Seoul
http://search.japantimes.co.jp
Jan. 3, 2001
Glimpse an older, more harmonious Korea amid the artifice of a 'living museum'
By STEPHEN MANSFIELD
Two centuries of ice, rain, summer heat and a civil war have reduced the ramparts of Suwon, a city
just an hour's drive south of Seoul, to heaps of twisted rubble.
Originally designed as a new capital, a kind of Taj Mahal or Shalamar of gurgling water and
aesthetically pleasing structures, the city was left to languish until the government rebuilt it in 1975 at a
cost of over 3 billion won. Four-square, finely capped, with an air of spanking newness about them, the
stones look well set for eternity. These sturdy remnants of the Yi dynasty are the perfect
accompaniment to reconstructions of more fragile buildings to be found at the nearby Korean Folk
Village.
Here is a slice of Korea's last kingdom brought down to human scale. The village is advertised as a
"Living Museum," an expression that takes on fresh meaning when you stroll through the sprawling
grounds, happening across blacksmiths, potters, weavers and herbalists, all giving the impression of
being seriously engaged in their work. When I visited, the houses, rice stores and barns of the "village"
had begun to weather nicely, acquiring a deceptive patina of age, and a real ginseng field had been
laid out.
Over 200 separate buildings have been faithfully recreated. These include a Buddhist temple,
Confucian school, teahouse and market.
An inevitable degree of telescoping has taken place -- for example, the recreation of farm houses
representing each of the provinces of Korea -- but overall the layout succeeds at one stroke in
informing and entertaining its visitors.
The real appeal of the Korean Folk Village lies not only in the apparent authenticity of its buildings, but
in the vitality of its performers. Each day, a traditional costumed wedding procession is staged. A
group of farmer musicians whirl like dervishes around the bride and bridegroom, who are carried
through lanes on a palanquin.
Although skeptics may detect shades of Disneyland in this folk village, the earthen streets, natural
building materials like bamboo and thatch, great ceramic pots and jars for storing kimchi and the
weather-beaten "spirit post" guardians of the village create an ambience quite different from that of an
attraction park, museum or the stilted European equivalent of such a place -- which would probably be
the city waxworks. A certain "willing suspension of disbelief," to quote Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is
required, of course, if you are to enjoy places like the Korean Folk Village, but even the toughest
cynics have been known to lighten up a little, lower their critical guard and concede that an afternoon
in Suwon might be one well spent.
The village may provide an insight into why theme parks have become such big business in today's
Asia. It is unquestionably an impressive and highly profitable showcase for Korean folk culture, but
more importantly, it is a throwback to a more innocent age, a nostalgic time-voyage to a more
harmonious and -- paradoxical as it may seem among such concentrated artifice -- authentic Korean
past. The convivial and secure order of a Yi dynasty village offers Koreans and overseas visitors alike
a chance to escape pressing realities, a reminder that this troubled peninsula once enjoyed a unity
that even now, amid talk of detente, seems as elusive and remote as the age of Confucian scholars.
Stephen Mansfield is a Japan-based freelance photojournalist and the author, most recently, of "Lao
Hill Tribes" (Oxford University Press). He last wrote for the Focus page on the complex relations
between Laos and Thailand.
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July 12, 2000
Time travel in downtown Seoul
By JOSEPH LIEBERMAN
As a resident of Japan, one might be forgiven for assuming that the South Korean film industry is
nearly nonexistent, considering the scarcity of offerings here. In fact, South Korean media production
is prolific, but it sometimes takes an unexpected circumstance to bring this into clear focus.
If you enjoy watching movies and videos, odds are you have seen at least several foreign releases in
Japan during the past year. Odds are even better that none of them originated in South Korea. The
same would hold true in reverse if this were being written in Seoul. For the most part, cinematic
exchanges between the two countries are a mutual dead end.
Despite cultural agreements signed by Japan and South Korea in recent years, artistic interactions
remain minimal, with what could be a flood of entertainment options still a mere trickle.
Glossy magazines and pop music were in the first small wave of Japanese cultural imports allowed
into South Korea, and were eagerly snapped up by the young. In Japan, diversional exports from
Seoul and Pusan have always been welcome, but mainly by ethnic Koreans who make up the largest
segment of the country's "foreign" resident population.
Legislators in Seoul have been accused of operating counter to the best interests of the South Korean
movie industry by making laws which restrict the chaebol, South Korea's major business consortiums,
from financing studios. The government's morally commendable reasoning is that with a handful of
chaebol controlling so much of South Korea's commerce, to allow them into the scripting and editing
rooms as well would create a kind of cultural hegemony too much to their own advantage.
The result, however, is that the cinemas which show the movies end up subsidizing the movie-makers.
The law requires that 40 percent of exhibited films be of South Korean origin. Without the big money
backing that foreign motion pictures have, the local movie industry has to churn out a large number of
low budget productions in order to try to fill that quota. Fans know that, and many prefer to save their
admissions cash for slicker options from abroad.
All of these factors work to prevent South Korea from enjoying much of a cinematic reputation
overseas, which brings us back to the unexpected incident mentioned earlier.
On a visit to the magnificent Kyongbokkung Palace during a stopover in Seoul, we happened to see a
classically costumed middle-aged Korean man pulling an airport-style suitcase across the palace's
cobbled courtyard. Visiting Kyongbokkung is not anything unusual in itself -- thousands of tourists do
that each day. What was puzzling was seeing this time-warp figure moving in so strange a fashion as
he crossed the inner palace grounds. Appearing to emanate from 600 years ago (but for the modern
suitcase), he seemed to be lost, as a true time traveler might well be.
Suddenly the target of our attention hurried down a narrow path between two high walled structures,
turned a corner and disappeared. The mystery was finally solved when we followed in his footsteps
through a high doorway, which opened like a time tunnel to reveal hundreds of brightly clad and
armored military men from several centuries past, an entire army of ancient warriors.
It didn't take long to realize we had stumbled into the filming of a movie or TV show, and we tried to
make ourselves as innocuous as possible to observe the action. A local journalist, Juan Kang of the
JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, explained that the director, Kim Jae Hyong, was that very night receiving
first prize for Best Television Director of the year.
The series he was producing, "Yong Eui Noon Mool (Tears of the Dragon)," had been rated the
number one weekly historic drama on TV. The story centers on Taejong, third king of the Yi (Choson)
Dynasty (1392-1910), who killed even members of his own family to consolidate his power. The lead
role is played by one of South Korea's top-ranking actors, You Dong Guen.
History being the stickiest subject separating most nations, this drama series is not something we can
expect to see in Japan anytime soon, but our close encounter with ancient royalty and modern media
stars was both titillating and enlightening.
After such an escapade it might seem that all else in the city would be anticlimactic. Such was not the
case, however, as we discovered that evening at the Grand Hyatt Seoul. The hotel is located on the
south border of Namsan Park, home of Seoul Tower, supposedly the third tallest such structure in the
world.
Being the city's premier luxury hotel, the Grand Hyatt is a natural magnet for the cinematic types who
make up the overlapping theatrical worlds of contemporary Korea. On any given evening, JJ
Mahoney's, the Hyatt's disco bar and live lounge, attracts an assortment of the Seoul's "beautiful
people." It was no surprise to see several cast members of "Tears of the Dragon" hard at play there.
Of course, if you are attuned to it, almost any street you walk down in central Seoul can be full of
drama and cultural surprises. Film, TV and magazines can be stimulating, but they are no substitute
for real life, the first-person experience of being there.
Then again, more media exchanges between Japan and South Korea would not hurt, either. Both
nations would benefit, and we international travelers would be better prepared to appreciate the
cultural assets we stumble upon.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp
Oct. 7, 2008
Spicy food, sexy idols and now . . . fashion
South Korean fashion is starting to attract Japanese shoppers to the country's capital
By SHAWN DESPRES
SEOUL — In the late 1990s, the Korean Wave — "Hallyu" as it's referred to in its native tongue —
began as South Korea's television, film and music industries gained greater international followings,
especially among its Asian neighbors.
Seoul style: South Korean fashion designers that play on Japanese and Western influences have
helped turn Japan's closest neighbor into a popular holiday destination for young Japanese.
FEETMANSEOUL.COM PHOTOS
The increased popularity of the country's entertainment not only boosted tourism in Seoul, it generated
interest in the city's burgeoning fashion industry too. Fans came to seek out the same styles of
clothing that the casts of their favorite TV programs wore.
Nearly a decade after the K-Wave's first ripples, Seoul remains a top vacation destination for Chinese,
Taiwanese and especially Japanese travelers.
At the Seoul Fashion Center, a fashion-integrated support center established by the Seoul city
government in 2000, Kim Tae Hoon says the more than 2 million Japanese who visit annually often
come with a very set agenda.
"The first reason Japanese come to Korea is for the food," says Hoon, SFC's marketing and promotion
team manager, before quickly adding, "The second is to shop for clothes."
Catch a Japan-bound flight out of the city and you're likely to see more than a few Japanese women
taking advantage of lax carry-on luggage regulations as they weigh themselves down with bags
brimming with new purchases.
This wasn't always the case. In an article detailing the rise of South Korean fashion in the magazine
Seoul last December, Jennifer Flinn wrote: "A few years ago, any self-respecting Japanese young
woman would have died of shame rather than be caught in the same outfit her Korean cousin was
flaunting in Myeongdong. Now, vacationing Japanese populate those shopping corridors on clothing
hunts."
Why have so many Japanese women, and to a lesser extent men, become infatuated with Seoul's
apparel only in the last few years? Prior to the recent trend, there just wasn't much style to be found.
After the end of the Korean War in 1953, business attire was the standard due to the country's textile
industry being one of the biggest exporters of men's dress shirts in the world.
Economic development in the early '90s inspired people to take more risks with their wardrobe, and
designers took the opportunity to push conservative boundaries, giving birth to the currently fertile
fashion environment.
"Until very recently, suits or other formal wear were requirements for men, as were dresses, high heels
and makeup for women," explains Michael Hurt, the editor in chief of Feet Man Seoul, South Korea's
first street-fashion magazine.
"As any Korean knows, a man walking the streets in the '90s in shorts and sandals would be stared at,
or a woman without makeup in an office situation would be thought of as rude or lazy."
According to Hurt, designers were initially influenced by styles in the United States, Europe and Japan,
but eventually they filtered trends from abroad through a Korean lens. As the industry strove to take on
a life of its own, creators made an effort to craft something different for local consumption.
Seoul's quick acceptance of fads from around the globe has allowed for rapid growth, but Jain Song,
the founder of clothing line Jain By Jain Song, says the practice has had negative effects.
"We are very fast to absorb things from others," says Song, who was named the "fastest-rising star in
the Korean fashion circuit" last year by The Korea Herald newspaper. "We never fall behind, but this
can make people look and act very similar to one another. This happens everywhere, but I think on a
whole, we are less creative in making our own style and focus too much on getting new things."
Junhee Yoo, a Korean-Japanese student who lived in Seoul for five years, agrees.
"People think that it's cheaper, which the media has encouraged them to believe, and they think it's
different, but when they go there they find out that it's actually similar in style and price," says Yoo.
"The department stores are expensive, and even though the markets are cheap, their quality is much
lower.
"Like many Japanese I knew who lived in South Korea, I didn't buy my clothes there very much. Most
of them would come back to Japan to shop and return to Seoul with bags packed with new clothes,
sometimes even to the point where they would have to ship extra boxes over."
But others, such as Feet Man Seoul contributor Ryuji, feel that this slight sense of familiarity is one of
the many attractions for consumers from abroad and locally.
"I think part of the allure of shopping here might be being able to find things that are either hard to find
in one's own country or are somehow different from the things one can usually find at home," says the
fashion diarist.
"There's a lot of unique stuff here," says his coworker Hurt. "A lot of it fits the cute, feminine aesthetic
that a Japanese, Taiwanese or Chinese person might connect with, and the prices are right."
Lee Ju Young, a designer for the popular brand Resurrection, points out as well that "the quality of the
sewing and fabrics are quite good."
It's inevitable that as Seoul's relatively young fashion world ages, it will develop its own identity,
creating crazes instead of mimicking them. Due in part to the success of the K-Wave, SFC's Kim feels
this is already happening.
"Korean fashion used to follow Japanese fashion. People used to say that anything that was popular in
Japan would come to Korea a month later," explains Kim. "Now they are saying that any popular
fashion items in Korea will be in Japan and China in two months.
"Koreans are more confident — now we aren't so interested in Japanese or other countries' fashions."
Japanese who haven't quite shopped till they dropped despite the twilight hour approaching can find
solace in the massive Dongdaemun Market, where many shops remain open 24 hours a day. Kim
cites the safety of Seoul and the late hours that many of the smaller boutiques and stores keep as part
of the appeal of shopping in the city. Much lower cab fares than those found in Japan make bargainhunting an option long after the city's extremely affordable subway system ends its service.
"The Japanese who come here for shopping really seem to like the 'more bang for the buck' that many
places in Seoul offer," he suggests.
According to Shinjuku's GM Travel, flights from Tokyo to Seoul start as low as ¥32,000 including all
taxes — maybe the cheapest destination out of Japan right now. More so than the fashion, this
reasonable rate, coupled with the mere 2 1/2-hour ride, will probably ensure that short
holiday/shopping trips remain popular excursions for Japanese.
"We went to Seoul mostly for fun, Korean-style massage, shopping and eating," says Chieko Omi,
who flew there with her sister Makiko last month. "Cosmetics were cheaper, so we bought some for
ourselves and our friends, but Japanese clothes are higher quality, so we didn't go clothes shopping."
Such current attitudes don't discourage fashion locals, though.
"We have a lot to enjoy — shopping, food, history, entertainment — and Seoul's size is just right," the
designer Song says. "It is not too big and has everything you need right here."
Hot shopping spots in Seoul
There's no shortage of shopping havens to suit all budgets within Seoul's city limits. The Seoul
Fashion Center says the "big three" draw the lion's share of Japanese tourists, though.
Stores in Seoul's Gimpo International Airport and in Incheon International Airport in nearby Incheon
City get the most customers, as travelers stock up on duty-free items and last-minute omiyage (gifts)
for family, friends and acquaintances.
Major department stores come in second, which is the reason for the popularity of Myeongdong. The
trendy fashion area has branches of the Lotte Department Store and Shinsegae Department Store,
along with smaller malls. Its main streets are lined with shops from major international brand-name
clothing lines, and its back alleys contain stores selling shoes, accessories and cosmetics. Mid-level
prices tend to be the norm.
The last is Dongdaemun Market, which attracts approximately 2,500 Japanese shoppers each day.
There are 35 malls containing some 35,000 shops, selling everything you could possibly imagine at
mostly inexpensive prices. Open 24 hours, in recent years Dongdaemun retailers have focused on
keeping up with the quickly changing, trend-oriented tastes of the younger generation, but fashion
options for all ages can be easily found. Free runway shows, concerts and other cultural events are
held in different parts of the area almost every night.
http://www.netzeitung.de
11.02.2008
Feuer zerstört historisches Stadttor in Seoul
Das Namdaemun Tor galt als "Nationalschatz Nummer eins" und war das älteste Holzbauwerk in
Seoul. In der Nacht zum Montag brannte es bis auf die Grundmauern nieder. Die Polizei prüft, ob es
Brandstiftung war.
Ein Großbrand hat in der südkoreanischen Hauptstadt Seoul das über 600 Jahre alte NamdaemunTor, den "Nationalschatz Nummer eins", bis auf die Tormauer zerstört. Die Ursache des Brandes in
der Nacht zu Montag war zunächst noch unklar, doch wurde Brandstiftung nicht ausgeschlossen.
Das Feuer am historischen "Großen Südtor", das zugleich das älteste Holzbauwerk der Stadt war,
konnte Fernsehberichten zufolge erst nach fünf Stunden gelöscht werden. Die zweistöckige
Holzkonstruktion über der Mauer stürzte fast komplett ein. Knapp 30 Löschfahrzeuge und fast 130
Feuerwehrleute waren im Kampf gegen die Flammen im Einsatz. Die Kulturerbeverwaltung kündigte
unterdessen an, das Stadttor werde in seiner ursprünglichen Form wiederhergestellt.
Verdacht auf Brandstiftung
Die Ermittler prüften am Montag, ob es sich in dem Fall um Brandstiftung handelte. Die Befragung von
Zeugen und die Auswertung von Bildern der Überwachungskameras am Tor hätten jedoch zunächst
keine schlüssigen Ergebnisse hervorgebracht, sagte der Leiter der Namdaemun-Polizeistation zu
Journalisten in Seoul.
"Nationalschatz Nummer eins"
Das Tor sei von symbolischer Bedeutung gewesen. Jeder Besucher Seouls habe es sehen wollen,
sagte Südkoreas neu gewählter Präsident Lee Myung Bak, der frühere Bürgermeister der Hauptstadt,
bei einer Besichtigung der Brandstelle. "Den Menschen muss das sehr wehtun", wurde Lee von der
nationalen Nachrichtenagentur Yonhap zitiert.
Das Namdaemun-Tor -- oder offiziell Sungnyemun ("Tor der verehrungswürdigen Wohlanständigkeit")
-- im Zentrum von Seoul wurde 1398 errichtet und war wichtigstes Stadttor während der ChosunDynastie (1392-1910). Mit anderen drei Haupttoren war es Teil einer Verteidigungsmauer um Seoul.
Im Korea-Krieg (1950-53) wurde das Tor weitgehend zerstört und nachher wiederhergestellt. Seit
1962 war es der "Nationalschatz Nummer eins".
http://www.theage.com.au
Art and soul at the oasis
March 29, 2009
Richard Tulloch gets a bite of traditional culture in modern Seoul's Bukchon area.
I was sure we were lost. It was dark and, faced with a maze of little alleyways well away from Seoul's
main roads, the taxi's GPS had apparently thrown in the towel. But my driver made a call and a
bespectacled man appeared out of the gloom, leading a large hairy dog. "Ah, Mr Richard! We walk to
guesthouse."
I was wrong about the man leading the dog. The dog was the boss and we had to jog to keep up, my
backpack bouncing along. In a breathless conversation, I learnt that my host was Mr Hyoun and his
companion was one of his traditional sapsal dogs, Ssari.
Up a short hill and down a laneway, we reached Seoul Guesthouse, a hanok, or traditional Korean
house. It had heavy wooden doors under a roof of grey clay tiles, leading to a little courtyard with piles
of firewood and earthenware jars. Mr Hyoun slipped off his shoes and slid open a wooden lattice
screen.
I clambered up over the high lintel. My room was a cubicle with white rice-paper walls and the yellow
floor was warm. This was because the ondol, the old Korean underfloor heating system, was doing its
job. I was expecting a sleeping mat but there was a bed with a doona. I loved this place already.
"Bathroom." Mr Hyoun said, as he hopped nimbly along the wooden balcony and slid open another
door. Modern fittings, tiles, working toilet, great!
There are few of these old hanoks left in Seoul and many that survive are in Bukchon, a northern
village just outside the main city centre. Some are now "visitable Korean traditional houses", which
means they can charge visitors a small fee to look through them, while several are run as
guesthouses.
The next morning, I headed out to explore, following a map and markers set in the footpath. There was
a Museum Of Traditional Knots as well as plenty of nondescript buildings along the route but also
numerous hanoks converted into galleries selling lacquer-work, pottery, flutes and stone sculptures.
A particular sign caught my eye: Seoul Museum Of Chicken Art. I'm intrigued by weird museums and
wasn't disappointed by this one. A private collector has put together more than 8000 chicken
paintings, statues and bric-a-brac, ranging from the beautiful and ancient to the downright kitsch. My
guide proudly led me to Australia's contribution - stamps from the 2005 Year Of The Rooster.
There were wooden chicken carvings from traditional funeral biers. Koreans, I was told, see the chook
as a symbol of intelligence and courage, faithfully leading the departed towards heaven. A new
advertising angle for KFC, perhaps?
Adjoining Bukchon, in the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung Palace, I found the National Folk Museum
of Korea and it's a much more professional affair, beautifully displaying artefacts from Korea's social
history. There were wooden printing blocks, fishing equipment and farming implements. I particularly
liked the stone and wooden sculptures outside - totems that were set at village gates. It was also fun
to see children trying their hand at old games like bowling hoops and spinning tops.
Nearby Insadong Road is famous for its restaurants, galleries and craft shops. This being a Saturday,
the street was closed to cars and swarming with people. Priests carrying gongs and bowls were
begging, guards in traditional dress put on a show, young people were electioneering and goodnatured street hawkers sold snacks of grilled octopus, chestnuts and roasted silkworm larvae.
The Beautiful Tea Museum was indeed beautiful, a triumph of filtered natural light falling on wooden
tables and a dazzling array of fine earthenware tea sets. Less beautiful was the Knife Gallery, a store
selling vicious hand-weapons. Want a samurai sword, battle axe or mace and chain? You've come to
the right spot.
Something out in the street was pulling a crowd. It was my host Mr Hyoun and his dogs. The sapsal is
a rare but famous traditional Korean breed, which was thought to be extinct 40 years ago until
rediscovered in the wild. They are supposed to ward off evil spirits and in the street they were
attracting the sort of attention I'd expect walking through Hobart leading a pair of Tasmanian tigers.
During the next few days, working in different parts of Seoul, I came to realise what a distinctive oasis
Bukchon is in a city where progress verges on an obsession. With a last night to spend before my
flight out, I headed straight back there.
This time I stayed in Tea Guesthouse. It was a little more upmarket than Seoul Guesthouse, though
equally quaint, with padded sleeping mats on the floor. But the toilet had a heated seat. Tradition is all
very well but mod cons are appealing, too.
TRIP NOTES
Getting there
Singapore Airlines flies Sydney to Seoul return from $1675. The nearest subway station to Bukchon is
Anguk and KAL limousine buses transport passengers from the airport for 14,000 won ($14.40).
Staying there
Seoul Guesthouse is 35,000 won a night for a single; 50,000 won for a double, see seoul110.com.
Tea Guesthouse is 50,000 won single; 80,000 won double, see teaguesthouse.com.
Eating there
Recommended is the brilliant and very cheap Korean Cuisine Restaurant, in Insadong 4 Gil.
Further information
Entry to National Folk Museum of Korea and Knife Gallery is free. Entry to Museum of Chicken Art is
3000 won.
http://www.theage.com.au
Bathhouse stripped bare
UTE JUNKER, November 16, 2008
Some things are quintessentially Korean: a love for kimchi (the pickles that are served with every
meal); a symbiotic relationship with your mobile phone; and regular visits to your favourite jjimjilbang.
A jjimjilbang is not the same as a bathhouse. The Korean bathhouse concept - where naked people,
segregated by sex, relax by simmering themselves in pools of water heated to different temperatures has spread around the world.
The jjimjilbang, however, takes things a step further. It's a bathhouse on steroids. In addition to hot
and cold pools, each jjimjilbang has an array of therapeutic hot rooms, each lined with a different
mineral. The rooms sound like something from a fairy tale: there's the crystal salt room, the jade room,
the amethyst room and the ice room. And that's just the beginning.
Koreans love visiting the jjimjilbang, partly for the reputed health benefits and partly because it's a
great day out. Whether you go with your family or as a couple, for a modest entry fee of 10,000 won
($11) a person, you can stay as long as you like.
With food courts, video and internet rooms, play areas, even sleeping areas on offer, most visitors
make a day of it. The larger jjimjilbang, which are open 24 hours, are popular with some travellers as a
cheap overnight option.
My Korean friend Christina has volunteered to be my guide at Dragon Hill Spa, one of Seoul's largest
jjimjilbang. It covers seven storeys and its facilities include a golf range, a barbecue and a rooftop
garden.
