisans who recreate the products and lifestyles of yesteryear. To get there, take the subway to Suwon station, then take a shuttle bus (the office is near the station) to the village. This is a good place for traditional Korean food and booze.
For something completely different, try the village of Jangheung, a 30-minute train ride from Seoul’s Sinchon railway station. It’s a weekend getaway for Seoulites, and the Romeo and Juliet motel across from the dog soup (it’s regarded as an aphrodisiac) restaurant gives you some idea of the high jinks that go on here. But the main draw is the architecture: Jangheung offers possibly the world’s weirdest and wackiest collection. On the main street are full-scale reproduction castles, chateaux, windmills, a Polynesian hall and, on a hill, a full-sized schooner. Paradise for photographers.
Tourist traps
As Seoul isn’t really set up for Western tourists there are few tourist traps. On the contrary, Koreans tend to be pleased to see Westerners taking an interest. However, the much-hyped palaces are largely empty, reconstructed shells.
The information boards read like 1950s school textbooks, which is odd when you consider how lively and bloody the history has been. The royal changing of the guard ceremony outside Changdeok Palace is colourful, but it’s not an unbroken tradition—it was revived in the 1990s. Insa-dong is portrayed as a traditional area, but for real traditional architecture, visit Bukcheon, where the city has enacted policies to preserve old homes. However, this isn’t a tourist zone. The restored houses here are inhabited by real people. Itaewon has its pluses, but the pushy hawkers on the streets put many people off. After dark, the ‘hostess bars’ aren’t suitable for female travellers and some businessmen have run up bills of literally thousands of dollars. Hooker Hill bars are notorious rip-offs. Avoid.
Convention centres
There are two main convention and exhibition centres serving Seoul.
COEX Centre in southern Seoul’s Samseong-dong, Tel: 6000 0114, Fax: 6000 1302, website: www.coex.co.kr/ English/. This includes a shopping mall, cineplex and even an aquarium. Both Seoul’s InterContinental hotels are part of the complex, and the Park Hyatt and Renaissance are close by. If your event is at COEX, don’t stay north of the river. KINTEX Centre is in Seoul’s satellite city of Goyang, Tel: 031 810 8074, Fax: 031 810 8082, website: www.kintex.com. This opened in April 2005. The north of the river hotels are within striking distance and the Grand Hilton is the closest.