Seoul, South Korea — April 8-18, 2016 - City Photos - USA/World

Posted December 8, 20168 yr

In early April, I went on my first trip out of North America. My first destination of this trip was the Republic of Korea, a.k.a. South Korea, where I spent 11 days.

My main reason for going there to attend UncleRando[/member]'s wedding. Of course, I also had an amazing time getting a tour of Seoul from Randy and his friends. There is no better way to experience a new place than to have the locals show you around, tell you where to go, what to see, and what to eat. (And JYP[/member] was there too!)

First, a few things to know about Seoul. It's a massive city with a metro area population of 25.6 million people. The city is divided into 25 districts called "gu"—essentially they're boroughs.

I will start this tour in the central "downtown" part of Seoul and moving outward from there.

Central Seoul

In a city a big as Seoul, "downtown" is a pretty meaningless term. But if there is one, it's here, in Jongno-gu just south of Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Guys on motorcycles will transport anything imaginable:

Gyeongbokgung Palace

When we talk about historic preservation on this forum, we aren't usually talking about buildings built in 1395.

So cool to see ancient architecture juxtaposed with a completely modern city's downtown:

Seochon Village

Seochon roughly translates to "west village" as it is located just west of Gyeongbokgung Palace.

You will notice that Seoul has two extremes when it comes to streets. There are big, wide, car-dominated streets that form superblocks in the city. However, within those superblocks, there are much narrower streets that are shared by pedestrians, cars, motorcycles, and buses. It works very well in practice. Drivers actually respect pedestrians and patiently travel at slow speeds down these streets.

This is an unfortunate mistranslation of Jack and Coke... I think:

(^ In doing some research, I found out that I Am Bagel recently closed and was replaced by a 7 Eleven. Darn gentrification!)

There are many variants of these signs all over Seoul:

Tongin Market is known for their unique lunch trays. You buy a tray with several compartments and then go around to the individual merchants to get different food from each.

Bukchon Hanok Village

Bukchon Hanok Village is located just east of Gyeongbokgung Palace and is a great example of traditional Korean architecture.

Some commercial streets with more modern architecture:

Old meets new:

Many rooftop restaurants too:

Is this bus... winking at me?

A lot of great texture and color in this neighborhood:

UncleRando[/member] cameo:

Insa-dong

Insadong is a neighborhood just east of "Downtown Seoul" and southeast of Gyeongbokgung Palace. Its main street, Insadong-gil, was great for pedestrians, as it had a winding "path" of bumpier stone that slowed cars down. Cars were also banned from certain parts of the street between certain hours.

There are lots of narrow alleys that branch off of the main street, which continue to branch off into more and more alleys.

#CatsOfInsadong:

Seoul's bike share bikes:

One of the nice things about Seoul's subway is that all of the exits are explicitly numbered (Exit 1, Exit 2, etc.), which makes them really convenient meeting points for people. Businesses even take advantage of this, like this "Exit 4" bar:

From above:

Street food:

For relaxing time...

Cheonggyecheon

Everyone on this forum should know about the Cheonggyecheon. In 1968, an elevated highway was built right through the center of Seoul. In 2005, the highway was ripped out and replaced by a linear park and stream. This is one of the world's biggest success stories for removing urban highways and reclaiming public spaces.

Dongdaemun Design Plaza

Follow the Cheonggyecheon east and you will get to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, or DDP. This complex was designed by Zaha Hadid and replaced an old baseball stadium. And it kinda looks like UC's campus.

Notice the old lighting from the baseball stadium:

Inside is a design shop where a number of merchants were selling their products:

The nearby Dongdaemun Market featured a lot of street vendors selling fabric and other materials:

Seoul's bus stops are really nice. Not just in some areas but all across the city. It's almost like they treat public transportation riders with as much respect as motorists...

Had to throw this one in:

Ihwa-dong

To the north of Dongdaemun is Ihwa-dong, also known as the Ihwa Mural Village. There is a lot of interesting artwork scrawled on the buildings and winding staircases of this neighborhood.

Naksan Park:

Seoul uses subway-style maps for its bus stops:

Mmmm, chicken:

Namsan

Namsan ("South Mountain") is located south of downtown Seoul but still pretty close to the enter of the overall city. We decided to walk up the mountain through Namsan Park to get to the N Seoul Tower. But first, coffee:

"Coffine Gurunaru wants to be a tree and a ferry in a river just like a place to rest. A good quality of coffee and the health benefits of wine will definitely make your body and your mind upgraded and even your pride in your life. Please take a deserved break at Coffine Gurunaru. Coffine Gurunaru is a resting place for you."

Nice views on the way up:

And we've finally arrived at the N Seoul Tower, and head up to the observation tower at an elevation of 236m.

And then we take the aerial tram down:

Itaewon and Hannam-dong

Itaewon is the one part of Seoul that is filled with a lot of westerners, as well as restaurants/bars aimed towards westerners. It is also home to many Americans who originally came over as English teachers but eventually started their own businesses. It is located right next to the US military base. Interestingly, when the military base was first built, it was on the edge of the city. Since Seoul has grown so much, it's now right in he middle of the city. So, the military base will be moving out to a new location in the countryside and that land will become a park for locals to enjoy.

I am also including a few photos from the nearby neighborhood of Hannam-dong in this section.

My favorite stores!

Craft beer is fairly rare in Korea, but some Americans started this great brewery and pizza place:

We had so many styles of Korean BBQ but this thinly-sliced beef (chadol-baki) was probably my favorite:

Enhance...

A friend took us to a really cool bar that was literally underground. You entered a nondescript building, went down a flight of stairs, pushed on a wall, and there was a small seating area on the other side. This is all I can show you from that bar:

Hongdae and Yeonnam-dong

Hongdae is a very active area that is full of young people due to the number of universities located in the area. There is a ton of shops, restaurants, and cafes, in addition to street performers and other interesting urban activity.

A main street in this area serves as a BRT corridor. There are center-running bus lanes and platforms.

A bit of a traffic jam:

In the nearby Yeonnam-dong, as the neighborhood has gentrified, the government has made more of an effort to preserve the existing architecture and make incremental improvements, rather than tearing everything down and building high rises as is typically done.

Let me tell you a story...

In recent years, a new subway line was built through this neighborhood, and a nice linear park called Gyeongui Line Forest Park was built on top:

Jayang-dong

We briefly stopped in the neighborhood of Jayang-dong to visit a container park called Common Ground. It's a very large space with a big mall-like interior and a "food truck" court outside, although it looks like the trucks have been permanently connected to plumbing and electricity.

Hangang Park

And now we cross over to the south side of the Han River. We start around Yeoeuido-dong and walk east.

So much bike infrastructure!

Gangnam-gu and Seocho-gu

Gangnam means "south of the river" and is a pretty large area. When most people say "

" they are refering to the trendier areas around Gangnam Station but there's must more to it than that. The area was developed in an organized way, resulting in many wide streets lined with mid- and high-rise office buildings. However other parts still feature densely packed homes on narrow shared streets. (A few of the photos from this section are technically in the adjacent Seocho-gu but still very close by.)