At the ornate entrance, as elaborate as a Chinese temple, we're each issued with a pair of shorts and
a top, to be worn in the jjimjilbang areas where both sexes mingle. But before we explore that, we strip
off for a visit to the segregated sauna area.
The cavernous women's hall, which extends to a couple of outdoor areas, has saunas heated to
different temperatures, as well as an array of baths. Should we start with the Goryeo ginseng bath or
the natural rock seawater bath, filled with mineral-rich water pumped from a depth of 500 metres?
After trying a couple of options, we wallow in the full-body massage baths, where the push of a button
supplies relaxing jets of water along the length of your body.
Four of us are blissfully soaking up the bubbles when the jets suddenly turn off. To our distress, the
button is beyond reach. Will we actually have to get up to switch it back on? That would ruin the mood
completely. Fortunately, the woman next to me is clearly a regular. She lazily uses her foot to splash
water towards the button and the jets spring back to life.
Although some Westerners might find the compulsory nudity confronting, it's worth noting that
although I'm the only non-Korean in the baths, no one is interested in taking a peek - apart from my
friend Christina. She's long been amused by the differences between us - I'm almost a foot taller than
her and voluptuous where she is boyish. Now, as we both lie back in a warm bath, she gleefully says,
"Look at your feet. They are so big, mine are so small." I grudgingly agree that is the case.
"Look at your leg," she exclaims, picking up my left leg and waving it in the air. "Yours are so long,
mine are so short." I wait to see which body part she will focus on next.
"Look at your backside," she chortles. As I look at her, slightly gobsmacked, she chuckles, "So very
big", running her hand down my back. It's the length of my back she's talking about, not the padding
on my posterior. Thankfully, that conversation goes no further.
After an hour we're ready for more. Back in the locker room, we change into our jjimjilbang uniforms,
which are worn in the areas open to both sexes. We head downstairs, where the atmosphere is
decidedly mellow.
The lighting is pleasantly dim - the whole area has underfloor heating and it seems to be de rigeur to
stretch out wherever you like. In some places, groups of friends and family lie back and chat; in others,
lone sleepers catch up on much-needed shut-eye. We step carefully over their resting bodies as we
leave to inspect the range of heated rooms on offer.
The rooms don't just look good - each one serves a different purpose. The room lined in amethyst will
apparently improve blood circulation, the yellow mud room will help with digestive tract ailments and
the jade tiles will boost your metabolism.
These rooms will burn your feet too: regular visitors need to bring a pair of cotton socks for this
purpose.
Cotton socks are also necessary in the crystal salt room, where even the bricks are made of salt. To
get the full detoxing effect of the chamber, you spray water on a vinyl cloth, lie down on it and inhale
deeply, which encourages the salty air into your lungs.
While I'm enchanted by the jewel-like rooms, some of the most popular rooms are the simplest. The
popularity of the pine tree sweating room is perhaps understandable - it smells divine - but another
favourite is the oak-wood charcoal oven, which has four rooms, each heated to a different
temperature. The ceilings are disconcertingly low - I feel like a loaf of bread sliding into an oven - but
the warm air is pleasant on the skin.
The final stop before we hit the showers is the icehouse, where a snowman stands guard in the
corner. The cold temperature is designed to contract your pores, leaving you feeling and looking
healthy and glowing.
A whole afternoon has gone by and we've hardly begun to explore the delights of the jjimjilbang. We
haven't watched a video, had a massage or even had a meal at the food court. In consolation, we
each pick up a smoked egg on the way out - a traditional bathhouse treat. But one thing's certain: I'll
be back.
The spa Dragon Hill Spa, 40-713 Hangang-no 3-ga, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Phone + 82 2792 0001.
* Further information See www.visitseoul.net
http://www.theage.com.au
Eternal flame
November 13, 2008
John Burfitt visits some permanent reminders of the Games in cities that have played host.
…
Tokyo 1964
Many Australians recall the Tokyo Olympics as the moment Dawn Fraser made history by becoming
the first swimmer to win the same event in three consecutive Olympics. During the Games, she also
caused an international scandal when she stole a flag from the Japanese emperor's palace.
It was also the first time the Olympics had been held in Asia and for Tokyo, it was the Japanese
capital's entree back onto the world stage after the devastation of World War II.
The Olympic cauldron was lit by runner Yoshinori Sakai, who was born in Hiroshima on August 6,
1945 - the same day the world's first atomic bomb was dropped.
The Tokyo Games are fondly regarded by many Japanese for the healing bridge they created
between the past and future. Prince Chichibu Memorial Sports Museum in the Tokyo National
Stadium, the main venue for the '64 Games, features a range of medals, delegates' uniforms, relay
torches and the flags that hung throughout the streets of Tokyo.
The award-winning film Tokyo Olympiad, acclaimed as one of the best sports documentaries of all
time, screens at the museum, and follows the entire event from opening to closing ceremonies in vivid
detail.
Tokyo is hoping to recapture the modern Olympic spirit with its bid to host the 2016 Games.
Seoul 1988
The second Olympic Games held in Asia are now billed by South Koreans as, "one of the most
splendid moments in the 1000-year history of Korea."
While the Olympics saw East and West compete for the first time in 12 years after the boycotts of the
early '80s, it did little to unify the Korean peninsula, as North Korea boycotted the Seoul Games.
But the '88 Olympics did give South Korea the chance to show that the once-politically embattled
country had become a modern, gleaming city. And it hosted a sporting event which produced a
number of excellent performances, including gold-medal wins by Australians Debbie Flintoff-King in
hurdles and Duncan Armstrong in swimming.
The vast Seoul Olympic Museum in the city's Olympic Peace Park pays tribute to the '88 Games. Six
exhibition halls in the museum recall every chapter of Seoul's journey to host the Games and all 15
days of competition.
Place of Harmony hall screens broadcasts of the entire opening and closing ceremonies; Place of
Glory hall is an audio-visual feast with a commemorative movie and a special interactive film which
takes viewers into the middle of the stadium to see from new angles some famous sporting scenes
including dodging javelins thrown by the world's best.
Tokyo
The Prince Chichibu Memorial Sports Museum, National Stadium, 10-2 Kasumigaoka, Shinjuku-ku,
www.naash.go.jp/muse/index-en.html.
Seoul
Seoul Olympic Museum, 88 Bangi-dong, Songpa-gu, www.seoulolympicmuseum.com.
http://www.theage.com.aus
Art imitates life in high-tech Seoul
CHRISTINA PFEIFFER, November 13, 2008
There's everything for the sleek geek in this city's hotels, writes Christina Pfeiffer.
Seoul's booming luxury hotel market is being driven less by international visitors than by the city's 10
million technology-savvy residents. Many Koreans live in small apartments with extended family, so
inner-city weekends away are highly appealing.
To meet the demand, the five-star hotel chains, known here as super-deluxe, have colonised the city
in the past few years.
Some hotels are going to great lengths to create environments and services to attract tech-savvy city
dwellers. High-speed internet, flat-screen displays and fitness clubs equipped with the latest exercise
gear are becoming standard.
The Samsung-owned Shilla Hotel offers a mobile phone in every guest room (guests pay for calls)
among its high-tech refinements. Television volumes are linked to the in-room phones and
automatically decrease when the phones are engaged; bathroom lights brighten gradually (handy for
late-night visits) and toilets have an array of comfort features.
Wireless services extend to the hotel's sculpture garden. And there is an anti-ageing clinic offering
state-of-the-art programs in cluding genetic and heavy-metal contamination testing.
The JW Marriott Hotel's Marquis Thermal Spa and Fitness Club uses thermal spring waters drawn
from deep below its foundations. It has a rock-climbing wall and scuba diving pool among its workout
facilities.
Grand Hyatt Seoul's outdoor swimming pool is converted into an ice-skating rink each winter. Park
Hyatt Seoul is a 24-storey glass tower designed by Tokyo architectural firm Super Potato with in-room
accessories such as safes that are large enough to store and charge a laptop computer. The rooms
also have cordless phones, two phone lines and video on demand.
In a country where watching live TV on a mobile phone is a daily habit, online gaming is a professional
sport and social life revolves around internet parlours that sit on practically every street corner,
technology-based services in a luxury hotel are to be expected. But when it comes to marrying
contemporary design with cutting-edge technology, few have been as adventurous as W SeoulWalkerhill.
As you enter the foyer, the Woo Bar grabs your attention with its 18-metre-long bar, interactive artwork
displays, multimedia screens and a live DJ who broadcasts from a spaceship-shaped booth. Eggshaped chairs and black-clad waiters complete the scene.
The artwork throughout the hotel is original and interactive; it's perhaps a taste of the way new media
art may inhabit public spaces in the future. For example, I'm waiting for the lift to arrive on the ninth
floor when I realise that the screen on the wall in front of me has rearranged itself into a contemporary
block-mosaic that is an artistic but recognisable likeness of me.
Even the lifts are fun to ride in, with funky glowing gymnastic rings that hang from the ceiling and
constantly change colour. The main interactive artwork in the lobby is Wooden Mirror by New York
artist Daniel Rozin. It's a mechanical mirror that uses 1500 square wood tiles to portray the abstract
notion of digital pixels. The digital sensor in the centre detects external movement and reflects that
movement by tilting the individual pieces of wood to form an image.
The circular red-and-white bed in my Cool Corner room is not quite as soft and plush as I would like
but the striking decor and mind-boggling array of gadgets overwhelm the bed issue. My personal
technology centre is equipped with a range of video games, pre-programmed music and, of course,
wireless internet access.
There are two plasma sets: one of them is an enormous 127-centimetre display hooked up to a
surround-sound home theatre. The other is a smaller set in the bathroom that can be viewed while
soaking in the bright red bathtub.
When I'm bored with movies, I lie in bed sketching on a computerised drawing tablet and watch the
results of my creativity projected through the in-room computer system onto the plasma display. At the
flick of a switch, the automatic blinds and drapes slide open to reveal views of the Han River.
For those who find sleeping in such close proximity to technology overwhelming, there are several
categories of rooms, including the Wonderful room, which has a red-and-white colour scheme without
the overabundance of technology.
The more conventionally decorated Fabulous room is furnished in soothing shades of grey, white and
wood. The 237-square-metre Extreme Wow suite is enormous by South Korean standards, with a
gushing waterfall, three enormous plasma-screen TVs, a home-entertainment system and four-person
spa bath. Guests can press into service a 10-seat dining room with an illuminated floor that changes
colour, a kitchen and fully stocked wine cellar.
The rest of us dine more publicly at the hotel's two restaurants, Namu and Kitchen, designed by Tony
Chi from New York; he also created Glass Brasserie at the Sydney Hilton.
Namu serves contemporary Japanese cuisine in sections of the restaurant labelled Liquid, Ice, Action
and Fire. Liquid has wall-to-wall displays of sake and soju; Ice has a funky sushi bar; Action has busy
teppanyaki chefs; and Fire has twinkling views overlooking Seoul and the Han River. A simple meal of
pasta and wine for two in the cheapest restaurant, Kitchen, will set you back about $125.
Guests can bring small dogs and cats to this hotel, a move that is sure to appeal to Seoul's tech-savvy
pet lovers.
Pets receive a welcome pack full of toys, treats, a W Hotel pet tag and clean-up bags. Rooms are
equipped with pet beds, food bowls and pet floor mats. There are even special pet-in-room door signs
and bedtime treats are left for furry visitors at turndown each evening.
Christina Pfeiffer travelled courtesy of Korean Air, Shilla Hotel and W Seoul-Walkerhill.
FAST FACTS
Getting there: Korean Airlines flies to Seoul non-stop from Melbourne and Sydney for $1375. Asiana
Airlines flies non-stop from Melbourne (Qantas fare included to Sydney) for $1408 and Sydney for
$1358. Malaysia Airlines has a fare for $852 with a change of aircraft in Kuala Lumpur or fly with
Vietnam Airlines for $913 via a change of aircraft in Ho Chi Minh City. Thai flies via a change of aircraft
in Bangkok for $1127. (All fares are low-season return and do not include tax.)
Staying there: Shilla Hotel, rack rates from $370 a night. Phone +82 2 2233 3131 or see
www.shilla.net for seasonal specials.
W Seoul-Walkerhill, rack rates from $515 for a Wonderful room, $580 for Cool Corner rooms. The
Extreme Wow suite costs a whopping $8000 a night. Phone +82 2 465 2222 or see
www.starwoodhotels.com for seasonal specials. (Rates exclude 1 per cent VAT and 10 per cent
service charge.)
http://www.theage.com.au
Life in Seoul
November 13, 2008
Jo Hegerty discovers South Korea's enthralling and diverse annual festival, a mix of the old and new.
It may be children's day but the young boy looks very serious as an assistant dresses him in a heavy
orange robe. His father is sitting nearby, being fitted with fake facial hair and his sister is dressed
already, swathed in a red and green hanbok with gold embellishment. A female assistant in jeans
delicately balances a hairpiece on the girl's head and pins it in place. The young Korean boy can hear
the drums coming from the entrance to Gyeonghee Palace and is no doubt wondering when this
torture will end and he can go watch the taekwondo display.
In front of the palace, a crowd has gathered to watch a farmers' dance in which participants leap
around a square, defy dizziness by spinning long white ribbons attached to their hats while playing
traditional percussion instruments. Their maroon smocks with yellow, red and blue detail reflect the
colours of the ancient buildings behind them. More drummers follow; young men and women beat out
a heart-pounding rhythm.
Meanwhile, the taekwondo experts are limbering up for a breathtaking display set to the theme music
from Pirates Of The Caribbean. For a nation that has survived 900 invasions over its 5000-year
history, physical strength is important and this sport is hugely popular. Pollen floats through the air as
boys, girls, men and women line up to spin through the air and kick apples from knives, or smash
concrete with bare hands.
Behind the palace, less dramatic cultural pursuits are taking place: a doctor in traditional dress and a
horsehair hat takes the pulse of a little girl, analysing her health with ancient methodology; the young
boy is finally ready and he poses for a picture with his family in the spring garden; offerings are made
within the wooden walls of the brightly coloured rooms.
Activities such as this are taking place all over the city as part of the Hi Seoul Festival. For a week,
South Korea's rich and vibrant culture is on show with a diverse range of events, from break-dancing
and traditional music performances, to fashion parades and a sombre ancestral rite dating back 600
years. Seoul's beautifully restored palaces host re-enactments of folk games, military rites and even
punishments from the Royal Palace and at Namsan Hanok folk village, daily life of the Joseon dynasty
is acted out. Meanwhile, markets, music and street performances fill the streets of the capital.
Snaking across the south of the city, the mighty Hangang river sees plenty of action throughout the
festival too, including a lighted boat parade to get the festival underway, a pontoon bridge and, in
2007, the world's first high-wire championship in which tightrope walkers from nine countries compete
by crossing a one-kilometre stretch of rope suspended from towers 22-metres-high across the chilly
water.
As night falls in squares, stadiums and theatres around the city, cultural events, including a world DJ
festival and a non-verbal traditional performance, beat to a different drum. Combining Korean rhythms
with western comedy is the internationally acclaimed show Nanta, playing throughout the festival. This
high-energy performance - a bit like Stomp only with big knives and raw food involved - is an
impressive fusion of Korean traditional music and skill in a modern setting.
After the slapstick comedy of three cooks with a percussion habit, the Jongmyojerye royal ancestral
rite the following day is a more solemn affair. Both the shrine at the Royal Palace and the music of the
600-year-old ritual have been designated world cultural heritage by UNESCO and the annual event is
carried out despite the fact there's no royal family in the new republic of South Korea. Until 1969, the
Confucian rite was carried out five times a year, however there was a 20-year hiatus after liberation
from the Japanese. Today, descendants of the Joseon dynasty, the Jeonju Lees, are responsible for
performing the rite once a year in May. It's a slow, methodical ritual involving offerings to the
ancestors, preceded by a brilliantly colourful street procession.
Jongmyojerye marks the end of the Hi Seoul Festival and once the ritual has been completed we are
free to explore the palace grounds, a densely vegetated sprawl that feels far removed from the
skyscrapers that crowd the skyline. Seoul's rapid expansion and economic success have seen it
develop into a cosmopolitan city, but here in the Forbidden Garden within the ancient palace walls,
you can stroll along maple-shaded paths and rest in the pavilions dotted around the ponds.
Somewhere in the distance, louder than the hum of traffic, is the sound of drums as the Hi Seoul
Festival draws to a close.
http://www.asianewsnet.net
From historical landmark to commercial empire
The Korea Herald, 2004-12-07
From New York's Empire State Building to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, every cosmopolitan city has
historic landmarks that place it on the world map. These places are not just tourist attractions or
obsolete relics of the past; they continue to function as meeting points or symbolic markers that help
you find your way through the urban chaos of a city.
Although Seoul is on its way to being recognized as a cosmopolitan destination in Asia, it has few
stable historic landmarks to speak of. Buildings in Seoul seem more mobile than the city's inhabitants,
with new apartments going up and old ones coming down at the drop of a hat.
One of Seoul's few remaining historic landmarks is ironically, a building dedicated to mobility and
travel. Seoul Station and more generally, the country's railway system, has stood intact from Korea's
colonization period to its independence and democratization.
Despite being overtaken by more modern forms of transportation, the station, completed in 1925, has
survived. Few other 20th century buildings in Korea have been such emblematic fixtures in the
country's modern history. As a symbolic marker, protesters still gather in front of the old building for
demonstrations.
Yet recently, Seoul Station and other train depots have undergone large-scale transformations. An
enormous commercial and entertainment complex has settled next to the old stone and brick building,
heralding a new trend in train station development projects. Especially with KTX giving greater
attention to Korea's train systems, these former stopover points for travelers have become selfsustaining mini metropolises offering food, entertainment and shopping. Yongsan Station is another
place where a commercial complex has superseded the station in scale and function.
Why the sudden interest in revamping Seoul's train stations?
Changing face of city
Much of the renewed interest falls into line with the larger redevelopment schemes currently underway
in the city. With Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak's ambitious plans to breathe new life into economicallydepressed areas of the city and create more people-friendly, as opposed to automobile-friendly zones.
In recent years, Yongsan Station was known more as a red-light district than a cultural or
environmental attraction. Likewise, Seoul Station was not exactly considered a bright spot, and was
better known as a habitat for the homeless, with heavy car traffic preventing pedestrians from easy
access.
In contrast, there's a marked absence of itinerants in the mammoth glass and steel structure adjoining
the old Seoul Station building. The new section, which opened this summer, resembles an airport with
high glass ceilings and boarding terminals. Coffee shops, restaurants and a shopping center line the
inside. Construction alone on the new section cost 130 billion won.
Yongsan Station has undergone a more radical transformation. A commercial complex called „Space
9“ dwarfs the station, making it almost difficult to find. The multi-storey mall contains three central
shopping areas dedicated to electronics, food and fashion. The complex also has an E-Mart and CGV
movie theater.
Space 9 represents a new business trend underway between private corporations and the Korea
National Railroad. The Hyundai Station Development Company built Space 9 with the intention of
creating a nexus of culture, commerce and transportation. The name comes from the nine planets in
the solar system, with cosmic themes rampant throughout the space.
According to Yoo In-suk, professor of architecture history at Sungkyunkwan University, these
complexes benefit the construction companies in particular.
„If you look at the developers involved in train station renewal projects, such as Lotte, Hyundai,
Aekyung and Hanhwa they all have retail businesses as well. And after store hours, movie theaters
and restaurants are the only way you can fill up the space with people,“ he wrote in an e-mail.
The additions to Yongsan Station come as no surprise. In many ways, Space 9 is a harbinger of the
future image of the area. Mayor Lee plans to begin construction next year on a public park on the site
of the U.S. military base that would rival Manhattan's Central Park. A railway line connecting Yongsan
Station to Incheon International Airport is expected to be completed by 2008. The area around
Yongsan Station has already been seized as a real estate hotspot, if the craze earlier this year over
City Park is any indication.
Perhaps the scale of the two station's complexes is intended to suggest the amount of potential money
to be made. For both complexes are enormous, Space 9 in particular. According to Kim Hyun-bin of
Hyundai Construction, Space 9 is bigger than six soccer fields put together. The total area of Space 9
is 82,300 pyeong, making it three times larger than the new Seoul Station, and 10 times larger than
Lotte Department Store in the Euljiro area.
While these new complexes will perhaps attract more customers, retailers in the area are bound to feel
the crunch from such overbearing competition. Sellers in Yongsan's famous electronics market feel
ambivalent at best toward the new space, which has room for some 1,800 retailers in its electronics
section alone.
Chung Dong-yeon, who has been selling tteok (rice cakes) at a small stall in front of Seoul Station for
20 years, feels that business has been especially bad since the new complex opened.
„I used to be able to sell 10 of these a day,“ she said, holding up a bag of long tteok. „But since that
new building opened, I maybe sell two or three. But now, even during Chuseok, I don't have any
customers. And they won't let me move my stall in front of the new building. They would just kick me
out,“ she said.
Commerce, transportation and culture: a win-win?
Commerce and transportation have long been partners in a symbiotic relationship. But as culture
increasingly becomes the catchword among entrepreneurs and officials eager to develop the city, the
question remains where culture fits into the money-movement scheme. Does a shopping and
entertainment center inevitably spell culture? And is a commercial space enough to create a viable
community space?
At least, Yoo felt that these new station additions did not constitute real public meeting places.
„As public places where people could meet, (Seoul Station and Yongsan Station) played important
roles. People could meet up and find them easily amongst an area's confusing buildings and crowds.
But most of the „public meeting places“ at the stations today are namely expensive coffee shops and
restaurants renting commercial spaces where you can't stay for long. If they didn't have a sign marking
„meeting place“ over them, no one would have a reason to go there in the first place,“ wrote Yoo.
For now, the old Seoul Station, the site of meetings and greetings, lies empty and unused. Recently, a
proposal has been made to turn the building into a movie theater housing independent and art house
movies. The building would house three theaters with seating for 150, 70 and 100.
The culture and commercialism mix is not without its benefits. At least Jang Ok-rae, a resident of the
Yongsan area for 30 years, believes that the new train station development has brought benefits to
her neighborhood. On a Friday afternoon, she had stopped by Space 9 with her grandson, who was
playing in the backlit waterfall cascading down the steps of the station.
„The Yongsan neighborhood used to be dirty but now that this new building is here, it's better and
cleaner. It is really big, but at least it's here now and people are coming to the building. It even has an
E-Mart,“ she said, keeping a mindful watch over her grandson.
And what's his favorite part of the glistening new station?
„The water is the best part!“
http://www.iht.com/IHT/DK/00/dk033100.html
Hidden Charms: Beneath the Skin of a Bustling City
By Don Kirk International Herald Tribune, March 31, 2000
On just about any poll judging big Asian cities in terms of convenience or ease of communications,
Seoul ranks at or near the bottom. Foreigners don't come to Seoul for fun. If they have to visit, it's for
work or shopping, and both can be frustrating and expensive. Could it be that people are going to the
wrong places, missing out on what the city has to offer? Perhaps they are stymied by the language
barrier or just haven't read up on the unique appeal of the place.
Part of the problem no doubt reflects the historic opacity of Koreans when confronted by intrusive
foreigners. Then too, even when they try their best to market themselves, South Koreans suffer from
an inability to communicate the excitement of attractions ranging from commercial to cultural to scenic.
As a result of „globalization“ and „market opening,“ two expressions you'll get thoroughly tired of
hearing if you stay long enough, the city has exploded into a cosmopolitan center. Get used to the
jostling aggressiveness of people on the street or in traffic. Learn to brush off the cold shoulders
encountered in trying to penetrate business and society beyond superficial levels. Ultimately you'll find
diversity, bargains, charms, even conveniences, rivaling if not surpassing those of any other Asian
capital.
THE BUZZ What do the Internet, cell phones and Kosdaq have in common here? The same as
everywhere else: a new way to do business, the future of mass communications and a rocketing new
market of get-rich-quick success stories and not a few failures. The vitality is not just a phenomenon of
the soaring skyscrapers of the old city center or the securities firms clustered on Yoido, the long island
in the Han River that bisects the capital, or relatively new Kangnam, south of the river. It permeates
the city's streets and shopping districts.
The other topic on people's lips: the elections on April 13 for every seat in the National Assembly.
Amid in-fighting and deal-making, however, foreigners may soon weary of political gossip. Springtime
strikes and demonstrations may enliven the debate.
HOTELS The Grand Hyatt sits in majestic splendor on a shoulder of Namsan, the hill smack in the
middle of Seoul. The business center hums 24 hours on weekdays, until 10 P.M. on weekends; the
spacious lobby lounge offers tempting tea sets; the outdoor swimming pool turns into an ice rink in
winter; the tennis courts are great and the exercise room may be the best in the country. Downside?
The place is basically accessible only by taxi and is within a short walk of nowhere, except the upscale
residences and restaurants in the vicinity. Those who can afford the price of a room ($ 320, single
standard; $ 371, executive floors) don't mind, and they go by taxi anyway: 747-7 Hanam-dong,
Yongsan-gu; tel: (82-2) 797-1234; fax: (82-2) 798-6953; Web site: www.hyatt.com.
The Seoul Hilton, with the city's best business center and a pleasant lounge and nightclub, has
traditionally been another good bet, but it faces an uncertain future under new ownership: 395, 5ka,
Namdaemun-ro, Chung-gu; tel: (82-2) 753-7788; fax: (82-2) 754-2510; Web site: www.hilton.com.
All major hotels have business centers. They're the places to go for quick typing and fax services – as
well as cell-phone rental.
WHAT'S ON The opera house at the Seoul Arts Center, south of the Han River, often has shows with
English supertitles, but the voice on reservations (tel: 417-6272) speaks only in Korean. Get help from
your hotel business center. The Arts Center (tel: 580-1234, 580-1250) also offers regular concerts, as
does the Sejong Cultural Center (tel: 399-1512).
KEEPING UP The first editions of the two English-language dailies, the Korea Herald and the Korea
Times, hit the streets around 7 A.M. A number of magazines, mostly on business, are published in
English. Among the best are Business Korea and the Korea Economic Report, both monthlies. This
Week in Seoul, a freebie, lists events with times and places.
DINING Good food is everywhere. A great list is „Paul's Choice of 77 Restaurants in Seoul,“ by JohnPaul Yun, a 19-year-old Korean-American. L'Abri (tel: 739-8830), in the Kyobo Building, offers
carefully prepared French food in a city where foreign chefs battle to impart their knowledge to local
cooks. The restaurant features a lunch for less than $ 30, but you can go downstairs to Business Hall
(tel: 738-2563), under the same management, for a set-price lunch for about $ 10. At La Cantina (tel:
777-2579), on Ulchi-ro, opposite the Lotte Hotel, the pasta may be ersatz, but the service is great, the
atmosphere congenial. For a Korean-style vegetarian treat, try San Chon, 14 Kwanhun-dong,
Chongno-gu; tel: 735-0312.
SHOPPING Everyone will tell you to go to Itaewon, a swarming district of shops that will sell you
everything from suits tailored overnight to imitation antiques to brassware to wallets and boots made of
eelskin. The advantage of Itaewon is that most of the shopkeepers speak English, but you will do
better if you go with a Korean-speaking guide to Namdaemun, South Gate, or Tongdaemun, East
Gate, where some buildings feature night shopping from 10 P.M. to 5 A.M. For high-fashion,
Apkujong-dong and Myongdong rank high among Koreans. The windows may glitter with signs in
English, but inside the staff rarely speak anything other than Korean. For the most exquisite effusions
of Korean art and antiques, calligraphy and ceramics, stroll through Insa-dong, near the Kyongbok
Palace.
PUB-CRAWLING While in Itaewon, the place to meet is Gecko's Terrace (tel: 749-9425), 128-5
Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu. The prices are reasonable, the service good, the atmosphere loud.
For diversion, try the student area around Hongik University on the west side of the city. On a side
street is Macondo, a dive that pulsates to a Latin beat.
GETTING AWAY Seoul lies about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of a „demilitarized zone,“ on the
opposite side of which are more than a million North Korean troops. You can see a few of them up
close by taking a tour bus from any major hotel to Panmunjom, the site of the signing of the truce that
ended the Korean War. Panmunjom has been variously described as „Disneyland East,“ a Boy Scout
camp and a shopping mall. American GIs will brief and guide you while North Korean soldiers stare
from their side of the line.
WINDOW ON KOREA One of the fastest routes to absorbing the culture and sights is the Royal
Asiatic Society. Call Sue Bae, director, 763-9483, for word on walking trips and a schedule of lectures
on Korean life and society; it is inexpensive and enriching.
EXERCISE The fitness center at the Grand Hyatt is open only to hotel guests and members. But there
are alternatives. On the road that circles Namsan hill, visit Namsan Cheyookkwan (260-199 Itaewondong; tel: 795-0131). Another fine facility is the Health Palace in basement B1 of the Byucksan
Building, opposite Seoul Station (tel: 727-6200). At either place, you can soak up the hot and cold
baths, tee off into nets, dive into the pool and work the weights, all for about $ 10 a session; monthly
membership is about $ 240
LAPTOP REPAIR Electroland is one of Asia's greatest concentrations of everything electronic,
including repair services of all sorts. The trick is to find it. It's one enormous building, plus an annex
building, in Yongsan-gu, by the main line of the Korean railway system (tel: 701-8200, 707-4700;
annex: 707-4721).
ON THE WEB Check out the Seoul Tour homepage, www.seoultour.com; Seoul Metro site,
www.metro.seoul.kr; Korea National Tourist Organization, www.knto.or.kr; Korea Tourism Association,
www.koreatravel.or.kr.
http://www.perspektive89.com
Metacity Südkorea – Überall Stadt
von Nils Clauss, 24 Mai 2007
Trotz der Dezentralisierungspolitik der südkoreanischen Regierung seit den frühen sechziger Jahren
wuchs die Region in und um die Hauptstadt Seoul kontinuierlich. Inzwischen liegt die Einwohnerzahl
der Metropole bei 10,3 Millionen – das ist viermal mehr als zu Beginn der Maßnahmen. Ungeachtet
dessen versucht die Regierung seit 1980 mittels ihrer National Land Development Plans, neue
Stadtgründungen außerhalb dieser Region voranzutreiben. Dies gelingt ihr bedingt: Seoul und
Umgebung stehen, was die Bevölkerungszahl angeht, an dritter Stelle der weltweit größten
Metropolregionen – nur Tokio und Mexiko-Stadt sind noch (geringfügig) größer.
Insgesamt ist Südkorea, das auf Grund seines rasanten Wirtschaftswachstums zu den so genannten
„Tigerstaaten“ gehört, ein stark urbanisiertes Land: 80 Prozent der Bevölkerung leben in Städten, die
meisten davon im Seoul-Busan-Korridor. Hier liegen auch die größten Städte des Landes: Incheon
(2,5 Mio.), Daejeon (1,44 Mio.), Daegu (2,5 Mio.) und Busan (3,68 Mio.).
Seitdem der Hochgeschwindigkeitszug KTX im Jahr 2004 in Betrieb gegangen ist, braucht man für die
Strecke zwischen der nördlichsten (Seoul) und der südlichsten Großstadt (Busan) des Landes nur
noch zwei Stunden und 40 Minuten. Die Verbesserung von Infrastruktur und Verkehr, aber auch die
verhältnismäßig kleine Fläche des Landes (keine 100 Quadratkilometer) bei gleichzeitig starkem
Bevölkerungswachstum tragen zur hohen Verdichtung Südkoreas bei. Die Entwicklung des Landes
steuert auf eine Zukunft hin, in der die gesamte Halbinsel zu einer einzigen riesigen „Metacity“
zusammenwächst.
Spätestens hier haben sich traditionelle stadt- und landschaftsplanerische Konzepte der Trennung von
Stadt und Land überholt: Mit dem Ineinanderwachsen des urbanen Raums auf regionalem Maßstab
wird das Bild der kompakten Stadt, die sich gegen die Landschaft abgrenzt, obsolet. Die Landschaft
wird verstädtert, die Grenze zwischen urbanem und ländlichem Raum verwischt.
Die massive Suburbanisierung an den Rändern der großen Städte führt nicht nur zu deren
Vergrößerung, sondern macht die umgebende Landschaft zu etwas, was weder eindeutig städtisch
noch ländlich genannt werden kann. Mit dem Verlust der Landschaft geht gleichzeitig aber auch ein
Verlust der Stadt und ihrer zentralisierenden Funktion einher: Sie fließt quasi in die Landschaft hinein.
Mit der Verwandlung der gesamten südkoreanischen Halbinsel in eine Metacity wird die Hauptstadt
Seoul und ihre Region schließlich doch noch dezentralisiert.
Das Interesse am koreanischen Kino zog den norddeutschen Fotografen und Filmemacher Nils
Clauss (www.kotau.com), Jahrgang 1976, nach Seoul. Hier lebt er seit November 2005. Die
Fotografien entstanden innerhalb des letzten Jahres.
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr
NYT said “Seoul, a must-visit place in 2010”
01/11/2010
Seoul was number three on the list of “The 31 Places to Go in 2010” released by New York Times
(NYT). In its article on January 10th, the NYT introduced 31 places to visit in 2010 and put Seoul in the
third spot after Sri Lanka and Patagonia Wine Country.
The article, which started by saying, “Design aficionados are now heading to Seoul”, went on to say,
“They have been drawn by the Korean capital’s glammed-up cafes, restaurants, and immaculate art
galleries”. The article also said, “(Seoul has) monumental fashion palaces like the sprawling outpost of
Milan’s 10 Corso Como”
NYT said “Seoul, under its mayor, Oh Se-hoon, is now the 2010 World Design Capital” introducing a
relevant website (://wdc2010.seoul.go.kr) for this year’s events and exhibitions. Also, NYT
recommended its readers to visit the Third Annual Seoul Design Fair, a highlight of Seoul this year,
held from September 17th to October 7th.
Designating 2010 the “World Design Capital Seoul Year’, the city plans to hold 140 events this year,
inclusive of private-sector sponsored design events.
http://wdc2010.seoul.go.kr/eng/intro/wdc.jsp
While there are many awards that recognise individual accomplishments in design, the World Design
Capital™ (WDC) designation is unique as it aims to focus on the broader essence of design’s impact
on urban spaces, economies and citizens. The designation provides a distinctive opportunity for cities
to feature their accomplishments in attracting and promoting innovative design, as well as highlight
their successes in urban revitalisation strategies.
The City of Torino, Italy was been appointed World Design Capital for 2008. World Design Capital is
an initiative of the International Design Alliance (IDA) - a collaboration between the International
Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) and the International Council of Graphic Design
Associations (Icograda). Icsid manages the WDC project on behalf of the IDA.
The World Design Capital (WDC) competition is launched with the announcement at the WDC official
website by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) on behalf of the
International Design Alliance (IDA). Interested cities submit proposals, and WDC jury evaluates the
proposals based on predetermined set of criteria. All entries are reviewed and a short-list of cities is
determined by the WDC Jury, consist of internationally acclaimed designers and distinguished people.
During the evaluation process, each short-listed city is visited and the final selection is announced at
the subsequent Icsid World Design Congress.
International Cities Design Exhibition
In the competitive age of the 21st Century, design transforms a city into an attractive city while
creating culture and acts as the driving force for revitalizing the economy. Accordingly, many cities of
the world are placing significant interest in urban development through design. The 2010 World Design
Capital Seoul is planning to hold the International Design House Exhibition during the period of the
Seoul Design Olympiad in October 2010 to introduce the design trends of the world’s leading design
cities and to present the advanced case examples of design of participating cities. The International
Design House Exhibition will be a meaningful exhibition event in which the visitors will be able to
experience the uniqueness of each city through the comparative display of current and future urban
design and industrial design trend of participating cities under one roof.
In addition, a “_____ City Day” will be designated for each participating city and commemorative event
will be held. There will also be other events including seminars and presentation sessions for
presenting urban policy plans for each city and excellent design products. The International Design
House Exhibition will become a highly beneficial event for everyone, in which the participants will
share the best practices for the advancement of urban design and industrial design and exchange
diverse ideas.
http://travel.nytimes.com
July 20, 2008
Choice Tables | Seoul, South Korea: The Weird, Wild and, Ultimately, Sublime
By MATT GROSS
SOMETIME after midnight on a Sunday, the streets of the Myeongdong neighborhood in Seoul were
quiet and cold. The young shoppers who flit from Adidas to Tommy Hilfiger to Club Monaco had gone
home to study for December exams, and restaurant workers were setting barrels full of leftovers onto
the curb to be picked up by early-morning garbage trucks. The city was going to sleep.
But over near the subway station, in a little orange tent, or pojangmacha, a good night’s rest was on
no one’s mind, least of all mine. Inside, a semipermanent kitchen was working overtime, cranking out
hearty, salty, spicy dishes to warm the air and fill the bellies of the drinkers around plastic tables.
Behind me sat a pair of university students practicing Mandarin; to my left were hip-hop hipsters in
knee-length Nike parkas discussing, partly in English, how to pick up girls in Tokyo; before me, a man
in late middle age regaled a group of 20-somethings with stories and jokes. On every table stood
bottles, tall ones for beer and petite emerald ones for soju, the Korean spirit made from sweet
potatoes.
Suddenly, from one corner of the tent came a crash! Bodies and bottles tumbled to the ground, and for
a moment all conversation halted. One fallen tippler pulled himself back onto his stool, and a grimfaced waitress rushed over to wipe the blood from his head and bandage the wound. Then it was back
to normal. I sipped my beer and plunged my spoon into a bowl of kimchi jigae, a rich stew of pork, tofu
and kimchi, the pickled cabbage that is Korea’s national dish. I had been in Seoul 30 minutes, with
plans to eat my way through the city, and already, I felt, I was getting to the heart of things.
It was easier than I’d expected, but I’d been well-prepared, thanks to Korean cuisine’s ascendancy in
the United States. In Los Angeles and New York City, Korean barbecue has become an urbanite
comfort food on a level with dim sum and falafel.
In the last two years, South Korea has spawned one major trend overseas — Pinkberry, Red Mango
and other cheery frozen-yogurt parlors — and at least one minor one: the fried-chicken joint Bon Chon
Chicken, which arrived in Manhattan last year to much acclaim. Meanwhile, Momofuku’s David Chang
has rocketed to the top of best-chef lists, thanks in part to his clever reinterpretation of traditional
Korean dishes and ingredients.
To understand where these trends were coming from — and, I hoped, to discover the next ones — I
spent a week eating the weird and the wild, the tasty and the comforting, and, more than once, the
sublime. Oh, I also ate lots and lots of kimchi.
(If you don’t like kimchi, you might as well stop here. Everything comes with kimchi: spicy or mild, salty
or sour, crisp or soft, with mineral notes or the briny aroma of dried shrimp. The variations are endless,
but all have one thing in common: ubiquity.)
Let’s begin with the familiar: barbecue. There is perhaps no food more accessible, in any culture, than
meat grilled over an open flame, and in Seoul you can’t walk down a street, whether in the über-trendy
Apgujeong neighborhood or a grayer district like Dongdaemun, without inhaling the invigorating fumes
of charcoal fires.
Actually, those fumes can be a bit much — who wants to leave dinner smelling like arson? Thankfully,
there are solutions. When four friends and I arrived at Hongik Sootbul Kalbi, a barbecue spot in the
frantic dining-and-night-life zone near Hongik University (“Meat Street,” one friend called it), the first
thing our waitress did was hand over a huge garbage bag — for our coats, to protect them from the
smoke.
And boy was there smoke! It wafted up from dozens of small, round metal barbecue tables, turning the
air so opaque I could barely make out the enormous wall mural featuring caricatures of Korean
celebrities — and Michael Jackson. We clustered around a table, and soon the house specialty
arrived: chunks of well-marbled pork neck. (The restaurant’s owner was previously a butcher, a good
sign.) The meat came pargrilled, to cook faster, and my friends spread kimchi around the base of the
grill, where it slowly fried in the rendered pork fat.
Soon we were wrapping pork chunks in red-leaf lettuce leaves — along with spicy bean paste, shaved
scallions and kkaennip, an anise-flavored leaf, similar to Japanese shiso, that I found addictive. A
typically gleeful night out in Seoul, and we left with laundry-fresh outerwear.
This city, however, is home to electronics giants like Samsung and LG, so the same brilliant
engineering that goes into your 50-inch plasma TV and microscopic 3G cellphone is also directed at
the problem of barbecue smoke. Sariwon, a calm, family-friendly restaurant, employs special
extractors on its grills to keep the air perfectly clear. And yet high technology does not trump high
taste: Sariwon’s kalbi, or beef short ribs, were the most tender and succulent I ate in Seoul. Better yet,
Sariwon offered a lengthy wine list that mixed New and Old World bottles, and at reasonable prices (a
Gigondas cost 42,000 won, $41, at 1,050 won to the dollar.).
Wine, in fact, was Seoul’s trend du jour when I visited. Wine bars were popping up all over the city,
with some selling rare bottles, like the 1996 Romanée-Conti at Kabinett, in the expatriate-friendly
Itaewon neighborhood. It cost 4.5 million won.
“To be honest with you, Koreans just think that if it’s an expensive bottle, then it’s good — ’cause they
take a bottle and they drink it like a shot!” said Daniel Gray, who operates the SeoulEats.com food
blog and who accompanied me through many meals. “But it’s starting to get more refined. Now they’re
starting to learn the difference. They’re starting to say, ‘O.K., I’m going to enjoy this bottle, I’m going to
pair this with the right food.’ ”
The best place for serious pairings might be the Gaon, the city’s most refined Korean restaurant.
Unlike the barbecue pits and soju tents, the Gaon is studiously designed (by the Japanese architects
Super Potato), with one wall built from stacks of old newspapers, another of clear plastic cases holding
dried beans, and another that was a frenzy of glowing color bars.
The menu consisted of Korean classics, gussied up with premium ingredients and presented on
stunning custom ceramics. A tangle of radish kimchi came larded with fresh oysters. The haemool
pajun, one of my favorite Korean dishes, was a thicker-than-usual pancake chock-full of squid,
scallops and octopus. And the Gaon’s kimchi jigae put the pojangmacha version to shame. The flavor
was so pure and intense, the crimson broth so creamy, it reminded me of tomato soup (albeit one
whose depths hid rich, gelatinous nuggets of pig’s feet). For a moment, I wanted to ask the kitchen for
a grilled cheese sandwich.
This kitchen was traditionalist at heart, and such conservatism was common throughout Seoul, despite
the city’s self-styled sophistication. Restaurants advertised fusion cuisine, but simply served two
different kinds of food on a single plate. The phrase “well-being” had caught on as a trend, but it simply
meant adding green-tea powder to everything. Where were the kalbi hash and the kimchi huevos
rancheros? (Note to David Chang: Seoul needs Momofuku.)
For revolutionary food, one must hit the streets. At a stand in busy Myeongdong, I tried the tornado
potato, a single spud carved into a helix of starch, then skewered, deep-fried and sprinkled with salt
and powdered cheese — an Iron Chef-worthy innovation.
Just down the road was Balena, a storefront that whips up spaghetti with spicy chicken and steakstudded penne, and crams them into ice cream cones, to be eaten on the run with a fork. Balena might
not replace McDonald’s as a planet-dominating chain (indeed, the Myeongdong Balena has since
closed, though three other branches remain in Seoul), but I could easily imagine an outpost on St.
Marks Place, in Manhattan’s East Village, where it would nourish ravenous bar-hoppers.
The strangest thing I ate, however, was far from newfangled. It was at Noryangjin, a cavernous
marketplace that stocks virtually every creature in the oceans: stingrays, squids, oysters, snails, crabs
and a host of scaly, slimy organisms that I had no name for.
But at Jinnam, one of several restaurants on the market’s second floor, I knew the name of my lunch:
sannakji. Commonly referred to as live octopus, sannakji isn’t really alive, but the raw tentacles
writhing on the platter might lead you to think otherwise. Rather, it’s just some lingering
electrochemical reaction that causes those thin strands to curl, stretch and attach their suction cups to
your lips and gums as you try to ingest them. Rumor has it that people occasionally choke to death on
sannakji, but a quick dip in sesame oil keeps the suckers from adhering too tightly.
The most surprising thing about sannakji? It tasted good — clean and meaty — and once I’d gotten
over the discombobulation that comes from eating something that most definitely does not want to be
eaten, I was chopsticking tentacles into my mouth as if they were octo-popcorn.
But such extreme dining is mostly a sideline. More commonly, I ate at restaurants like New Andong
Zzimdak, which serves a single dish: boneless chicken pieces sautéed at your table with mung-bean
noodles, vegetables, and gochujang, a red-pepper paste that is to Korean cuisine what butter is to
French. This is easy food, slightly spicy, with an unexpected sweetness from caramelized gochujang.
Like most Korean food, it comes in massive quantities and is meant to be eaten by large groups of
friends (mine included Joe McPherson, who blogs about food at ZenKimchi.com), who pour one
another beer and soju and snip the long noodles with scissors.
Likewise, Myeongdong Kyoja is a no-brainer. Kalguksu is the primary delight here, a noodle soup
topped with ground chicken and pork wontons. So tender are the hand-cut noodles, so rich the
chicken-bone broth, I could eat it every day for the rest of my life, as long as I could also have an order
of mandoo, steamed pork dumplings that taste like a leaner version of Shanghai soup dumplings.
Promiscuous eaters should wander around Kwangchang Market, a covered zone of stalls serving
everything from bibimbap, the hot mix of rice and vegetables, to soondae, a blood sausage, to latkelike pancakes fried up before your eyes. Kimchi stalls offer samples of myriad chili-flecked varieties,
including one of kkaennip, the shiso-like leaf that was part of almost every meal, wrapped around
grilled meat or embedded in silver-dollar-size pajun.
For me, herbaceous, anise-y kkaennip came to symbolize authentic Korean flavor, and weeks later,
when I’d returned to New York, I asked for some one night at Kunjip, currently my favorite restaurant in
Koreatown. The waitress looked at me oddly, then shook her head. Then she smiled and ran to the
kitchen, returning with a “special kimchi” of crisp, juicy baby daikon. As I gobbled them up, I marveled
again at just how easy this was.
“Kkaennip” was a shibboleth, a password into the world of heretofore unknown herbs and nameless
crustaceans, of kimchi fried in pork fat, of hours-long meals with newfound friends — of all the
gustatory pleasures of Seoul.
BEYOND KIMCHI
Eating in Seoul is always a social event, so the prices below are based on tables of at least four,
drinks not included. Street addresses are rarely used; consult the restaurants’ Web sites, if available,
for maps or call for exact directions.
Balena, many locations around the city.
The Gaon, 631-23 Shinsa-dong, 82-2-3446-8411; www.aolda.com; 60,000 won a person, about $58,
at 1,050 won to the dollar.
Hongik Sootbul Kalbi, near Hongik University, 82-2-322-4487; 15,000 won a person.
Jinnam Sushi Restaurant, Noryangjin seafood market, 82-2-815-2732; 25,000 won a person.
Kabinett, 737-24 Hannam-dong, 82-2-790-7034, www.kabinett.co.kr.
Kwangchang Market is on Jongro-5, near the Cheonggycheon River. Snacks at the stalls there rarely
cost more than 10,000 won.
Myeongdong Kyoja, 25-2 Myeongdong-2, 82-2-776-5348, www.mdkj.co.kr; 6,000 won for kalguksu,
6,000 for mandoo.
New Andong Zzimdak, 24-17 Chongmoo-ro 1, 82-2-3789-6841; 10,000 won a person.
Sariwon, 1321-7 Seocho-dong, 82-2-3474-5005, www.sariwon.co.kr; 35,000 won a person.
http://travel.nytimes.com
May 26, 2002
What's Doing In Seoul
By DON KIRK
One of Asia's most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities, Seoul is sprucing up its shopping districts, streets
and parks as it prepares to play host for a month, along with Japan, to the World Cup 2002 soccer
finals. They open on Friday under the translucent roof of the new 65,881-seat Sangam World Cup
Stadium.
Gleaming new office towers and apartment blocks, rising above crowded back alleys of homes and
shops, have sprung up from the traditional downtown to ''south of the river'' -- the Han, whose
serpentine twists divide the older, central city from a newer enclave of corporate headquarters and
upscale hotels.
For visitors to Seoul, the language barrier can be daunting, as can the polluted air, the traffic jams and
the crowded subways. Cultural barriers exist, too, in a land where people for centuries have viewed
foreigners with suspicion. Since playing host to the Olympic Games in 1988, South Korea has opened
on a scale never imagined by the missionaries who called the entire land the Hermit Kingdom.
Events
Plenty of diversions come with the soccer. A fireworks festival will light the skies for an hour every
Saturday through June 22 beginning at 8 p.m. in the Riverside Park on Yoido (Yeouido), the legislative
and business center on the Han River. (Last year the government decreed new spellings for
romanization of names written in Hangul, the Korean lettering system. Customary old spellings are
given here, with the new versions in parentheses.)
On Thursday, at 1 p.m., 100 Boats of Peace will sail down the Han with foreign dignitaries aboard to
begin a celebration of Korea in World Cup Peace Park in front of the stadium. The festival opens at 6
with a choir of 200 children; at 8:55 a 2,002-member international choir will pick up the tempo with
traditional and popular songs, both Korean and foreign.
The real celebrations begin with the pregame ceremony, a 2,300-person spectacle focusing on
Korean culture, at 7:40 on Friday. The kickoff -- defending champion France versus Senegal -- is at
8:30. Giant public TV screens around the city will show all the action live over the next month from
stadiums in both Korea and Japan. Virtually every bar and disco will be tuning in, too.
For a schedule of matches and other information related to the World Cup, visit the official Web site at
www.fifaworldcup.com.
From Tuesday through June 5, the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, on Sejong-ro, the broad
avenue leading to the Kyongbuk (Gyeongbok) Palace in downtown Seoul, will present the Seoul Drum
Festival with 21 teams from abroad and 15 from Korea. Concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. and are free; (822) 399-1668.
From June 14 to 19, the Korea Cooks Association, (82-2) 733-6238 (9), fax (82-2) 722-6366, is
running Seoul International Food Expo 2002, featuring exhibitions of cuisines from around the world,
contests among chefs, professional and amateur, and cooking classes as well as a fashion show, folk
music and concert. It will happen in the COEX Pacific Hall south of the Han River in Kangnam
(Gangnam). Tickets $3; www.food-expo.or.kr.
Seoul's major theaters give non-stop presentations. The most ambitious all-around theater complexes
are the Sejong Center on Sejong-ro, (82-2) 399-1700, www.sejong.pac.or .kr, and the Seoul Arts
Center, (82-2) 580-1234, www.sac.or.kr, in Socho-dong near the Nambu Terminal. Tickets range from
$23 to $117 for most performances, including symphony orchestras, ballet and opera.
The National Theater, near the Tower Hotel on Namsan, (82-2) 2264-8448, www.ntok.go.kr, presents
Korean opera, dance and drama in three venues at prices ranging from $8 to $38. A new outdoor
theater opens in the same complex on June 11 with a Korean dance performance; the Chongdong
Theater, (82-2) 751-1500, www.chongdong.com, behind the Doksu (Deoksu) Palace, offers traditional
music and dance at 8 p.m. nightly except Monday, with tickets for $16 and $23.
On June 2, starting at 4 p.m., a model of the carriage used by royalty in the Chosun (Joseon) dynasty,
which ended with the onset of Japanese rule, will lead a procession from Kyongbuk Palace to the
Jongmyo Royal Shrine a mile or so away in commemoration of the monarchs who ruled for 600 years.
On Tuesday the Seoul Museum of History, (82-2) 730-2505, www.museum.seoul.kr, was scheduled to
open, with relics and artifacts of Seoul's 600-year history. The museum, the first dedicated to the city,
of brick, glass and stone in sweeping lines, is in Seodaemun in central Seoul, on Shimun-ro, near
Sejong-ro.
Sightseeing
Kyongbuk Palace, built in 1395, was destroyed by the Japanese in 1592, rebuilt in 1865, largely torn
down after the Japanese made Korea a colony in 1910 and restored over the past 12 years. Workmen
are scrambling to complete the restoration of the main throne room in time for the World Cup. Closed
Tuesday. Admission, 60 cents; (82-2) 732-1931.
To the left of the palace, on the same grounds, is the National Museum, www.museum.go.kr, a long,
single-story building. On view are a show of genre art depicting scenes of royalty and common folk
covering 5,000 years of Korean history, and one of Mongolian art. Closed Monday. Admission is 55
cents, with a free one-hour tour in English every afternoon at 2. Call (82-2) 398-5241 for information
about tours.
Behind the palace on the right, the National Folk Museum, (82-2) 734-1346, www.nfm.go.kr, is
modeled partly after the Bulguksa Temple in Kyongju (Gyeongju), center of the Shilla dynasty (57 B.C.
to A.D. 935). Three large exhibition halls depict traditional Korean life through history in elaborate
scenes, supplemented by paintings, farm implements and other artifacts. Closed Tuesdays.
Just outside the long palace wall, as you face it, runs Sagan-dong Street, lined with art galleries,
restaurants and coffee shops. The small museums and galleries in the neighborhood are worth
visiting. A place to start is the Art Sonje Center, (82-2) 733-8945, in Sokeuk-dong, about 200 yards off
Sagan-dong Street. The gallery displays mostly contemporary French art in a show called ''Less
Ordinary,'' with an emphasis on anything different in posters, videos and sculpture, until June 23.
The Kumho Museum of Art, in a rather severe concrete-and-stone building on Sagan-dong, (82-2)
720-5907, presents recitals in a small concert hall. Performances start at 7:30 p.m. several days a
week.
A mile or so to the east, down Yulgong-ro, lies the sprawling ''secret garden,'' playground of royalty on
the grounds of Changdok (Changdeok) Palace, (82-2) 762-9513, hidden behind another long wall.
English guides are available three times a day for 80-minute walks; admission $1.70; closed Monday.
Off the expansive City Hall Plaza, opposite City Hall, a huge stone-and-cement monstrosity built under
Japanese rule in the early 1920's, is the Doksu (Deoksu) Palace, (82-2) 771-9951. It includes the
Royal Museum, housing art and artifacts of royalty. Closed Mondays; admission 55 cents. In another
part of the complex is the National Museum of Contemporary Art, currently devoted entirely to 100
paintings by 20th-century Korean artists, (82-2) 779-5310, www.moca .go.kr; closed Monday.
Near the United States military base in Yongsan, near central Seoul, the War Memorial, (82-2) 7093096, displays equipment used in Korea's dynastic wars through the long confrontation between the
two Koreas. Attractions include suits of armor and a replica of one of the ironclad boats that turned
back a Japanese fleet in the 16th century. Closed Monday; $1.50.
Where to Stay
Hotels are raising their prices as the World Cup approaches, and they're likely to stay high through
summer.
Among mid-range hotels, the 145-room Best Western New Seoul, Taepyong-no, Jung Gu, (82-2) 7359071, fax (82-2) 735-6212, behind City Hall, charges $97, single or double, for an interior room with no
window; $111, single or double, for a view of nearby tall buildings and a back alley. Rooms were
renovated and modernized last year for an airier look, with large mirrors to give a window effect in the
windowless rooms.
Budget: Old-style Korean inns, called yogwan (yeogwan), are clean, safe and inexpensive. Yogwan
proliferate on the back streets of every neighborhood, and for $16 to $39 offer rooms with basic beds
or thin mattresses on the floor, as well as small individual bathrooms. Information: (82-2) 555-5555 or
www.worldinn.com. Among hundreds of yogwan, here are two worth sampling:
Gokung Hotel, Wonnam-dong, Chungno (Jongno) Gu, (82-2) 741-3831, in central Seoul near the
YMCA, has 50 rooms for $35.
The 45-room Kukje (Gukje) Hotel, (82-2) 552-5831, Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam Gu, south of the Han
River, is in front of the Renaissance Tourist Hotel. Rates: $27.
Luxury: The Westin Chosun, Sogong-dong, Jung Gu, 453 rooms, (82-2) 771-0500, fax (82-2) 7521443, www.echosunhotel.com, is on the site of the original Chosun, Seoul's first hotel, built in 1914. It
has an Irish-style basement pub, O'Kim's. Rooms are decorated in soft beige and browns; ask for one
overlooking the Temple of Heaven. Doubles, $304.
At the 683-room Seoul Hilton, (82-2) 753-7788, fax (82-2) 754-2510, www.hilton.co.kr, on
Namdaemun-ro, on a slope of Namsan overlooking Seoul Station and central Seoul, doubles begin at
$265. A terraced garden walkway in back offers respite from the rush.
Beside the COEX exhibition center are the 531-room Grand Inter-Continental, (82-2) 555-5656, fax
(82-2) 559-7990, and the newer, 653-room COEX Inter-Continental, Samseong-dong, Kangnam Gu,
(82-2) 3452-2500, fax (82-2) 3430-8000; visit www.seoul.interconti.com for both. The Grand charges
$333 and the COEX $300 for a traditionally furnished double.
Where to Eat
Among the most exquisite restaurants in Insadong, near the Kyonbuk Palace, is Min's Club, (82-2)
733-2966, offering fusion fare in a house built in 1936 in a combination of Korean and Japanese style
for a descendant of Queen Min, assassinated by Japanese conspirators in 1895. Dinner for two with
wine costs about $125.
Korea House, Pil-dong, (82-2) 2266-9101, www.koreahouse.or.kr, in the Chungmuro neighborhood
near Myongdong in central Seoul, presents a Korean dance show with a typical Korean dinner -- sure
to include rice and kimchi, a pungent pickled cabbage, as well as the traditional beef dishes, bulgogi
(barbecued) and kalbi (short ribs) -- in a building modeled after a nobleman's house of the 18th or 19th
century. The buffet is $47, and a three-course traditional Korean meal is $58 to $78, including the
show, at 7 and 8:50 nightly.
La Cantina, Da-dong, (82-2) 777-2579, one of Seoul's oldest meeting places, opened in 1965 in a
basement opposite the Lotte Hotel. It offers Italian style fare, with an emphasis on pasta. Lunch or
dinner for two with wine, $39.
The Soho, (82-2) 722-1999, in Sajik-dong, a few blocks west of the palace complex, serves French
and Italian dishes in an elegant setting downstairs from a small gallery of French art that includes a
Picasso and a Chagall. Oven-grilled chicken with Fontana cheese in red wine sauce is a specialty.
Dinner for two with a bottle of wine, about $125.
In Itaewon, the multiterraced Gecko's Garden, with outdoor seating for more than 100 people by
dimmed gas lanterns, (82-2) 790-0540, serves Continental cuisine for lunch and dinner at $27 to $35
without wine. The Sunday barbecue, seafood and beef, is worth a try. Cozy bars and a rooftop terrace
attract a yuppie crowd.
Photos: Subway station with posters of soccer stars; sculpture at the National Folk Museum; at the
Lotte department store. (Photographs by Choi Hang-Young for The New York Times) Chart: ''Vital
Statistics'' shows Seoul's population, weather conditions in June and rates for a hotel, dinner for one,
taxi and daily car rental Map of Seoul, South Korea
http://travel.nytimes.com
September 17, 1989
Palaces of the Yi Kings
By RICHARD HALLORAN; RICHARD HALLORAN, a correspondent in The Times's Washington
bureau, formerly covered Japan and Korea.
Correction Appended
THE ghosts of the Yi dynasty, whose kings ruled Korea from 1392 to 1910, still haunt the palaces of
Seoul,those oases of serenity amid the incessant motion and noise of this vibrant city. But the tranquil
halls and exquisite gardens, a refuge from the Hyundai cars and the purple and white buses that
rumble like elephants through the streets, mask a past rife with court intrigue, betrayal and war.
The Yi (pronounced ee) kings who built the palaces in Seoul reigned over the most intellectual period
in Korean history. In the capital then known as Hanyang, movable metal type was invented early in the
15th century. Shortly after, King Sejong fostered the spread of phonetic writing that made the Korean
language easier to grasp than the Chinese ideographs in which it had been written.These innovations
led to an outpouring of books on Confucian philosophy, history, art, medicine, music, agriculture,
mathematics, astronomy and military science.
Palaces in Korea, like those in China and Japan, are not single buildings as in Europe but vast
complexes with towering gates, imposing halls where the rulers received their ministers and generals
in audience, lavish living quarters and lovely gardens sprinkled with pagodas. The palaces of Hanyang
were modeled on those of China, with their tiled roofs and sweeping eaves, but were given a Korean
touch with their exteriors left in subdued ocher reds or natural wood and their interiors decorated with
intricate, bright ornamentation.
In the Kyongbok Palace, there were once 500 buildings within the walls. Today, the Ch'angdok Palace
with its adjacent Piwon, or Secret Garden, that was reserved for the king and his women, covers 180
acres. Add the Ch'anggyong Palace, a detached palace next to Ch'angdok, and the Chongmyo
Shrine, where tablets commemorating the Yi ancestors are kept, and the entire complex rivals the
Forbidden City in Beijing and the Imperial Palaces in Kyoto, Japan.
The palaces of Seoul are the only ones remaining in Korea, this city having been the capital for so
long. Another center of culture, however, is the city of Kyongju, in southeastern Korea, where the Silla
dynasty flourished from 661 until 935. Kyongju today is the site of Buddhist temples and the tombs of
kings that are being carefully excavated to yield the secrets and treasures of Silla. Between Silla and
Yi, the Koryo period was filled with strife, the Mongol invasion and war.
The Seoul palaces, burned in war and partly rebuilt several times, are, not surprisingly, a source of
national pride. On almost any given day, throngs of schoolchildren ranging from kindergarten through
high school can be found there.
Everywhere in the palaces are signs in Korean intended to nurture the deep-seated animosity toward
the Japanese who invaded the peninsula in the late 16th century (and were driven out after six years)
and who occupied Korea from 1905 until 1945. Signs in English remind visitors of the Korean enmity.
Perhaps the nearest analogy in the West is the Irish enmity for the English. Koreans now emulate the
Japanese in economic development but in their hearts, as in Irish hearts, are dark broodings about
their former colonial masters across a narrow sea.
Three of Seoul's four extant palaces are in the northern sector of the city, on the opposite side from
the site of the Olympic Games a year ago, with their backs to the jagged, rocky mountains that once
were a barrier against invaders from the north. As with most palaces in East Asia, they face south to
ward off the evil spirits thought to come from the northeast and, in the bitter Korean winter, to capture
the rays of the southern sun. The fourth palace, Toksu, is in the center of Seoul and is a pleasant
place to stroll but lacks the size and grandeur of the others.
The northern palaces, which are landmarks known to everyone in Seoul, are within walking distance of
one another and it is perhaps best to start with Kyongbok, the oldest. The palaces are open to the
public from 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. from spring to fall and close an hour earlier in winter. The visitor might
want to plan his trek around the times that Ch'angdok is open. Unlike the other palaces, in which one
may wander at leisure, Ch'angdok can be seen only on a guided tour. English- speaking guides
generally lead tours at 11:30 A.M., 1:30 and 3:30 P.M.
The Kyongbok Palace was built in 1392, a century before Columbus sailed to America, and was
burned by the Japanese warlord Hideyoshi in 1592. It then lay in ruins until 1865 when it was rebuilt.
Most of the palace buildings were torn down by the Japanese when they annexed Korea in 1910 and
what remained was blocked from view by the Japanese capitol erected on the southern edge of the
grounds in 1926. Kyongbok was again damaged during the Korean War (1950 to 1953) when
American and South Korean forces fought twice with Chinese and North Korean troops over the city.
IN the 1960's, as South Korea got back on its feet, the Government began to restore Kyongbok. The
main gate, called Kwangwha-mun, was reconstructed in front of the capitol in 1969 so that it would
dominate a broad avenue through the center of the city - and hide the capitol built by the Japanese.
Government offices were moved in 1983 to convert the capitol building to a museum, which was
opened in 1986. Though the gate was reconstructed, much of the palace is original and the restoration
retains the site's ancient atmosphere.
Within the palace grounds, the main audience hall, called Kunjong-jon, may best be seen from the
edge of the flagstone courtyard to its front. With the jagged mountains as a backdrop, the view is
stunning.
Perhaps the loveliest spot is the pavilion called Kyonghoe-ru, or the Pavilion of Joyous Meeting, an
open structure whose tiled roof and eaves rest atop 48 pillars. Sitting beside a calm reflecting pool, the
pavilion was the scene of receptions for foreign envoys or sometimes dissolute court parties during the
Yi dynasty.
The pavilion is also the scene of official receptions in modern times. One summer evening in the
1970's a retired South Korean general stood in a corner of the pavilion when, in one of those rare
moments of amity between South and North, a North Korean delegation was being entertained. The
general, who had fought as an infantry commander in the Korean War, said: ''I tell you, I never thought
I'd see this, when we welcomed North Koreans here.'' He sighed: ''Well, I guess it's better than
bullets.''
In the back of the palace grounds is the National Folklore Museum. It provides an excellent
introduction into Korean life in the 19th century with vivid displays of Buddhist, shaman and Confucian
rituals and of houses, living and farming tools, pottery and artwork.
The National Museum of Korea, housing 90,000 items in the northeast quadrant of the palace
grounds, was closed recently for remodeling but the new museum in the former capitol building, has a
splendid collection of 7,500 pieces from ancient and medieval Korea.
Two exhibits stand out. In one large room are Buddhist statues, including several of Maitreya, the god
or goddess of mercy and healing. Art historians have not decided whether Maitreya is male or female
but the gentle, graceful lines bring peace and serenity to the viewer's soul.
In another room is a trove selected from 22,000 Chinese ceramics of the 14th century found off the
southwest coast of Korea in 1975. After a fisherman snagged seven pieces in his net, the Korean
Government sent divers to find a sunken ship. From that came vases, dishes, statuary, bowls, incense
burners and pitchers, some in delicate shades of green celadon, others in white porcelain or black
glaze, still more with silver or bronze glazes or bluish tints.
About four short city blocks to the east of Kyongbok is Ch'angdok, built in 1405 as a detached palace.
After both were burned by Japanese invaders in 1592, Ch'angdok was rebuilt in 1611 to become the
main palace. It is the best restored of the palaces but, unhappily, cannot be seen at leisure as the
authorities apparently fear vandalism. Guides help visitors find the way through the maze of halls,
living quarters and private courtyards but they intrude on the sensibilities by dispensing information
through a bullhorn.
In the courtyard outside the main audience hall, called Injong-jon, are tablets to the right and left of the
raised walkway marking the ranks of ministers and generals as they awaited a summons from the
king. Visitors cannot enter the hall but the ornate interior can been seen from the front door. Centered
along the back wall is a raised throne behind which stands a screen on which are painted five
mountain peaks to symbolize, in Confucian lore, the five happinesses, the five elements or the five
points of the compass, the fifth being the center where stands the king. Overhead is an intricately
inlaid ceiling, three stories high, of gold and red.
Perhaps the nicest part of Ch'angdok is the stroll through the quiet courtyards and, if one wanders a
bit from the tour group, sensing the secluded life of the palace. That is especially true in the adjacent
Piwon, or Secret Garden. Lush with pines and maples and cherry blossoms, flowers that bloom in
different seasons, filled with flowing streams and lotus ponds and small pavilions where the kings and
their women idled a pleasant afternoon, the Secret Garden is perhaps the ultimate escape. But the
gardens can also be instructive as, in one corner, the home of a well-to-do commoner has been
erected to give some idea of life outside the walls.
NEXT to Ch'angdok and Piwon is the Ch'anggyong Palace, also once a detached palace. The main
audience hall, Myongjong, escaped destruction during the Japanese invasion of 1592 and survives
today as the oldest of those Yi dynasty chambers. Like the others, it is very ornate. The rest of the
palace grounds are much like those of others but, with a large pond, seem more relaxed than those of
Kyongbok or Ch'angdok, a place for picnicking on Sunday afternoon or for taking the kids on an
outing. It differs from the other palaces in that the audience hall and main gate face east instead of
south in what may have been a touch of cultural independence from China.
Finally, just southeast of Ch'angdok is the Chongmyo shrine in which are preserved in stone tablets
the memory of the kings and queens of the Yi dynasty. The shrine was originally part of Ch'angdok but
Japanese occupiers built a road through the grounds in 1932. There is not much to see in the shrine,
except the simple stone tributes to rulers that are housed in two halls. On the first Sunday of May
every year, the Yi Dynasty Association honors rulers of the 500-year reign by reenacting a highly
stylized ceremony of wine drinking, music and chants and elaborate liturgies for the dead.
But the mood of Chongmyo is worth experiencing. On the rare day when Chongmyo has few visitors,
an eerie lull settles on the secluded grounds. A rustle of leaves in the wind sounds remarkably like the
skirt of royal gown brushing along the stone courtyard and the slam of a distant car door sounds like a
muffled cough. As one turns to look, a slight movement from another corner of the grounds catches
the eye and there is an uncanny feeling of being watched by an ancient spirit.
The restored 14th-century Kyongbok Palace in Seoul. (Pam Hasegawa/Taurus)
http://travel.nytimes.com
May 10, 1987
SHOPPER'S WORLD; JEWELRY, GEMS AND JADE OF SEOUL
By GWIN CHIN; GWIN CHIN works in the Arts & Leisure section of The New York Times.
South Korea has been a treasure-trove of purple amethyst, smoky topaz and white jade for centuries.
This rugged, mountainous country continues to mine semiprecious stones in a wide range of colors,
and the stones are sold in the many jewelry shops and underground arcades in the capital city of
Seoul.
The most popular native gemstone is jade, which in the East is believed to bring peace and tranquillity
to the wearer. Pale, white jade is mined at Yongwol, near Mount Sorak on the northeastern coast,
while the more valuable green jade is imported from China and other parts of Asia.
Another popular stone is amethyst, a quartz crystal, found in many shades of purple (the deeper the
purple, the higher the price). The Cheil Mining Company, a large amethyst mine in Yongyang, is busily
paving the road from Seoul and building tourist facilities, which will be opened in June 1988, in time for
the Summer Olympic Games. Arrangements can be made to visit the Cheil Mine - the only one open
to the public -through its Seoul office (778-2212) or through the tourist offices in any of the downtown
hotels. (The area code in Seoul is 2.) The least expensive semiprecious stone is smoky topaz. The
colors range from amber to dark brown, and again, the deeper the color, the better the quality. Most of
the amethyst and smoky topaz mines are in Unyang, near the ancient city of Kyongju.
Travelers to South Korea can find all sizes and shapes of these native gems for reasonable prices,
and if you can't find a style of jewelry for a favorite stone, many shops will create a piece of your own
design. The price of the design will be determined by the quality and size of the stone and the weight
of the gold or silver setting.
Macrame jewelry - elaborately handknotted pieces, some made to order - is very much a traditional
Korean craft. Many jewelers are skilled in creating necklaces, traditionally made out of silk cord
decorated with different shapes and sizes of gemstones woven into the macrame with one large
carved stone in the center. At Jeil Mool Sang Company (15-12 Yoido-dong, Yongdungp'o-ku, Seoul), a
36-inch necklace of four half-inch white jade cubes with a four-inch oval-shaped centerpiece sells for
$55.
In Seoul, there are seemingly countless numbers of jewelry stores. However, before embarking on a
gemstone excursion, visit several jewelers in the luxury hotels and underground shopping arcades.
Prices will be higher in the hotels and arcades, but one can find top quality unworked and set stones,
as well as unusual designs. Each shop will offer its own distinctive creations, and the quality is
guaranteed. Shoppers can ask for a written guarantee, but in a place very removed from the world of
caveat emptor, a spoken guarantee is usually sufficient.
A browse through the Edoile, for example, in the arcade of the Westin Chosun Hotel (87 Sokong-dong,
Chung-ku), reveals several display cases filled with white carved jade in pendants, brooches,
bracelets and earrings, and in classic luminous bead necklaces. The average price for an opera-length
(36 inches) strand of matching white jade beads is $125.
At the Lotte Hotel Jewelers (1 Sokong-dong, Chung-ku), there is a large display of amethysts. A pair of
deep purple amethyst earrings set in a handmade 14-karat gold design is $55. Pear-shaped smoky
topaz earrings, dangling from 14-karat gold balls, sell for $35.
Visit at least one of the major department stores; all are in the downtown area. Try the city's largest the 10-story Lotte Department Store, or the nearby Midopa or Shinsegae department stores. Their
prices are comparable with those in the hotel shops. At Lotte, the price for a woman's deep purple
amethyst ring set in 14-karat gold, starts at $100. An opera-length silk macrame necklace of five white
jade beads sells for $80. A woman's topaz and gold ring costs $35.
In recent years, miles of underground arcades have been built in downtown Seoul -the tiny nation's
version of shopping centers. This network of arcades, connected to subway entrances, is always
crowded, but the tunnels are clean, attractive and very safe.
The Golden House, Sogong Underground Arcade Store No. 35, is one of dozens of reputable jewelers
in a passageway that is easily accessible and connected to the Westin Chosun, Lotte and the Seoul
Plaza hotels. Prices are more reasonable in the arcade than in the hotel shops. A pair of topaz
earrings, set in 14-karat gold, starts at $18. The lowest price for a 30-inch white jade necklace is $30.
If you have time, stop at the gemstone factory (Cheil Mining Company, 87 Sogong-dong; 778-2212),
on the street-level side of the Bando Chosun Arcade, right next door to Wendy's. Prices are slightly
lower than those at the hotel shops. There is a wide range of macrame necklaces in many colors of
silk cord decorated with all shapes and sizes of stones. Prices vary from $40 to $100. Amethyst rings,
set in white or yellow gold, are priced from $55 to $300.
There is one area that is a must for shoppers: Itaewon. On one long street lined with hundreds of
vendors and cramped with big and tiny shops, Itaewon is one of the most international areas in Seoul.
Popularized by American soldiers stationed at the Yongsan Army Base down the road, just 10 minutes
from downtown, the main street is lined with a wide variety of shops, restaurants and entertainment
spots.
For shoppers who are more interested in the decoration than the quality of jewelry, Itaewon will be well
worth a day's visit. And, unlike hotels, department stores and large arcades, shoppers can haggle over
prices (sales people all speak English). There are several large arcades of jewelry dealers along the
Itaewonno, and one can comparison shop from counter to counter. The merchandise is similar at each
counter, but one can get an average of 10 percent off from the stalls at the end of the arcade.
The quality of the gemstones may not equal that of other shopping areas, but prices will be at least 50
percent less for similar designs. At the You Young (128-5 Itaewon), prices for necklaces of white jade
range from $6 to $100. At the Maya Jewelry Shop (85-5 Itaewon), a smoky topaz ring averages $12.
One can find a wide variety of white jade bead chokers for $20 with matching stud earrings for $10. A
carved white jade brooch, set in gold filigree, is $25.
For visitors who want to be sure their semiprecious stone is worth its purchase price, there are several
gem appraisers in Seoul. Most shop owners will give a refund or an exchange if you have paid more
than its appraised value, but be sure to discuss the refund policy with the jeweler and save the sales
slip. Here are three leading appraisers. The street (dong) addresses are followed by districts (ku).
http://travel.nytimes.com
October 22, 2000
FRUGAL TRAVELER; Shopping the Mall Called Seoul
By DAISANN McLANE
Correction Appended
I'M proud of my shopping chops, honed in New Jersey bargain-basement sales, further sharpened on
Orchard Street on the Lower East Side and buffed to a fine polish in the open-air markets of Southeast
Asia. But there was a moment, during my visit to Seoul in September, when I realized that as a
shopper I was still a lightweight. For Seoul is the World Series, the Indy 500, the Olympics of
commerce. Even the main downtown business streets teem with sidewalk vendors hawking things I
never realized I needed until that instant: Hello Kitty inflatable chairs, matchbox-size cell phones on
neck chains, bags of French-fried yams, stuffed toy rabbits, live rabbits.
Seoul's subways provide no break from the buy-and-sell throb; indeed, there's one shopping arcade
that stretches through nearly a half mile of the underground corridors. (And if you run out of cash,
there's usually an A.T.M. right by the subway turnstile.) The intensity level of Seoul's trading is
dizzying: imagine the New York Mercantile Exchange suddenly expanding to 18 million people and
declaring itself a city. For six days I wandered and shopped, got lost and energized on Seoul's
supercharged entrepreneurial streets. And when overload set in, I escaped to centuries-old palaces
and shrines that coexist with Seoul's hubbub.
Usually, when I am about to travel to a new place, I have some idea of what to expect -- images from
guidebooks, popular culture and the arts, or from friends who have traveled there previously. But
Seoul proved a difficult research subject. Korea has been in the headlines frequently in the past year,
including the announcement on Oct. 13 that President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea had won the
Nobel Peace Prize. South Korea and Japan have been trying to heal old wounds through diplomacy,
and emotional reunions between North and South Korean families were taking place as I was packing
for my trip.
But current events and tourism don't always converge. The most up-to-date guidebook on Korea that I
could find, the Lonely Planet, was published in 1997. The publisher's 1999 guidebook to Seoul is an
expansion of the text of the older Korea book, with few updates. Fodor's and Frommer's didn't even
have updated Korea guides in print. I was puzzled by the paucity of tourist information on a city that is
the original home of so many Americans -- in New York City, not a day goes by in which I don't speak
to someone Korean. It also suggested that tourists had yet to discover Seoul, which made it even
more intriguing for me.
Since the range of guidebooks was thin, I called the office of the Korean National Tourism
Organization in Fort Lee, N.J., and asked for information. In a few days, there was a fat package in my
mailbox with good maps, some handbooks and a booklet with lists of phone numbers (but no fax
numbers) of South Korean budget inns, called yogwan. The yogwan are the Korean version of the
Japanese budget hotels and family inns. Prices at the Seoul yogwan listed in the tourist organization's
booklet ranged from $15 to $40 a night.
Because there were no fax numbers for reservations, and the descriptions of each yogwan were
sketchy, I decided to wait until arriving in Seoul to choose my budget hotel. For the first few days, I'd
coddle my jet-lagged self in a Western-style hotel -- in this case, the Sofitel Ambassador. This hotel
has a rack rate of $220, before taxes (10 percent in Seoul). But over the Internet, I found a Seoulbased hotel discounter, Business Associates, that booked me into the Sofitel for $152.56, taxes
included. When booking hotels in Asian cities, Asian-based Internet services like this one, and
www.asiatravel.com, are a terrific resource for those who might not otherwise be able to afford a midrange or deluxe hotel.
Outside the window of my 15th-floor room at the Sofitel I could see green hills; Seoul is nestled in a
ring of mountains, on a site where the capital city of the Choson Dynasty was established in 1392.
Skyscrapers were wrapped in twinkling lights of pink, blue and yellow that blinked in rhythmic patterns
as twilight approached, and made the buildings seem like oversize Christmas trees.
I took a short stroll outside the hotel, which is close to Dongguk University, and felt immediate culture
shock. It seemed as if every surface of every building was covered with lighted billboards and printed
information, but in an alphabet (Hangul) that I couldn't decipher. English, where it appeared, was
sprinkled lightly over the Hangul like a condiment. I saw no street signs, and I didn't bother looking for
building numbers, since I knew that South Korea used the Japanese system of addresses, which
divides space into sectors and districts, and numbers buildings by age, not their location.
I went back to the Sofitel and soaked my culture shock away in their ladies' sauna and spa; the hot
bath is central to Korean culture, and most big Seoul hotels have one. It melts jet lag faster than any
other system or herbal tonic I've tried. The next day, restored by hot water and steam, I was ready to
tackle Seoul's challenging streets.
First stop, the Seoul subway. Although the ticket seller didn't speak English, it was easy to
communicate that I wanted a multiple-use pass -- at $9 it contained about 20 trips, enough to cover my
whole stay. The trains are clean, with red plush velvet seats, and the system is well signed in Hangul
and English. If you ride to the end of a line, a recording plays a snatch of Chopin.
My second Seoul strategy I'd put in motion before leaving New York, by contacting everyone I knew to
be put in touch with a Korean friend. Soon I was trading e-mail messages with Alice Choy, a close
friend of my former landlords, who also happened to be a former high school classmate of a friend of
mine. Alice is an architect who oversees the Seoul Jazz Academy, which was founded by her mother,
one of Korea's first jazz singers. Alice suggested I explore the neighborhood around Insadong Street,
in the heart of Seoul.
And so, early on a Sunday morning, I took the subway out to Tapgol Park, a little oasis where elderly
Koreans, some in traditional dress, meet to chat and play checkers. Strolling across the park, I came
out onto Insadong, a narrow street lined with art galleries and antique shops selling Korean furniture,
celadon pottery, calligraphy brushes, and traditional Korean dresses, hanboks. Among the traditional
crafts and antiques lurked the odd vendor selling stuffed bunnies and mini cell phones. The
merchandise spilled out onto the street, which was closed to traffic.
This was Insadong, heart of Seoul's cultural bohemia. I cruised along, stopping to listen to a band that
had set up a stage and was playing Korean folk tunes. Two men in the crowd started to dance,
spontaneously. I decided, right then, that I wanted to find a place to stay nearby.
And so for the rest of the afternoon, with the tourism organization's guide and the Lonely Planet in
hand, I conducted my yogwan hunt. When I stopped in the first, the Minhwa, which had been given top
marks by Lonely Planet, I was glad I was inspecting in person. The owner wasn't around, but one of
the guests, a young Korean man who spoke a little English, let me see his room: a tiny square of
linoleum with no window, and a Korean futon as thin as a quilt.
The bathrooms were communal. ''Not so clean,'' he said. ''Clean enough for me, I guess. By the way,
be careful, because some of the yogwan are for men and prostitutes.''
With those encouraging words, I poked around a few more yogwan, and had almost given up on the
idea of moving to one when I stumbled across the Han Hung Jang, on a lane a few steps off Insadong.
The elderly woman in charge didn't speak English, but she understood what I wanted, and grabbed my
hand and pulled me upstairs to show me a room.
Tiny and clean, it had a double Western-style bed with a good firm mattress, a tiny window, airconditioner, a little bathroom and cable TV. I rely on instinct a lot when choosing places to stay, and
this place felt friendly. I took the room (about $23 a night) and was quite happy there for the next three
days.
I spent them browsing the cafes of Insadong (my favorite was the Artside, a sleek SoHo-like space
that served delicious plum-flavored tea), sampling the Korean restaurants along the strip (Alice
steered me to Imo Jip, which means Auntie's House), and, of course, shopping.
The tourism organization's list of Seoul's attractions can almost be divided down the middle into two
categories: palaces and markets. I happily bounced between both ancient and modern Seoul, first
tackling the huge street market at Namdaemun, where I found a cool Korean-made hot pink hiking
parka made of a quick-drying fiber for $40, then ducking into the subway and emerging at the
Deoksugung Palace in time to catch the changing of the palace guard -- and some happy couples
having wedding pictures taken against the backdrop of the impressive 15th-century wooden mansions.
One day I took a subway ride to the end of the line, and then a bus, to the suburb of Suwon, and the
Korean Folk Village, a Williamsburg-like enclave where guides in traditional clothes demonstrate
village crafts and dancing. While such places often feel strained or touristy, this didn't, perhaps
because the guides live in the village. Along with a hundred or so schoolchildren (the village is Class
Trip Central), I cheered as a dozen young men leapt and turned cartwheels in a folk dance.
ANOTHER morning I strolled in the serene gardens of Changgyeonggung Palace, which connect to
Jongmyo Royal Shrine, where the burial tablets of Korea's kings are housed in a huge, spare wooden
building surrounded by a vast courtyard; Alice had recommended Jongmyo as an example of Korean
architectural aesthetics. Fast-forwarding to the 21st century (courtesy of Seoul's zippy subway), I hit
the Yongsan Electronics Market, a district filled with warehouse-size buildings where thousands of
small vendors sell computers, chips, music equipment, televisions and the latest models of Walkmans,
mini-TV's and MP players. It's a dizzy, giddy maze of shops in which prices are highly negotiable. For
$100, I walked home with a shiny new silver-blue cassette player unlike any I'd seen at home.
In the basement of Doosan Tower, a gleaming silver skyscraper financed, astonishingly, by a
cooperative of market-stall vendors, Seoul shopping overload finally began to set in. Would I be
consumed with regret if I didn't buy the North Face backpack or the Hello Kitty Walkman earphones?
Around me cell phones bleeped the chorus of ''Happy Birthday to You.'' I felt dizzy, and decided I
needed to change gears -- perhaps an afternoon at a museum?
At the airport, I'd seen banners advertising ''Media City Seoul 2000,'' a huge exposition of video and
cyber-art installations from around the world at the Metropolitan Museum downtown. (It closes at the
end of this month but is planned as a biennial, returning in 2002.) I was greeted at the museum by a
phalanx of volunteers, one of whom became my personal guide as I walked through three buildings
filled with installations, many of them interactive.
My young guide didn't speak English, but he could show me which buttons to push, which lights to
wave my hand over, and which sensors to jump on to make the lights flash on and off, the computer
speakers go blap and bleep. We finished by dueling on a virtual cybergame in which I moved my
hands and feet, like a kung fu practitioner, to control the hands and feet of an on-screen Wonder
Woman. Wonder Woman, I'm sorry to say, was no match for her more cyberseasoned foe. She
limped, embarrassed and defeated, back to the main museum building, to take one more look at the
Nam June Paik installation at the entrance.
A collage of cultures, Korean and global, and of elements traditional and postmodern, the installation
was lighted by garish fluourescent bulbs, with a bank of television sets that ran a continuous tape of a
documentary of traditional Korean folkways. Paik created the ultimate Seoul market stall -- topped off
with a counter display of inexpensive push-up bras and underwear. If someone had set this up in
Namdaemun market, instead of in a museum, passers-by would probably just hover around and poke,
idly, at the merchandise.
Inspired by Nam June Paik's tribute to the enterprising energy of Seoul, I returned, refreshed, to
shopping.
The bottom line on shopping's major league
I spent about $114 a day during six days and nights in Seoul on hotels, meals, local transit and
admission fees. I bought a Korean Air ticket from New York to Seoul with a side trip to Hong Kong
from a discount ticket broker, Air Brokers International, (800) 883-3273, for $1,192.30.
Hotels
The Sofitel Ambassador, 186-54, 2-ga, Changchung-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, phone (82-2) 2275-1101,
fax (82-2) 2272-0773, Web site ambassadors
.co.kr/sofitel/main1.htm, is a Western-style hotel with amenities like marble bathrooms with hair dryers
and a well-equipped fitness center, and an attentive staff. A major attraction is the Korean-style baths,
consisting of a heated tub of water, sauna, steam room and washing area (separate baths for men
and women). The rack rate is $220; I paid $152.56 through a Korean travel agency on the Web,
Business Network Ltd. (andyou.com). That price includes tax and reflects an additional 10 percent
discount because I booked three weeks ahead.
At Han Hung Jang, 99 Kwanhun-dong, Jongro-ku, Seoul, (82-2) 734-4265, a yogwan, or no-frills
guesthouse, my tiny room with double bed and private bath cost $22.75 a night, at 1,100 won to $1.
Restaurants
I spent a total of $114 on meals, but for enough food to easily feed another person (or two). Six to
eight free side dishes -- kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage), vegetables, marinated tofu -- arrive with every
meal.
Pul Hyanggi, (82-2) 2265-1320, is in Jung-gu district in a little lane five minutes' walk from the Sofitel
(call for directions). It serves a wide variety of vegetarian dishes, a Korean specialty. Meals are served
traditional style, on low tables (you sit on the floor). The centerpiece of my set dinner ($12) was a bowl
of rice with unusual green vegetables and tofu.
The Obseoye restaurant, Dongsung-dong 1-95, Jongno-gu, (82-2) 742-4848, across the street from
the Seoul Jazz Academy, specializes in shabu-shabu, in which fresh raw vegetables, meat and
seafood are cooked at the table in a pot of boiling water. A tasty meal for three with Korean beer came
to about $32.
The Artside cafe on Insadong serves cakes, light Western-style meals, wine and beer, and delicious
herbal and fruit teas; plum tea costs $4.50 a cup. It's at 170 Kwanhun-dong, Jongno-gu, (82-2) 7251551.
At Imo Jip (Auntie's House), my friend Alice and I shared bulgogi (Korean beef barbecue), a big plate
of batter-dipped fried vegetables, and a small bottle of soju, Korean vodka. Dinner for two was $40.
Imo Jip is across from the Han Hung Jang yogwan at 78-2 Kwanhun-dong, Jongno-gu; (82-2) 7204688.
I splurged on a multicourse dinner and show at Sanchon, 17 Kwanhun-dong, Jongno-gu, (82-2) 7350312, which is geared to upscale tourists. The set meal ($26.75) consists of almost 20 different
vegetarian dishes. It's best to arrive at about 8, because at 9 p.m., the lights dim, and everyone stops
to watch women in traditional dress perform Korean dances.
Attractions
Admission to the 14th-century Jongmyo shrine and the Changgyeonggung Palace complex costs 40
cents.
One of the highlights of a visit to Deoksugung Palace is watching the changing of the guards at around
2 p.m. on a traffic-choked street outside the palace. Admission: 40 cents.
''Media City Seoul 2000,'' with the main installations at the Seoul Metropolitan Museum, will run until
Oct. 31. Admission is $9.50.
The students and faculty at the Seoul Jazz Academy, 39 Yeon-geon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, (82-2)
766-7779, often give concerts near the campus. The show I attended cost $5.
The Korean Folk Village, in the Seoul suburb of Suwon, (82-331) 286-2106, costs $7.75, including the
bus between the Suwon subway station to the site. The trip from Seoul on subway and bus takes
around two hours and costs about $2; a taxi back to the train station costs $10 if you don't want to wait
for the free bus.
Getting Around
Seoul has an excellent subway system, which is marked in English and easy to use. A 20-trip ticket
costs $9; a single trip in the center city costs about 50 cents.
A Korean Air bus took me from Kimpo Airport to my hotel in about an hour, for $4.50.
As in Japan, streets in Korea have no numbers, and often no names. Many lodgings print business
cards with a map on the back.
There are different ways to transliterate Hangul; street or district names spelled differently in various
English guides or maps may refer to the same place. Kimpo Airport, for example, may be Gimpo;
Pusan may show up as Busan.
Information
The Korean National Tourism Organization, 10 Ta-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, (82-2) 729-9600, provides
free maps and brochures in English; its helpful staff will even book hotels. It also has a desk at Kimpo
Airport and an office in Suite 100, First Floor,
1 Executive Drive, Fort Lee, N.J. 07024; (800) 868-7567, fax (201) 585-9041. DAISANN McLANE
Photos: A weekday crowd at the Namdaemun market.; Seoul, seen from author's room at the Sofitel
Ambassador.; Deoksugung Palace.; Drummers in traditional costumes during farmers' dance at the
Korean Folk Village. (Photographs by Daisann McLane)(pg. 6); Changing the guard at Deoksugung
Palace and dinner at Imo Jip (Auntie's House). (Photographs by Daisann McLane)(pg. 26)
http://travel.nytimes.com
May 26, 2002
What's Doing In Seoul
By DON KIRK
One of Asia's most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities, Seoul is sprucing up its shopping districts, streets
and parks as it prepares to play host for a month, along with Japan, to the World Cup 2002 soccer
finals. They open on Friday under the translucent roof of the new 65,881-seat Sangam World Cup
Stadium.
Gleaming new office towers and apartment blocks, rising above crowded back alleys of homes and
shops, have sprung up from the traditional downtown to ''south of the river'' -- the Han, whose
serpentine twists divide the older, central city from a newer enclave of corporate headquarters and
upscale hotels.
For visitors to Seoul, the language barrier can be daunting, as can the polluted air, the traffic jams and
the crowded subways. Cultural barriers exist, too, in a land where people for centuries have viewed
foreigners with suspicion. Since playing host to the Olympic Games in 1988, South Korea has opened
on a scale never imagined by the missionaries who called the entire land the Hermit Kingdom.
Events
Plenty of diversions come with the soccer. A fireworks festival will light the skies for an hour every
Saturday through June 22 beginning at 8 p.m. in the Riverside Park on Yoido (Yeouido), the legislative
and business center on the Han River. (Last year the government decreed new spellings for
romanization of names written in Hangul, the Korean lettering system. Customary old spellings are
given here, with the new versions in parentheses.)
On Thursday, at 1 p.m., 100 Boats of Peace will sail down the Han with foreign dignitaries aboard to
begin a celebration of Korea in World Cup Peace Park in front of the stadium. The festival opens at 6
with a choir of 200 children; at 8:55 a 2,002-member international choir will pick up the tempo with
traditional and popular songs, both Korean and foreign.
The real celebrations begin with the pregame ceremony, a 2,300-person spectacle focusing on
Korean culture, at 7:40 on Friday. The kickoff -- defending champion France versus Senegal -- is at
8:30. Giant public TV screens around the city will show all the action live over the next month from
stadiums in both Korea and Japan. Virtually every bar and disco will be tuning in, too.
For a schedule of matches and other information related to the World Cup, visit the official Web site at
www.fifaworldcup.com.
From Tuesday through June 5, the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, on Sejong-ro, the broad
avenue leading to the Kyongbuk (Gyeongbok) Palace in downtown Seoul, will present the Seoul Drum
Festival with 21 teams from abroad and 15 from Korea. Concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. and are free; (822) 399-1668.
From June 14 to 19, the Korea Cooks Association, (82-2) 733-6238 (9), fax (82-2) 722-6366, is
running Seoul International Food Expo 2002, featuring exhibitions of cuisines from around the world,
contests among chefs, professional and amateur, and cooking classes as well as a fashion show, folk
music and concert. It will happen in the COEX Pacific Hall south of the Han River in Kangnam
(Gangnam). Tickets $3; www.food-expo.or.kr.
Seoul's major theaters give non-stop presentations. The most ambitious all-around theater complexes
are the Sejong Center on Sejong-ro, (82-2) 399-1700, www.sejong.pac.or .kr, and the Seoul Arts
Center, (82-2) 580-1234, www.sac.or.kr, in Socho-dong near the Nambu Terminal. Tickets range from
$23 to $117 for most performances, including symphony orchestras, ballet and opera.
The National Theater, near the Tower Hotel on Namsan, (82-2) 2264-8448, www.ntok.go.kr, presents
Korean opera, dance and drama in three venues at prices ranging from $8 to $38. A new outdoor
theater opens in the same complex on June 11 with a Korean dance performance; the Chongdong
Theater, (82-2) 751-1500, www.chongdong.com, behind the Doksu (Deoksu) Palace, offers traditional
music and dance at 8 p.m. nightly except Monday, with tickets for $16 and $23.
On June 2, starting at 4 p.m., a model of the carriage used by royalty in the Chosun (Joseon) dynasty,
which ended with the onset of Japanese rule, will lead a procession from Kyongbuk Palace to the
Jongmyo Royal Shrine a mile or so away in commemoration of the monarchs who ruled for 600 years.
On Tuesday the Seoul Museum of History, (82-2) 730-2505, www.museum.seoul.kr, was scheduled to
open, with relics and artifacts of Seoul's 600-year history. The museum, the first dedicated to the city,
of brick, glass and stone in sweeping lines, is in Seodaemun in central Seoul, on Shimun-ro, near
Sejong-ro.
Sightseeing
Kyongbuk Palace, built in 1395, was destroyed by the Japanese in 1592, rebuilt in 1865, largely torn
down after the Japanese made Korea a colony in 1910 and restored over the past 12 years. Workmen
are scrambling to complete the restoration of the main throne room in time for the World Cup. Closed
Tuesday. Admission, 60 cents; (82-2) 732-1931.
To the left of the palace, on the same grounds, is the National Museum, www.museum.go.kr, a long,
single-story building. On view are a show of genre art depicting scenes of royalty and common folk
covering 5,000 years of Korean history, and one of Mongolian art. Closed Monday. Admission is 55
cents, with a free one-hour tour in English every afternoon at 2. Call (82-2) 398-5241 for information
about tours.
Behind the palace on the right, the National Folk Museum, (82-2) 734-1346, www.nfm.go.kr, is
modeled partly after the Bulguksa Temple in Kyongju (Gyeongju), center of the Shilla dynasty (57 B.C.
to A.D. 935). Three large exhibition halls depict traditional Korean life through history in elaborate
scenes, supplemented by paintings, farm implements and other artifacts. Closed Tuesdays.
Just outside the long palace wall, as you face it, runs Sagan-dong Street, lined with art galleries,
restaurants and coffee shops. The small museums and galleries in the neighborhood are worth
visiting. A place to start is the Art Sonje Center, (82-2) 733-8945, in Sokeuk-dong, about 200 yards off
Sagan-dong Street. The gallery displays mostly contemporary French art in a show called ''Less
Ordinary,'' with an emphasis on anything different in posters, videos and sculpture, until June 23.
The Kumho Museum of Art, in a rather severe concrete-and-stone building on Sagan-dong, (82-2)
720-5907, presents recitals in a small concert hall. Performances start at 7:30 p.m. several days a
week.
A mile or so to the east, down Yulgong-ro, lies the sprawling ''secret garden,'' playground of royalty on
the grounds of Changdok (Changdeok) Palace, (82-2) 762-9513, hidden behind another long wall.
English guides are available three times a day for 80-minute walks; admission $1.70; closed Monday.
Off the expansive City Hall Plaza, opposite City Hall, a huge stone-and-cement monstrosity built under
Japanese rule in the early 1920's, is the Doksu (Deoksu) Palace, (82-2) 771-9951. It includes the
Royal Museum, housing art and artifacts of royalty. Closed Mondays; admission 55 cents. In another
part of the complex is the National Museum of Contemporary Art, currently devoted entirely to 100
paintings by 20th-century Korean artists, (82-2) 779-5310, www.moca .go.kr; closed Monday.
Near the United States military base in Yongsan, near central Seoul, the War Memorial, (82-2) 7093096, displays equipment used in Korea's dynastic wars through the long confrontation between the
two Koreas. Attractions include suits of armor and a replica of one of the ironclad boats that turned
back a Japanese fleet in the 16th century. Closed Monday; $1.50.
Where to Stay
Hotels are raising their prices as the World Cup approaches, and they're likely to stay high through
summer.
Among mid-range hotels, the 145-room Best Western New Seoul, Taepyong-no, Jung Gu, (82-2) 7359071, fax (82-2) 735-6212, behind City Hall, charges $97, single or double, for an interior room with no
window; $111, single or double, for a view of nearby tall buildings and a back alley. Rooms were
renovated and modernized last year for an airier look, with large mirrors to give a window effect in the
windowless rooms.
Budget: Old-style Korean inns, called yogwan (yeogwan), are clean, safe and inexpensive. Yogwan
proliferate on the back streets of every neighborhood, and for $16 to $39 offer rooms with basic beds
or thin mattresses on the floor, as well as small individual bathrooms. Information: (82-2) 555-5555 or
www.worldinn.com. Among hundreds of yogwan, here are two worth sampling:
Gokung Hotel, Wonnam-dong, Chungno (Jongno) Gu, (82-2) 741-3831, in central Seoul near the
YMCA, has 50 rooms for $35.
The 45-room Kukje (Gukje) Hotel, (82-2) 552-5831, Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam Gu, south of the Han
River, is in front of the Renaissance Tourist Hotel. Rates: $27.
Luxury: The Westin Chosun, Sogong-dong, Jung Gu, 453 rooms, (82-2) 771-0500, fax (82-2) 7521443, www.echosunhotel.com, is on the site of the original Chosun, Seoul's first hotel, built in 1914. It
has an Irish-style basement pub, O'Kim's. Rooms are decorated in soft beige and browns; ask for one
overlooking the Temple of Heaven. Doubles, $304.
At the 683-room Seoul Hilton, (82-2) 753-7788, fax (82-2) 754-2510, www.hilton.co.kr, on
Namdaemun-ro, on a slope of Namsan overlooking Seoul Station and central Seoul, doubles begin at
$265. A terraced garden walkway in back offers respite from the rush.
Beside the COEX exhibition center are the 531-room Grand Inter-Continental, (82-2) 555-5656, fax
(82-2) 559-7990, and the newer, 653-room COEX Inter-Continental, Samseong-dong, Kangnam Gu,
(82-2) 3452-2500, fax (82-2) 3430-8000; visit www.seoul.interconti.com for both. The Grand charges
$333 and the COEX $300 for a traditionally furnished double.
Where to Eat
Among the most exquisite restaurants in Insadong, near the Kyonbuk Palace, is Min's Club, (82-2)
733-2966, offering fusion fare in a house built in 1936 in a combination of Korean and Japanese style
for a descendant of Queen Min, assassinated by Japanese conspirators in 1895. Dinner for two with
wine costs about $125.
Korea House, Pil-dong, (82-2) 2266-9101, www.koreahouse.or.kr, in the Chungmuro neighborhood
near Myongdong in central Seoul, presents a Korean dance show with a typical Korean dinner -- sure
to include rice and kimchi, a pungent pickled cabbage, as well as the traditional beef dishes, bulgogi
(barbecued) and kalbi (short ribs) -- in a building modeled after a nobleman's house of the 18th or 19th
century. The buffet is $47, and a three-course traditional Korean meal is $58 to $78, including the
show, at 7 and 8:50 nightly.
La Cantina, Da-dong, (82-2) 777-2579, one of Seoul's oldest meeting places, opened in 1965 in a
basement opposite the Lotte Hotel. It offers Italian style fare, with an emphasis on pasta. Lunch or
dinner for two with wine, $39.
The Soho, (82-2) 722-1999, in Sajik-dong, a few blocks west of the palace complex, serves French
and Italian dishes in an elegant setting downstairs from a small gallery of French art that includes a
Picasso and a Chagall. Oven-grilled chicken with Fontana cheese in red wine sauce is a specialty.
Dinner for two with a bottle of wine, about $125.
In Itaewon, the multiterraced Gecko's Garden, with outdoor seating for more than 100 people by
dimmed gas lanterns, (82-2) 790-0540, serves Continental cuisine for lunch and dinner at $27 to $35
without wine. The Sunday barbecue, seafood and beef, is worth a try. Cozy bars and a rooftop terrace
attract a yuppie crowd.
Photos: Subway station with posters of soccer stars; sculpture at the National Folk Museum; at the
Lotte department store. (Photographs by Choi Hang-Young for The New York Times) Chart: ''Vital
Statistics'' shows Seoul's population, weather conditions in June and rates for a hotel, dinner for one,
taxi and daily car rental Map of Seoul, South Korea
http://travel.nytimes.com
April 25, 2004
ASIA-PACIFIC ISSUE; Ancient Lands Rush to the New
By JAMES BROOKE
TOKYO
A shorter hop to Seoul, and a way to float by traffic
Japan's busiest international air link -- between Tokyo and Seoul -- has never deserved to be called an
air bridge. Flights leave every 20 minutes, and although passengers spend two hours aloft, the total
journey, from downtown hotel to downtown hotel, takes seven hours, if you're lucky. This is because
the flights link two international airports about 30 miles from their city centers.
On Nov. 30, a true air bridge began, linking downtown airports and cutting hotel-to-hotel travel time to
as little as four hours. Now the prized commodity of the business traveler, a seat on a flight between
Haneda (Tokyo) and Kimpo (Seoul) requires a reservation.
Authorities were cautious about allowing international flights between two domestic airports, allotting
only one flight a day each way to each of four carriers: Japan Airlines, ANA, Asiana and Korean Air.
Haneda is reachable by a pleasant monorail, which rocks along past some of Tokyo's largely hidden
port scenery: marinas, canals, ship museums and the ships in the bay. A runway stretches alongside
the waves.
Part of the attraction of the new air link is the feeling that each airport has a ''toy'' terminal for the
foreign flights, complete with minicheck-in counters, immigration desks and departure gates (although
a new international terminal at Haneda is set for completion in December). By contrast, at the
international airports, Narita for Tokyo and Incheon for Seoul, travelers face long lines and hikes the
lengths of football fields.
A recent government-paid advertisement for Tokyo alerted American newspaper readers: ''It may
never be a beauty like Paris and great swaths of it are heart-stoppingly ugly but Tokyo is a surprisingly
livable city.''
For visitors and residents who tire of the city's gray cement boxes, Tokyo Water Cruise offers an
affordable way to reconnect with a pleasant side of the city. Popular in spring to admire flowering
shrubs along river banks and in summer to escape the city's evening heat, the boats offer such
precious rarities as distant horizons and harbor views of a city that has largely forgotten its maritime
roots. In Tokyo, Japan's busiest container port, many residents go for months without seeing the
ocean.
To see spring flowers, the Sumida River line runs a 40-minute cruise between Asakusa and
Hamarikyu garden, a former feudal hunting estate on the edge of Tokyo Bay. This leisurely river run
costs $6 and cuts through downtown Tokyo, passing under 12 bridges, many of them historic.
Of the six bay itineraries, the most popular for visitors is the Harbor Cruise, running from a pier near
Hamarikyu garden to Odaiba Seaside Park. It takes about 90 minutes and costs $9.50 round trip.
Passing near Rainbow Bridge, passengers are surrounded by a view of Tokyo. With the last boat
leaving Hamarikyu at 7:55 p.m., summer passengers can enjoy cool breezes and the city lights, a
panorama that can be stunning.
http://travel.nytimes.com
December 26, 2004
Going to
Seoul By ANDREW YANG
Why Go Now
Because Seoul is the new Tokyo. With Seoul's proximity to Beijing and Tokyo (both less than two
hours away by air), this city of about 10 million is becoming the focal point of transportation and
business in northern Asia. Think of it as a capital with the culture and excitement of Tokyo, but less
hectic and easier on the pocketbook. It was host to the 1988 Summer Olympics, and is becoming
more international and cosmopolitan.
The commercial conglomerates of Seoul, like Samsung and SK Telecom, have kept the city enriched
with a healthy diet of skyscrapers and world-class cultural institutions. As the country's economy has
stabilized since the late 1990's, design-centered museums, art galleries, restaurants, bars and
boutique hotels are thriving.
A quick flip through the Korean versions of GQ and Teen Vogue in any of the scores of Starbucks
stores or a stroll down Cheongdam-dong past the fashion boutiques quickly reveal that Seoul is
poised for a hipper future. Any of the fashionable enclaves such as Apgujeong, Cheongdam or
Itaewon could easily be mistaken for West Hollywood, or the Harajuku, and young Koreans are likely
to know as much about Britney Spears as they do about Korean politics.
Where to Stay
The (1) W Seoul-Walkerhill, this hotel chain's first outpost in Asia, opened last September. Perched
atop Mount Acha, right on the bank of the Han River (21 Gwangjang-dong, Gwangjin-gu, (82-2) 2465
2222, or on the Web at www.wseoul.com) the W offers a most stunning and seductive view of the city.
With floor-to-ceiling windows, the remote-controlled electric curtains automatically open in the morning
to reveal the river and the rest of the city skyline, almost within arm's reach. The hotel offers two
restaurants as well as a spa, gym and a third-floor pool that is situated with a city view and feels like
an extension of the river. Doubles, $308, at 1,084 won to the United States dollar.
The (2) Shilla Seoul, 202 Jangchung-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu, (82-2) 2233 3131 or on the Web at
seoul.shilla.net, is a luxurious 507-room hotel with a more traditional Korean décor. Doubles, $275 and
up.
For a location across the Han River, closer to the newer parts of the city, the (3) Coex Intercontinental,
159 Samsung-dong Kangnam-ku, seoul-coex.intercontinental.com, (82-2) 3452 2500 is a modern
hotel near the Coex convention center and mall, Korea's largest. Doubles, about $325.
Where to Eat
As you might expect, kimchi, that spicy fermented cabbage, is ubiquitous in Seoul restaurants. It is an
option for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and will often be served regardless, depending on where you
eat. Other popular Korean food includes bulgogi, marinated barbequed beef and galbi, marinated ribs,
which are cooked on a heated pot at the dinner table.
For the most authentic Korean cuisine, try (4) Jihwaja, San 14-67, Jangchung-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu,
(82-1) 2 2269 5834, located within the National Theater of Korea. The main dish is gujeolpan, a nine-
sectioned plate of food that can be mixed in a rice or wheat wrap. Multicourse dinners cost $25 to
$100 a person.
For more adventurous fare, (5) Cafe 74, 83-20, Cheongdam-dong, (82-2) 542 7412, serves an ItalianEastern fusion cuisine. Italian food is to Koreans what Chinese food is to New Yorkers. While a
smattering of fusion cuisines exists in Seoul, such as kimchi-flavored risotto (a harrowing experience),
Cafe 74 is quite a reliable way to experience the Korean version of Italian food. Dinners cost between
$22 and $32 a person.
The crowds are flocking to (6) Mr. Chow, 91-6, Nonhuyn-dong, Gangnam-gu, (82-2) 517 2100, the first
Asian outpost of the chain that currently has locations in New York, Los Angeles and London. While
it's hard to get a table without calling well in advance - the restaurant has been so crowded that it has
been known to take reservations just to have a drink at the bar - the couches of the dark, cozy bar
make an ideal place for a nightcap. Dinners cost around $35 to $120 a person.
What to Do During the Day
A popular place for antiques and historic shops is Insadong, an arts district north of downtown. A
thoroughly modern arts center, the (7) Insa Arts Alley, opened a new building this month, across the
street from the Insa Art Center, (82-2) 736 1020. With a Guggenheim-like spiral network but set
around an open courtyard, the new building shows the work of young, experimental Korean artists,
and is a design collaboration between Gabriel Kroiz, an American architect, and Moongyu Choi, a
Korean architect.
For a spectacular view of the city, go to the gleaming, 1,200-foot-tall (8) Seoul Tower, Namdaemun-ro
1-ga, Jung-gu, (82-2) 775 6222, in Namsan Park. Also near Namsan Park is a recent addition to city's
cultural landscape, (9) Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, 747-18, Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, or
www.leeum.org, which opened in October with a campus of three buildings each designed by a
different architect. Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel and Mario Botta created a stunning assemblage of
drastically different designs. The museum shows the Samsung Cultural Foundation's top-notch
contemporary and traditional art collection. The museum is free to the public but is open by
appointment only. Located in a densely populated residential neighborhood on Yongsan Mountain, it is
difficult to find, even for experienced cabdrivers, so be sure to note that it is near the Grand Hyatt.
What to Do at Night
Our best source of intelligence came from the bartender at (1) Woobar, (82-2) 2022 0022, a multilevel
lounge complete with silver-pod D.J. booth and private cabanas on the ground floor of W SeoulWalkerhill (see above). During the day, the main boulevards in Cheongdam-dong are the fashionable
places to shop, she explained, but at night, the locals come out to enjoy themselves there. Some of
the best bars and clubs in Seoul are off Cheongdam-dong. Jazz clubs are the rage in Seoul, and one
of the less kitschy venues is 10Hwa Su Mok, 125-24 Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, (82-2) 548
5429, which means Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or fire, water and wood, in Korean. The jazz is
superb, and the crowds tend to be more low-key.
Itaewon, a neighborhood in the center of the city north of the river, is where you will find (11) Areno,
395, 5-ga, Namdaemun-ro, Chung-gu, (82-2) 317 3244, a popular dance club inside the Millennium
Seoul Hilton. Nearby, inside the Hamilton Hotel, you'll find 12 Limenight, 119-25, Itaewon-dong,
Yongsan-gu, (82-2) 790 0588, a big 1980's-style club where international bankers and local hipsters
mix, as well as 13J Bar, a quieter and more funky bar and lounge in an alley adjacent to the hotel.
Where to Shop
UN Studio, a Dutch architectural firm, recently outfitted the 14Galleria department store, 494,
Apgujeong-dong, Gangnam-gu, (82-2) 3449 4114, or www.galleria.co.kr, with a massive new facade
with 4,300 white discs. At night, it is easily the most luminous sight in Apgujeong, as it flashes images
and patterns in a multitude of colors for the store, which carries such brands as Christian Dior and
Chanel.
From the Galleria, Apgujeong-dong runs south until it intersects Cheongdam, where Western luxury
retailers have their boutiques. Farther down, visitors will find Boon the Shop, a popular Korean retailer.
The first Boon opened three years ago as a single-level retail space designed by the New York
architectural firm of LOT/EK. In August, the store opened a four-story shop, (15) 1F Boon the Shop
Building, Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, (82-2) 317 0397, that immerses shoppers in the store's
stock of Burberry Prorsum and Commes des Garçons.
One of the city's most talked-about shops, (16) Mue, 93-6 Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, (82-2)
3446 8074, occupies an exquisite three-level space that, along with its smattering of Martin Margiela
and Viktor & Rolf's clothes, includes fashion-architectural theatrics by the designer Minsuk Cho such
as translucent concrete walls and 20-foot-high multimedia projections.
How to Stay Wired
Cheap Internet cafes can be found scattered around the city. Most charge about $1 an hour. Free
Internet access can be found within the Seoul Information Center, 31 Daepyungno 1-ga, Jung-gu, (822) 731-6337, located on the second floor of (17) Seoul City Hall.
Your First Time or Your 10th
Slightly north of downtown is (18) Gyeongbokgung, end of Sejong-ro, (82-2) 732 1931, the main
palace during the Chosun Dynasty (1392-1910) in Seoul. Visitors who come from the Gwanghwamun
subway station can instantly see down Sejong-ro to the majestic gates of the palace, which are framed
by the Bukaksan Mountains.
The grounds are expansive, and include historic Korean, pagodalike structures as well as the (19)
National Folklore Museum, 1-1, Sejongno, Jongno-gu, (82-2) 720 3137. But when one stands at the
palace gates, the juxtaposition is jarring: In the foreground is 500 years of Korean history, and
glittering in the background is the rest of Seoul, with its ultramodern skyscrapers arrayed across the
horizon.
How to Get There
In 2002, the city opened Inchon International Airport on an island about an hour west of the city,
leaving the city's other airport, Gimpo, to handle domestic flights. Inchon acts as a major hub for a
number of airlines such as United and Korean.
During peak seasons, fares to Seoul from New York can be as much as $1,300. The best time to
travel is in March and April, and in September and November. The city experiences the mildest
temperatures in those months, and the fares are around $900. United, Northwest and Korean Airlines
all offer direct flights from Kennedy Airport in New York to Tokyo, which take approximately 13 hours,
and then another two-hour jump to Seoul. Less direct flights can take up to 25 hours or more.
How to Get Around
Traffic is notoriously bad in Seoul, particularly in rush hour, so use the city's subway systems, which
are clean and cost around 85 cents a trip (5:30 a.m. to midnight, and until 1 a.m. on weekends).
http://travel.nytimes.com
July 17, 2009
Peeling Back Pavement to Expose Watery Havens
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
SEOUL, South Korea — For half a century, a dark tunnel of crumbling concrete encased more than
three miles of a placid stream bisecting this bustling city.
The waterway had been a centerpiece of Seoul since a king of the Choson Dynasty selected the new
capital 600 years ago, enticed by the graceful meandering of the stream and its 23 tributaries. But in
the industrial era after the Korean War, the stream, by then a rank open sewer, was entombed by
pavement and forgotten beneath a lacework of elevated expressways as the city’s population swelled
toward 10 million.
Today, after a $384 million recovery project, the stream, called Cheonggyecheon, is liberated from its
dank sheath and burbles between reedy banks. Picnickers cool their bare feet in its filtered water, and
carp swim in its tranquil pools.
The restoration of the Cheonggyecheon is part of an expanding environmental effort in cities around
the world to “daylight” rivers and streams by peeling back pavement that was built to bolster
commerce and serve automobile traffic decades ago.
In New York State, a long-stalled revival effort for Yonkers’s ailing downtown core that could break
ground this fall includes a plan to re-expose 1,900 feet of the Saw Mill River, which currently runs
through a giant flume that was laid beneath city streets in the 1920s.
Cities from Singapore to San Antonio have been resuscitating rivers and turning storm drains into
streams. In Los Angeles, residents’ groups and some elected officials are looking anew at buried or
concrete-lined creeks as assets instead of inconveniences, inspired partly by Seoul’s example.
By building green corridors around the exposed waters, cities hope to attract affluent and educated
workers and residents who appreciate the feel of a natural environment in an urban setting.
Environmentalists point out other benefits. Open watercourses handle flooding rains better than buried
sewers do, a big consideration as global warming leads to heavier downpours. The streams also tend
to cool areas overheated by sun-baked asphalt and to nourish greenery that lures wildlife as well as
pedestrians.
Some political opponents have derided Seoul’s remade stream as a costly folly, given that nearly all of
the water flowing between its banks on a typical day is pumped there artificially from the Han River
through seven miles of pipe.
But four years after the stream was uncovered, city officials say, the environmental benefits can now
be quantified. Data show that the ecosystem along the Cheonggyecheon (pronounced chung-gyechun) has been greatly enriched, with the number of fish species increasing to 25 from 4. Bird species
have multiplied to 36 from 6, and insect species to 192 from 15.
The recovery project, which removed three miles of elevated highway as well, also substantially cut air
pollution from cars along the corridor and reduced air temperatures. Small-particle air pollution along
the corridor dropped to 48 micrograms per cubic meter from 74, and summer temperatures are now
often five degrees cooler than those of nearby areas, according to data cited by city officials.
And even with the loss of some vehicle lanes, traffic speeds have picked up because of related
transportation changes like expanded bus service, restrictions on cars and higher parking fees.
“We’ve basically gone from a car-oriented city to a human-oriented city,” said Lee In-keun, Seoul’s
assistant mayor for infrastructure, who has been invited to places as distant as Los Angeles to
describe the project to other urban planners.
Some 90,000 pedestrians visit the stream banks on an average day.
What is more, a new analysis by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that
replacing a highway in Seoul with a walkable greenway caused nearby homes to sell at a premium
after years of going for bargain prices by comparison with outlying properties.
Efforts to recover urban waterways are nonetheless fraught with challenges, like convincing local
business owners wedded to existing streetscapes that economic benefits can come from a green
makeover.
Yet today the visitors to the Cheonggyecheon’s banks include merchants from some of the thousands
of nearby shops who were among the project’s biggest opponents early on.
On a recent evening, picnickers along the waterway included Yeon Yeong-san, 63, who runs a
sporting apparel shop with his wife, Lee Geum-hwa, 56, in the adjacent Pyeonghwa Market.
Mr. Yeon said his family moved to downtown Seoul in the late 1940s, and he has been running the
business for four decades. He said parking was now harder for his customers. But “because of less
traffic, we have better air and nature,” he said.
He and his wife walk along the stream every day, he added. “We did not think about exercising here
when the stream was buried underground,” Mr. Yeon said.
The project has yielded political dividends for Lee Myung-bak, a former leader of construction
companies at the giant Hyundai Corporation. He was elected Seoul’s mayor in 2002 largely around his
push to remove old roads — some of which he had helped build — and to revive the stream. Today he
is South Korea’s president.
Even strong critics of the president tend to laud his approach to the Cheonggyecheon revival, which
involved hundreds of meetings with businesses and residents over two years.
A recent newspaper column that criticized the president over a police raid on squatters ended with the
words “Please come back, Cheonggyecheon Lee Myung-bak!” — a reference to the nickname he
earned during the campaign to revive the stream.
The role of Seoul’s environmental renewal in Mr. Lee’s political ascent is not lost on Mayor Philip A.
Amicone of Yonkers, a city of 200,000 where entrenched poverty had slowed a revival project. Once
the river restoration was added to the plan, he said, he found new support for redevelopment.
Yonkers has gained $34 million from New York State and enthusiastic support from environmental
groups for the river restoration, which is part of a proposed $1.5 billion development that includes a
minor-league ballpark. The river portion is expected to cost $42 million over all.
A longtime supporter was George E. Pataki, who helped line up state money in his last year as
governor, Mayor Amicone said. “Every time he’d visit, he’d say, ‘You’ve got to open up that river,’ ” he
added.
Part of the plan would expose an arc of the river and line it with paths and restaurant patios that would
wrap around a shopping complex and the ballpark. Another open stretch would become a “wetland
park” on what is now a parking lot.
Mr. Amicone, who has a background as a civil engineer, said the example of Seoul’s success had
helped build support in Yonkers. In an interview, he recalled the enthusiasm with which Mr. Lee, then
Seoul’s mayor, toured Yonkers in 2006 and discussed the cities’ parallel river projects with him.
“Whether it’s a city of millions or 200,000, the concept is identical,” Mr. Amicone said. “These are no
longer sewers, but aesthetically pleasing assets that enhance development.”
http://hanopolis.com
Seoul is #1 destination for some
And maybe near the bottom of the barrel for others
Hanopolis, Jan 14, 2010
Maybe Seoul is a "repetitive sprawl of freeways and Soviet-style concrete apartments buildings,
horribly polluted, with no heart or spirit to it; so oppressively bland that the populace is driven to
alcoholism" . . . Or maybe it's a capital of "glammed-up cafes and restaurants, immaculate art galleries
and monumental fashion palaces like the sprawling outpost of Milan’s 10 Corso Como and the widely
noted Ann Demeulemeester store — an avant-garde Chia Pet covered in vegetation" . . . and maybe
it's all of the above plus a city of disgusting "spitters" and "litter-bugs".
Whatever your opinion, Nielsons now informs us that it's also the #1 destination among Japanese,
Chinese and Thais - for the second consecutive year.
Of course, that's just three countries among hundreds. Seoul could also be the last place in hell a
dozen other nationalities may want to step foot on!
At any rate, according to AC Nielson, which polled over 1,600 Japanese, Chinese and Thai tourists
"who either plan to travel abroad this year or had traveled abroad before in the past two years", Seoul
beat out other fashionable places like New York, Paris, Honolulu and Rome.
In the survey conducted in December, reported by JoongAng, "11.4 percent of 800 Chinese
respondents picked Seoul as the city they want to visit the most followed by Tokyo (9.9 percent), Paris
(8.8 percent), and Maldives (7.4 percent)."
"Japanese respondents echoed the sentiment of Chinese prospective tourists with 9.8 percent of 500
Japanese respondents saying they want to visit Seoul, outpacing Honolulu, which garnered 9.6
percent, and Rome and New York, which were both listed by 5.4 percent of those polled.
"Three hundred prospective Thai tourists participated in the survey and 20 percent chose Seoul as
their first choice of places to visit. Tokyo at 10.3 percent, Maldives at 7.7 percent and Paris at 5.3
percent followed."
Exactly why Chinese, Japanese and Thai tourists in particular are attracted to Seoul is uncertain. But
in a separate poll conducted among tourists who had visited Korea's capital, many said that what drew
them to the city was "Korean TV Drama series that showed scenes of the city" and TV advertisements.
This information has apparently encouraged city officials to press on with their city marketing.
"The city government will continue its marketing strategy to attract more foreign tourists beyond Asia,"
Kang Cheol-won, an official at the city government’s public relations bureau said.
http://www.time.com
Seoul
By Jennifer Veale, Oct. 08, 2008
Introduction
Seoul is the seat of government and it's as crowded and competitive, if more homogeneous, as any
other developed megacity. Skyscrapers dwarf shanty towns, throngs of delivery men on motorcycles
jockey with black Mercedes Benzes on the roads, and behind the straight major boulevards where
multitudes of well-attired Seoulites shop at fancy boutiques and posh department stores, lies a maze
of narrow alleyways filled with innumerable itty-bitty shops selling everything from dried squid to cellphone paraphernalia. This bustling city has a lot to offer the first-time visitor, so when you visit the
South Korean peninsula (which is technically an island because of the closed border with North Korea)
make sure to hit some of the top tourist sites as well as places that are a bit more unorthodox.
1. Gyeongbok Palace
This former seat of power is probably Korea's most famous royal palace. It's tough to miss given its
location at the northern end of Seoul's main boulevard, Sejongro, a stone's throw from the Blue House
(the President's residence) and the U.S embassy. Gyeongbok Palace (closed Tuesday) was built in
the late 1300s, and has been destroyed and reconstructed numerous times. English tours are
available about three times daily for visitors to learn more about Korea's architectural traditions and
court customs. Give yourself at least an hour to stroll around the pavilions and halls within the palace's
spacious walled grounds.
2. Bukchon Village
It's not hard to imagine the days of yore when you stroll through this utterly picturesque neighborhood.
Flanked by two palaces — Gyeongbok Palace to the west and Changdeok Palace to the east — this
village has the largest cluster of privately owned traditional Korean wooden homes or hanok in Seoul.
Keep an eye out for the half-dozen or so alleys that have beautifully restored architectural features like
small courtyards, decorative outer walls and dark tiled roofs. The neighborhood is also peppered with
quaint cafés, art galleries and restaurants, including the popular Wood & Brick, which serves up divine
lobster ravioli down the road from the Art Sonje Center gallery. The easiest way to get to Bukchon is to
take subway line 3 to Anguk Station and take Exit 3.
3. Shinsegae Department Store
If you want to see Seoulites drop the equivalent of a couple of hundred dollars on a few melons or a
handful of locally grown oranges, Shinsegae's flagship downtown store is the place to go. This is one
of the "big three" department stores in the city (the other two are Lotte and Hyundai) and it's a dazzling
emporium that sells all manner of merchandise. In the basement, Korean women jostle to buy
prepared dishes and staples like fresh fish at the end of the day. The selection of Korean fare is mindboggling; step up and sample Korea's beloved kimchi, a spicy cabbage traditionally fermented in huge
jars dug into the earth. Upstairs, the city's uber-brand-conscious consumers snap up the latest
Ferragamo shoes and Hermes silk scarves. On the rooftop, Shinsegae's new garden is also a
welcome respite from the megacity's hubbub.
The store is directly across from the Bank of Korea on Chungmuro, between the Namdaemun market
and the Myeongdong shopping district. Get here by taking subway line 4 to Hoehyun Station. Rival
Lotte department store, about 10 minutes by foot down the road, also has an exotic grocery store and
a popular food court.
4. Bugaksan
Mountains ring Seoul and one of the best to climb is Bugaksan, the peak behind the President's pad,
Cheongwadae or Blue House. Several trailheads take hikers through reconstructed 15th-century gates
and along Seoul's ancient fortress wall. From the top of the 342-m (112-ft.) ascent, you'll get a
commanding view of the capital. You'll also get to follow in the footsteps of North Korean commandos
who climbed the mountain some 40 years ago in an unsuccessful bid to assassinate the president; the
Seoul Fortress, which had been closed for security purposes, was re-opened to visitors in 2006 (make
a tour reservation a week in advance).
Seoul's mountain trails can get clogged fairly quickly, so it's best to hit this hill during the week when
the city's mountaineering hobbyists are at their offices. Ask a cab driver to take you to the
Sukjeongmun gate, where you can access the best of the three trailheads. It's about a 10-minute drive
from City Hall. Also, you'll need your passport to get on the trail, even if you don't look like a would-be
assassin.
5. Itaewon
Every foreigner who comes to Seoul gravitates to this gritty expat-friendly neighborhood near the main
U.S. Army base. Itaewon is choc-a-block with bars, clubs, restaurants and shops selling everything
from reproduction Korean furniture and tailored suits to jewelry and Korean pottery. One of the best
clubs in the city, Club Volume, is here, in the basement of the Crown Hotel; it reputedly recruits some
of the world's best DJs. To get to it, take subway line 6 to the Naksapyeong station; the club will be
about 500 meters, or a third of mile, down the hill on the lefthand side. It doesn't open until 9 p.m., so
get dinner at the light and airy Kate's Kitchen beforehand, which has a delicious sirloin steak with
truffle-infused potatoes. Next door, the French wine bar and bistro, Le Saint Ex, is also a good value
and popular with the Sunday brunch crowd.
6. Namdaemun Market
The Namdaemun market is seemingly open round-the-clock (though a few retailers close on Sunday)
and is a fantastic place to pick up inexpensive clothing, housewares, fabrics, jewelry, accessories,
toys, food, flowers, stationery and appliances. But it's easy to get turned around here, as there are
thousands of shops located in the 30 or so multistory buildings, not to mention an endless sprawl of
street-vendor stalls. This market is seriously crowded, so be prepared to get bumped around. If you
feel peckish, take the opportunity to graze at the dozens of food stalls; try mandu gook, a simple and
savory dumpling soup, or bindae duk, a skillet-fried mung-bean pancake. To get to Namdaemun
market, take subway line 4 to Hoehyeon Station. The market also has a tourist information line: 02752-1913.
7. Cheonggyecheon Stream
Oh, the serenity! A walk along this 5.8-km (3.6-mile) stream is almost as good as a spa for clearing
one's mind or rethinking a deal. While it's just off Sejongro, one of the busiest boulevards in Seoul,
Cheonggyecheon is remarkably quiet because the stream is more than 15 ft. (4.6 m) below street level
and feels a little like a dugout. You can take an organized walking tour (register online in advance) or
stroll alone. It's very serene with small waterfalls, and nearly two dozen overhead bridges. Don't be
surprised if you see more couples here than in New York's Central Park.
8. War Memorial of Korea
Korea has been invaded about a gazillion times and this is the best place to learn about its troubled
history, especially its relationships with its near neighbors. Though it calls itself a war memorial, this is
really a huge military history museum ($3 admission), with tanks, planes and guns on display. Given
that the peninsula is still technically at war with North Korea, this place seems very relevant. Take
subway line 4 to Samgakji Station.
9. Seoul City Tour Bus
If you want to hit most of Seoul's major attractions but aren't keen on traversing the city by taxi or
subway, these buses are the way to go. For a mere $10, you can hop on and off at at least two
palaces, the major markets and N Seoul Tower, a communication tower that rises 479.7 m (1,574 ft.)
above sea level and has a revolving restaurant and good views of the city — and get free history
lessons en route. Look for the blue sign poles around the city to board. Double- and single-decker
buses run Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. There is also a night run from 8 p.m. to 10
p.m. Buy tickets on board.
10. Korean Feasts
For an excellent full-course Korean lunch, hit the quaint Baedongbaji in Samcheong-dong. For about
$15 per person, you can sample many popular dishes like japchae (cellophane noodles stir-fried with
sliced beef and veggies), doenjang jjigae (stew made with bean paste, tofu and veggies or meat) and
sengsun ya-chae jeon (fried fish with vegetables). The restaurant is inside a hanok, or a small
traditional wooden home, and is just a hop, skip and a jump from the three-way junction on the main
road. Take subway line 3 to Anguk Station and take Exit 1.
For a great place to try the Korean specialty, kalbi, grilled marinated beef, check out Arirang Folk
Restaurant directly behind the Westin Chosun Hotel. Take subway line 2 to Ulchiro 1-ga Station and
get out at Exit 7.
Shopping in Seoul
There are several phrases that describe Korea's capital, Seoul – a harmony of the traditional and
modern, a center of the IT industry, and a shopper’s heaven. Seoul offers a satisfying shopping
experience for all shoppers, from traditional souvenirs, arts, luxury brands, and fashion trends. The
products also vary according to the interests of visitors from various parts of the world. Japanese
tourists usually shop for kimchi and kim (dried seaweed lavers), which are two of Korea’s major food
products. Visitors from Southeast Asia generally visit Dongdaemun Market area to shop for trendy
clothes and accessories at bargain prices. European tourists are interested mostly in Asia and Korea’s
unique cultural products and souvenirs.
[Shopping Tips]
1. Korean Sizes
Most sizes are measured in centimeters except for the waist size, which goes by inches. Shoe sizes
are measured in millimeters.
→ Korean size chart
2. Payment Methods
Except for street vendors, most shops follow a fixed price system, and these shops accept
international credit cards (VISA, MASTER, etc). If you wish to shop at markets and street vendors, be
sure to have cash ready.
3. Currency Exchange
Most banks have separate booths to exchange foreign currency. The banks are the most convenient
places to exchange currencies, and business hours are usually 9:30 a.m. – 16:30 p.m., Mon – Fri.
Also, the ‘356 Days Corner’ ATM (English) is usually located next to the banks, which are open from 7
a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Most convenience stores also provide 24-hour ATM services. However, using the
banks during normal business hours will offer you the cheapest service charge. Note that service
charges may vary according to each bank.
Namdaemun Market and Itaewon districts provide their own foreign currency exchange services, and
you can find them through the tourist information centers located in the area.
4. Tax Refund
Shops with “Tax Free Shopping” signs will provide you with duty free shopping and information for
your tax refunds.
5. Refunds
Except department stores and large malls, some stores may not offer refunds for purchased products
(especially for sale items), although they do allow customers to exchange items that they bought.
6. Sale Periods
Duty Free Shops: June – August, December – February
Department Stores: January, April, July, October, and December
Other large shopping malls also go on sale around the same time as the department stores do.
Namdaemun Market, Dongdaemun Market, and other major markets usually go on sale around early
July and mid-January, and the summer and winter sales offer the most discounts with 20-30% off of
the regular items, and more than 50% off of items more than 2 or 3 years old.
7. Business Hours
Unlike the U.S. or Europe, Korea’s shopping hours are limitless. Most shops open until 10 p.m., and
markets like Dongdaemun Market are open 24 hours. Shops are mostly crowded during holidays and
weekends except during the New Year holidays and Chuseok during which most shops close to
celebrate Korea’s major holidays. Shops in Myeong-dong and Insa-dong are usually open until 10
p.m., whereas Namdaemun Market and Dongdaemun Market are still open after midnight with
shoppers and retailers, giving you a taste of Korea’s late-night shopping culture.
8. Korean Shopping Phrases
Except for duty-free shops or shops in Itaewon, you may run into communication problems. If you
know a few Korean shopping expressions, you’ll find your shopping experience more enjoyable and
you may even be able to bargain for lower prices.
• Major Shopping Phrases
Korean Pronunciation Meaning
얼마예요? Eol-ma ye-yo How much is it?
비싸요. Bi-ssa-yo It is expensive.
좀 깎아주세요. Jom ggak-a-ju-se-yo Give me a discount, please.
좀 입어봐도(신어봐도) 될까요? Jom ibeo-bado doel-ka-yo? Can I try it on?
• Major Shopping Words
옷 Ot Clothes 티셔츠 T-sheo-cheu T-Shirt
바지 Ba-ji Pants 신발 Shin-bal Shoes
치마 Chi-ma Skirt 영수증 Yeong-su-jeung Receipt
Myeong-dong – The Unavoidable N0. 1 Shopping District
[Main Products: Clothes, Accessories and Shoes]
Shopping in Seoul will lead you first and foremost to Myeong-dong. Myeong-dong is quite well known
for being a shopping Mecca as well as being a fashion trendsetting district. The side alleys are lined
up with mid to low-priced shops selling clothes, accessories, and various restaurants. Each shop is
unique in its style of products and interior decorations.
Also, large shopping malls including KOZNEY, Shinsegae, and Lotte Department Store are located in
or around Myeong-dong. Namdaemun Market is also only minutes away. If you want to experience
Myeong-dong at its best, visit during the sunset hours and enjoy the lively nightlife and the beautiful
view of N Seoul Tower set against the horizon.
① Transportation: Take Subway Line No.4 to Myeong-dong Station and go out of Exit No.6. This will
lead you to the main street of Myeong-dong.
Namdaemun Market
[Main Products: Food, Tableware, Clothes, Jewelry, Shoes, Eyeglasses, and Cameras]
Namdaemun Market is Korea’s largest market, and is surrounded by Myeong-dong and Namsan. The
Namdaemun district has been a major business area for merchants since the Joseon Dynasty, dating
back 600 years as a commercial district. You can purchase items ranging from everyday necessities
(clothes, kitchenware, food, electronics, accessories, etc.) to items such as cameras and eyeglasses.
Namdaemun Market also offers Korean food products such as kimchi, kim (seafood dried lavers) and
other souvenirs, and also numerous imported items from all parts of the world.
Furthermore, the distributive structure at Namdaemun Market is pretty straightforward from
manufacturers to retailers or individual shoppers, offering bargain prices you cannot find anywhere
else. Namdaemun Market’s energy, felt among the small crowded streets with merchants shouting out
“cheap! Very cheap,” will most definitely be impressive. The atmosphere at Namdaemun Market is
very different from Myeong-dong, so try and stop by the market while you are at Myeong-dong since
the two districts are located side by side.
① Transportation: Take Subway Line No.4 to Hwehyeon Station and go out of Exit No.5 which will
lead you to the entrance of Namdaemun Market.
② Note: Many shops are closed on Sundays and Korean holidays. Also, Namdaemun Market follows
a fixed summer vacation period.
Dongdaemun Market – The Mecca of Fashion
[Main Products: Clothes (including Hanboks), Jewelry, Shoes, and Sports Wear]
Only fashion! Dongdaemun Market is filled with trendy fashions and fashionable people night and day.
You can find all sorts of fashions from your head all the way down to your feet, and also see Korea’s
current fashion trends. The prices are affordable as well. Dongdaemun Market is very large, and the
shops in the buildings surrounding Dongdaemun Stadium are fashion-related (clothes, materials, etc).
Due to its grand scale, even those who frequent the area sometimes get confused.
From Dongdaemun Stadium to Dongdaemun, large shopping buildings such as Doota and Migliore
line the street. Across these buildings are shops for retailers such as Jeil Pyeonghwa Market. It is easy
to get lost in the crowded area of Dongdaemun at nighttime. Doota Mall is one of the largest buildings,
selling clothes, accessories, and more, on segmented floors. You can also find unique products
designed by individual shops. Migliore Mall and Hello Apm Mall, located next to Doota offer similar
things. However, each shop provides unique items of their own, so it can be quite fun to go around
and compare prices before deciding to buy something.
① Tourist Information Center
- Location: Take Subway Line No.2, No.4, No.5 to Dongdaemun Stadium Station and go out of Exit
No.1; you will see the Tourist Information Center located 150m from the exit.
- Contact Number: 02-2236-9135
- Language Services: English, Japanese, Chinese Available
- Service Hours: 10:00 – 22:00 (No holidays)
② Transportation: Take Subway Line No.2, No.4, No.5 to Dongdaemun Stadium Station and go out of
Exit No.14, walk in the direction of Dongdaemun about 200m down to get to Hello Apm, Migligore, and
Doota malls.
③ Note: - Korea’s most crowded night scene can be found at Dongdaemun Market. As the night gets
darker, this area gets more congested with people and cars. Weekends are especially busy, so if you
want to shop during a less crowded time, avoid the weeknights.
- Purchasing Hanboks (Korea’s traditional clothes)
Across the Cheonggyecheon stream from Doota, Dongdaemun Shopping Complex comes into view
(take Subway Line No.4 to Dongdaemun Station and go out of Exit No.4), which has many Hanbok
shops on the first floor. If you want to purchase a Hanbok as a souvenir, this is the place to go to find
beautiful affordable Hanboks.
Insa-dong – Shopping for Korean Traditional
[Main Products: Souvenirs, Traditional Crafts, and Artworks]
If you want to purchase Korea’s traditional souvenirs, head to Insa-dong. The streets are full of
Korea’s historical artifacts, and the alleys are filled with Korean restaurants and traditional teahouses,
galleries, antique shops, and more. Looking around Insa-dong will provide you with the experience of
appreciating Korea’s traditional past. However, Insa-dong is not all about tradition. It is a harmony of
the modern and traditional times. You can find Hanboks designed in a mix and match of the traditional
and the modern, and other traditional items with modern features. This is a result of Insa-dong’s efforts
to maintain traditional culture and at the same time try to make Insa-dong a refreshing, modernized
place for the young and old to enjoy.
Insa-dong offers not only traditional craftwork, but it is also the largest art market for Korean artwork.
Korea’s artists hold one to two-week exhibitions in the many galleries, during which you can purchase
the exhibited artwork.
Insa-dong has one main street, along which many small alleys that branch out. The alleys are filled
with things to see. Recently, with the creation of Ssamziegil and its unique architecture, many small
unique shops are adding to the fun of Insa-dong. Sundays are “no cars day” and you can walk around
without the inconvenience of having to avoid oncoming cars. However, this also means that Sundays
are the most crowded, and at the same time various events and street vendors freely come here to put
on a show, making a visit on a Sunday to Insa-dong worthwhile.
Located near Insa-dong is Gyeongbokgung Palace and Unhyeungung Palace. You can extend your
visit to include these two palaces to immerse yourself in Korean traditions and customs.
① Tourist Information Center
- Location: Take Subway Line No.3 to Anguk Station and go out of Exit No.6, you will find the Tourist
Information Center about 20m down. The Tourist Information Center is located at the entrance of Insadong Street, and about 100m down along Insa-dong Street is another TIC. You can find detailed
information about Insa-dong, a map of Insa-dong, and various other information brochures.
- Contact Number: 02-731-1622
- Language Services: English, Japanese, Chinese Available
- Service Hours: 10:00 – 18:00 (No holidays)
② Transportation: Take Subway Line No.1 to Jonggak Station and go out of Exit No.3, walk toward
Jongno 2-ga and make a right at Kum Kang Shoes building.
Or take Subway Line No.3 to Anguk Station and go out Exit No.6, turn onto the street where Crown
Bakery is located 30 meters away.
Itaewon – Shopping Street for Everyone
[Main Products: Clothes, Shoes, Antiques to Tailor Shops]
Seoul’s Itaewon has attracted foreigners since the end of the Korean War, and the shops in the district
have naturally developed into a commercial area for foreigners residing in Korea. Today, many tourists
and residents also hang out in this area. Located near Itaewon are the War Memorial, Leeum
Museum, and the Islam Temple.
Hence, Itaewon is the most definite in its district’s distinct features in all of Seoul. Itaewon Street
begins at Noksapyeong Station, leading to Itaewon Station, all the way down to Hangangjin Station.
The street covers about 1.4km. The street is mostly lined with shops and street vendors on both sides.
From Itaewon at Noksapyeong Station’s end to Itaewon Station, the shops mostly sell clothes, shoes,
and bags. From Itaewon Station to Hangangjin Station, the streets are mostly lined with antique shops,
and furniture shops selling Asian-style furniture.
Also located around Itaewon Station are shirt and suit tailor shops, proud of their long history. Itaewon
district is filled with items and souvenirs from all parts of the world, restaurants serving all types of
international cuisine, and unique bars. You can enjoy shopping during the day and enjoy foods you
miss from back home.
① Tourist Information Center
- Location:
1. Inside Itaewon Station (across from the ticket office) 9:00am – 10:00pm (no holidays) Interpreters
are available in English, Japanese, Chinese.
2. 20meters toward Hangangjin Station from Itaewon Station 9:00am – 6:00pm Interpreters are
available in English and Japanese.
② Transportation: Take Subway Line No.6 to Noksapyeong Station, Itaewon Station, or Hangangjin
Station.
③ Note: Most merchants, including the street vendors, at Itaewon can speak some English. Try to
bargain for better prices in English; if all else fails, try Korean.
Apgujeong
[Main Products: Luxury brand botiques such as CHANEL, FENDI, LUIS VUITTON, PRADA,
VERSACE, etc]
Cheongdam-dong is the Champs-Elysees and the Via Montena Poleone of Seoul. This area is lined
with luxurious brand-named boutiques, exquisite restaurants, top of the line hair salons, and high-class
galleries. This area has many of Korea’s top celebrities who come by frequently, and if you are lucky
you may run into them while shopping. The imported luxury brand boutiques and major designer
boutiques are mostly located between Galleria East and Cheongdam-dong intersection. The season’s
top quality clothes and accessories are first seen here, and go on sale here.
If you visit this area at the right time, you may be able to purchase luxury brand items for discount
prices. The streets are usually fairly empty, and very clean. So enjoy a shopping spree here if you are
looking for some top luxury brands.
① Transportation: Take Subway Line No.3 to Apgujeong Station or take Subway Line No.7 to
Cheongdam Station, transfer to a taxi to Galleria East. It is about a ten-minute ride from the subway
station.
② Foreign Language Service: You will not find much difficulty in communications. The employees
have been well trained.
COEX Mall – Underground Shopping City
[Main Products: Clothes, Makeup, Accessories, and Interior Decorations]
COEX Mall is a huge shopping arcade located beneath Samsung-dong Trade Center in Gangnam-gu.
The mall offers shopping, culture, and entertainment, attracting mostly young people in their teens and
early twenties. Located nearby are the COEX exhibition halls and international conference rooms,
providing convenient shopping for business people.
The entrance to the mall is connected to Subway Line No.2 of Samsung Station, and the walls are
named under the theme of ‘as the water flows,’ with names in the order of Summit Walk, Forest Walk,
Lake Walk, Waterfall Walk, Canyon Walk, Riverside Walk, Tropics Walk, Ocean Walk, etc. This
watercourse leads you to the Lake Food Court, the event hall featuring various music performances
and plays, the large bookstore Bandi & Luni’s, the Valley Six fashion mall housing trendy shops selling
clothes and accessories, and the Megabox Cineplex with 16 theaters. Also, Korea’s largest aquarium
is located inside COEX Mall.
COEX Mall has about 100 various types of shops, and with more than just shopping. Time flies when
you are inside COEX Mall. The mall also holds various events, attracting numerous young visitors.
① Location: 159, Samsung-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
② Transportation: Take Subway Line No.2 to Samsung Station between Exit No.5 & No.6. (The
Millennium Plaza, Megabox Cineplex, COEX Intercontinental Hotel, and the arcade all connect.)
③ Homepage: www.coexmall.com (English)
I'PARK MALL
Connected to Yongsan Station, I’PARK MALL is conveniently accessible. Its original name was Space
9, but after renovation it reopened as I’PARK MALL. This shopping complex has made Yongsan
Station more dynamic. The best feature of I’PARK MALL is its facilities consisting of a multiplex
theater, shopping mall and food courts.
The electronics shops are located on the 3, 4, 5, 8 floors. On the 3rd floor, which is connected to
Yongsan Station, are products such as MP3s, digital cameras and small household appliances. The
4th floor sells mid-sized household appliances and the 5th floor offers notebooks and computers. The
8th floor, one of the most crowded floors, sells cellular phones. Along with the digital electronics mall,
the I’PARK Department Store is located across the street, with the Living Shopping Mall and Leports
Shopping Mall providing a wide variety of shopping. The multiplex theater has 11 theaters and has a
food court.
I’PARK MALL has a large parking area for your convenience, and depending on how much you spend
shopping, the parking is free.
- Business Hours: 10:30 a.m.~ 8 p.m. (extended business hours on weekends)
- Closed for business on Mondays, which is posted on the homepage.
① Location: Seoul, Yongsan-gu, Hangang-no 3 ga 40-999
② Transportation: Get off at Yongsan Subway Station (Line No. 1) or Sinyongsan Subway Station
(Line No. 4) an walk through the linked pathway
http://www.nzz.ch
13. November 2009
Wunderwurzeln und Wolkenkratzer
In der südkoreanischen Hauptstadt Seoul gehen Tradition und Moderne Hand in Hand
Das Land der Morgenstille ist längst aufgewacht. In Südkorea gehören verglaste Bürotürme, Big Macs
und koreanische IT zum Alltag. Doch daneben trifft der Besucher auf verschnörkelte Tempel, Chips
aus Seerosenwurzeln und alte Traditionen.
Monika Hippe
Von der Toilette des Fernsehturms aus hat man den besten Blick auf die Wolkenkratzer von Seoul:
Sie wirken wie aneinandergereihte Dominosteine. Dazwischen schwirren Menschen und Autos wie
Mücken hin und her. «Dies ist die schönste Toilette der Welt – wegen der Aussicht», meint Maria, die
koreanische Reiseleiterin. Draussen auf der Aussichtsplattform des TV-Turms rüttelt der Wind am
Gitterzaun. Daran baumeln Tausende Sicherheitsschlösser, bemalt mit Herzen und Hochzeitsdaten.
Paare wollen damit ihre Liebe am höchsten Punkt der 10-Millionen-Einwohner-Metropole festhalten.
Starbucks und Seetangperlen
Dabei ist die Liebesheirat in Korea noch nicht der Normalfall. Fast die Hälfte aller Ehen werden von
Eltern oder einem Heiratsvermittler nach konfuzianischem Ideal arrangiert. Maria ist stolz: Sie hat
schon zweimal verkuppelt. Beim dritten Mal komme man ins Paradies, so heisst es. König Kim aus der
Silla-Dynastie soll nicht nur eine Frau gehabt haben, sondern 3000. «Deshalb kommt der Name so
häufig vor. Würde man einen Kieselstein von hier auf die Stadt werfen, er würde mit Sicherheit Herrn
oder Frau Kim treffen.» Sagt Maria, die mit Nachnamen ausnahmsweise Shin heisst.
Die Koreaner sind stolz auf ihre Kims und auf die verglasten Bürotürme, auf deren
Aussenbildschirmen 24 Stunden lang Werbung flackert, auf Daewoo und Samsung, auf die
achtspurigen Strassen und den KTX-Superschnellzug, der mit 300 Kilometern pro Stunde an
Reisfeldern vorbeiflitzt. Doch sie lieben auch die Tradition. Vor dem Gyeongbokgung-Palast
schwenken Männer in bunten Gewändern ihre Fahnen, sie spielen Wachablösung der königlichen
Garde während der Joseon-Dynastie im 14. Jahrhundert. Ein paar Hochhausschluchten weiter im
Einkaufsviertel Insa Dong zieht der Geruch von Räucherstäbchen durch die Luft. Hier verkaufen kleine
Läden Buddhastatuen und Pinsel für Kalligrafie. Elektrische Kabel hängen im Mikadomuster zwischen
den Häuserfronten. Vor einem Restaurant liegt der Kopf einer Sau, eingewickelt in Plasticfolie. Ein
Scherzbold hat mit einem Filzstift schwarze Wimpern über die Augen gemalt.
Maria führt ihre Gruppe vorbei an Modeläden, Starbucks und McDonald's in eine kleine Seitengasse,
wo das Restaurant Sanchon liegt. Zur Begrüssung legt der kahlköpfige Inhaber und ehemalige Mönch
Yun-Sik Kim die Hände aneinander und verbeugt sich. Eine Koreanerin mit Püppchenfigur serviert
innerhalb von Minuten Hunderte gefüllter Schälchen: eingelegte Glockenblumenwurzeln, frittierten
Silberfisch, Chips aus Seerosenwurzeln, grüne Seetangperlen. Manches schmeckt hervorragend,
anderes einfach nur fremd, so dass sich mancher nach dem vertrauten Geschmack eines Hamburgers
sehnt. Besonders gewöhnungsbedürftig ist das koreanische Nationalgericht Kimchi: fermentierter,
scharfer Chinakohl – Koreakohl, berichtigt Maria schmunzelnd. Sie legt jedes Jahr fünf verschiedene
Sorten ein. Es gibt ihn mit Knoblauch, Peperoni, mit Chili und Honig und in weiteren 160 Varianten.
Die Gesundheitsbehörde habe den Kohl zu den fünf gesündesten Nahrungsmitteln gekürt, sagt Maria.
«Essen ist Medizin», meint sie. Deshalb schwört sie auf Kimchi und auf traditionelle Kräuter und
Wurzeln wie Ginseng. Die Heilwurzel habe 600 Wirkstoffe, die gegen unzählige Leiden helfen. Der
rote Ginseng aus Korea soll weltweit der beste sein.
Uralte Kampfkunst
Fenster schliessen Auch der Mönch Hyon Muk weiss die positive Wirkung der Wunderwurzel zu
schätzen. Erst kürzlich hat der Leiter des Songgwangsa-Tempels neue Ginsengsamen gestreut. Sein
Zuhause ist eine Tempelanlage mit 45 Gebäuden, die 200 Kilometer südlich von Seoul in einem Park
am Fuss des Jogye-san liegt. Gerade ist das Gebet zu Ende, und Mönche in braunen Roben strömen
aus dem Haupttempel. Sie schlurfen in einer Schlange zum Mittagessen. Während des Kauens
schweigen sie. Hinterher wird gemeinsam abgewaschen. Die vielen Besucher stören die Mönche nicht
sonderlich. «Sie sind wie Wolken, die vorüberziehen», sagt Hyon. Seine Gelassenheit schöpft er aus
der täglichen Meditation und aus Taekwondo, der uralten koreanischen Kampfkunst. «Sie schult
Körper und Geist» sagt er, dann kreuzt er die Hände über die Brust und verbeugt sich zum Abschied.
Die Kraft des modernen Taekwondo kann der Besucher am Abend im Theater in Seoul erleben.
Sechs junge Männer fliegen durch die Luft wie Superman. Dabei stossen sie immer wieder kurze
Schreie aus. Ein Technosound hämmert durch den Saal, Dampf quillt aus versteckten Düsen. Die
grösstenteils einheimischen Zuschauer sind entzückt. Als ein Europäer aus dem Publikum auf die
Bühne gewinkt wird und ein Kunststück nachahmen muss, kreischen sie vor vergnügter
Schadenfreude. Die Aufführung «Jump» ist eine Mischung aus Taekwondo, Akrobatik und Comedy –
und überall beliebt: Ob bei Gastauftritten in New York, London, Hongkong oder im heimischen Seoul,
fast jeden Abend ist die Vorstellung ausverkauft. Doch so modern die Aufmachung auch sein mag, die
Geschichte ist Tradition: Sie erzählt in vier Episoden, wie der Grossvater versucht, seine Enkelin mit
einem Heiratskandidaten zu verkuppeln. Natürlich mit Erfolg. Denn er will ja ins Paradies.
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr
Cultural Center
The Daehangno area explodes with youthful energy and cultural entertainment 365 days a year. If
you’d like to learn about Korea’s arts and culture, come check out the Daehangno!
In this area many different performances take place both inside theaters and outdoors. In the
Daehangno freedom of expression is encouraged, and the area has a bohemian atmosphere. A wide
variety of arts are on display in Daehangno, but the most common is theater. Don’t worry about not
being able to speak Korean, there are many plays in the Daehangno, where you don’t need to
understand the language in order to enjoy the play.
One of those plays is the Drawing Show~
In this show the performers create amazing pictures on stage.
It’s just like magic, sometimes the audience can’t believe their eyes! This show is so much more than
drawing. Magic, mime, music, and humor is combined to create an original, energy-packed show,
which can be enjoyed by everyone!
In theaters and hotels all over Seoul, there are many top-quality shows for you to enjoy.
After walking around the streets and enjoying the shows, you start feeling hungry~
A cup of sweet, fragrant coffee and sandwiches hit the spot!
And why don’t you indulge yourself in a delicious slice of cake…
Get swept up in the arts and lose yourself in the cultural atmosphere of Daehangno.
The streets of Hongik University
To experience the best nightlife in the city you’ve got to come to the area around Hongik University,
which is where Seoul’s young generation hangs out.
Here the streets are filled with the latest fashion item. A wide selection of bold new styles is available.
Hongdae is especially recommended for younger visitors as it has the leading club culture in Korea!! If
you visit a Hongdae club, not only will you enjoy an exciting concert,
but you will really experience the energy of Seoul’s youth.
The streets of Hongik University are alive with students’ passion and dreams, so this is one of the
most exciting places in Seoul.
Shopping Location No.1
Shopping is one of the best things to do when travelling!
And Seoul has lots of great shopping destinations. Our first destination is Myeong-dong, the shopping
center of Korea. Here you can find fashionable clothes, accessories, and cosmetics. And you can find
this wide selection of items all in one place, so it’s a popular destination for tourists.
Here you can try the cosmetics before you buy them, so you can find which product looks best on your
skin.
Myeong-dong is also a great place for dining. Myeong-dong’s most famous dish is Kalguksu, which
has rich soup broth and delicious chewy noodles!
They say that after just one taste you’ll definitely be addicted!...
Kalguksu has a very natural taste. Most tourists really like this dish, so be sure to try some.
But be sure to let it to cool before you eat it, since it can be really hot~
If you want to go shopping in Seoul, there’s another place you cannot miss, the Dongdaemun
Shopping Town! At night, the area is bustling with people and there are live shows on outdoor stages.
This shopping location is recommended for tourists on a budget.
Here you can purchase great clothes at great prices.
At our next destination you can stroll along beautiful streets and enjoy shopping at the same time. This
is Samcheong-dong.
If you’re looking for something more unique , and would like to go shopping in a relaxed atmosphere,
then we highly recommend Samcheong-dong.
Here you can find one of a kind high heels, jewelry, hair accessories, and so much more.
Shoppers in Samcheong-dong can really express their individuality.
Samcheong-dong is particularly popular with female tourists, since its unique individuality extends to
even the smallest accessories.
When you get tired from shopping, take a stroll through the beautiful streets of charming Samcheongdong.
Jjimjilbang
After all that shopping and nightlife you'll be pretty tired, so our next destination is a jimjilbang. Here
you can really experience Korean culture, as nearly all Korean people love coming to the Jimjilbang to
relax.
Visit the hot Hanjeungmak (sweating room) and rejuvenate your skin, mind, and soul from the fatigues
of your travels, and then head to the ice room to cool down. And for a really new experience, you can
even sleep over in a Jimjilbang.
A Jjimjilbang offers you a chance to unwind and experience one of Korea’s most-loved pastimes.
Some of the larger Jjimjilbangs even have swimming pools, After a visit to the Jimjilbang, you’ll have
the energy to enjoy even more of Seoul’s shopping and great nightlife!
Epilogue
Are you looking for a vacation that will reenergize and inspire you?
The dynamic and energetic city of Seoul is waiting for you.
http://www.theyeogiyo.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=4
The Bundang List
I'm sure others will be able to start this for their own area, but here goes - a collection of good stuff in
the Bundang Area.
Please share your good finds...unless they'd spoil with public knowledge.
Jukjeon:
* Auntie Anne's pretzels on the main strip of 'New Jukjeon' or 'Shin Jukjeon.'
* Out of Auntie Anne's, to your right, and under that sort of passageway is a foreign foods store
(mostly Japanese foods)
* The Shin Jukjeon WA bar is fun and the owner tries to give us free stuff when he can. Mad Dog's is
too bright!
* By the Jukjeon Post Office there are two good places for eats. A giant Shabu Shabu place (I think it's
called “Ocean Shabu Shabu”) across from Cheers at the major intersection, and Gourmet Bagel which
is on the right side of the main strip if you're facing away from the Post Office. Gourmet Bagel has a
ton of different sandwiches, and the owner prides himself on visiting different places around the world
to learn his craft. Ask for the jalapeno bagel (it's not spicy).
* In Jukjeon Shinsegae, Sticky Fingers, a vegan bakery. There's also a non-vegan donut place right
next to it with delicious baked...or something...doughnuts. If you're looking for more veggie options
there, near the juice place (it advertises itself as vegetarian, which is...what? of course it is!), there's a
small stall selling veggie-related goods (some have shrimp involvement though). I'll get the name next
time I'm there.
* There's also a CGV in the Shinsegae in Jukjeon.
* Near the X-Park there's a Vietnamese restaurant serving a small selection of stuff, as well as a
waffle place and plenty of really cute cafes. Some have Wi-Fi if you're looking to get out of the house
* Near Dangook University there's an Indian restaurant. I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for
really good Indian food, but it will do in a pinch. The pakoras are actually more like potatoes and they
come with ketchup. I'll let you imagine the rest.
* Behind Dangook University there's a hidden dog farm, if you'd like to experience it for yourself
* The Hapkido dojang in the Thyme Pizza (best pizza in Jukjeon - wood-oven!) building on the main
strip from E-Mart will help you get your black belt. The kwan jang nim is my boyfriend so hands off.
* Also in that building, good kimchi bokkeumbap at the Kimbap Nara, a little bar with an owner who
wants to learn English and might supply free beer in return, an all-you-can-eat bibimbap and noodle
place, a Chinese restaurant and Aurora Spa Jimjilbang.
* Jimjilbang options - Aurora Spa (see above) is newly renovated so maybe better, but before that it
wasn't too shabby. There's a small and really crowded swimming pool (bring your suit though I think
they do rent). The place can get really busy, so go during the downtime. There's also a jimjilbang in
the main building up the street (W Pharmacy, Paris Baguette, Yugaekju). It's similar to Aurora and is
nice when it's not packed. (This one was here first).
* Leader's Fitness in that same building is a gym on the top floor. Treadmills, elliptical machines,
weight machines, yoga and aerobics, bikes, mats, a steam room. It's all right if you need an option in
the area, though some of the changes haven't been the greatest over the past few years.
* I think the new library is opening in December. More on that if it does.
* Bulgok Mountain is a nice little hike with views of Migeum and area. It will take you about an hour up
and down, with a stop at the top for a beer. If you follow those mountains, you can hike into Seoul
(there are some spots where you'll have to come down the mountain to cross roads).
Suji:
* Subway restaurant
* On the street that Subway is on, UltraHip clothing sells some fun stuff, and there's a pub called
Bibliere that is never open when I'm near it but looks fun
* Near all of the yeogwans/hotels there's a small street filled with little bars (one with a GoStop logo)
and restaurants - it makes you feel like Asia by being there. There's also a Family Mart in that area
with a wrap-around patio. Now we're talking.
* The Vegetarian restaurant, Eden
It's across from the Starus building/GS25.
I think it's W7,000 for lunch and W10,000 though both buffets are the same.
It's run by a seventh day adventist, Stephen. We've been there countless times and he's spoken to us
about his faith a few times but not in a preachy way, although he did give us some free literature, and
sometimes he plays Jesus Loves me on his guitar while you're eating.
There's a collection of sides and salads, three or four soups including sundubu and some stuff that
has been the same menu since we started going there two years ago - sweet and sour deep fried
mushrooms (yeah!), jap chae, spaghetti, mushroom and veggie medleys, etc.
It's best to go around lunch time or dinner time, as the food gets a bit cold otherwise, but it's still good.
Oh - and you can get sugarfree peanut butter (just peanuts!), brown bread and veggie meat (ham, hot
dogs)...
Jeongja:
A similar veggie buffet, called Salem, is in the Ho Lee Chow building. It's even more delicious, though
maybe it's because we haven't been as much.
Both veggie restaurants are closed on Saturdays, and Salem is closed on Sunday as well.
oh yeah. hey, I found a Krispy Kreme in 2001 Outlets in Migeum. down in B2. why doesn't Ori have a
Krispy Kreme?
Mr. Pizza and the dogs have moved from the building next to the W Pharmacy and Buy the Way and
have relocated to Shin Jukjeon - they still have our names and numbers on file if you'd like delivery.
Migeum:
* All of my favourite places from Jukjeon are also in Migeum. That includes:
- the Migeum subway, woot!
- on the road from Exit 7 you'll find kimbap shops, a Yugaekju bar, two Vietnamese places, a Joe's
Sandwich, Pizza School, a new book store that has used English books for a few bucks, a board game
room as well as Juno Hair and a sweet drinking bar called Season 2 (City of Angels Building 2),
Subway restaurant, a chicken place, mandu restaurant, two cheap clothing stores, a Wa Bar,
Rumboats, a big HaagenDaaz cafe, a place to get bossam (pork?) and maguksu (noodles), Orange
Mart for groceries and two gyms so that you can work the beer and food off and fit into that cheap
clothing before you go to the board game room.
- on the road across from that road, the 2001 outlet, Kim's Club (which sells tortillas if you're looking),
a very small mountain system that leads to Ori, the library, a JazzDance place, a German bakery,
Krispy Kreme as BaboJeff mentioned, an Outback, Vietnamese place, and a place called 'The Athlete
Foot,' that recent visitors had to take pictures of, naturally.
- on the road from what I think is Exit 2 (the Buy the Way cafe is on the corner), you'll find Harry Liquor
Pia (super cheap food and beer), a good Japanese place, Mr. Pizza, a ton of galbi places, Goodfellas
bar, a popular MiniStop, and Isaac for grilled cheese and egg sandwiches and fresh juice for W1,500
(follow the Isaac road through the tree path to get to the river quite easily...down that road there's also
a bike road with an air pump installed next to it, yep!)
- on the road across from that road, you'll find a post office and Aat Daal (I don't know how to
Romanize it) - the sweetest tteokbokgi and twigum place (and sundae, if you're into that). There are
also a handful of decent enough bars, KFC, Paris Baguette, the same ol'. That side of the street needs
more exploring, for sure.
Jeongja:
* Butterfingers, as well as two King's Diner's just five minutes from each other (one up high on the 8th
floor?, and one down the street), a street full of restaurants that look like they have decent food, and
Taj, an Indian place that apparently is more expensive than Ganga in Seoyhan but happens to be
worth it
* The Beer Garden at the bottom of IPark is quite enjoyable, though a touch more expensive
http//: www.saunasinkorea.blogspot.com
Seoul, KTX Station - Silloam Sauna & Jjimjil
I would never have found this place for you guys if I hadn't missed my train back to Busan recently.
Just so you know, the last Busan-bound KTX leaving Seoul on any given night is at 10:30. Anyway,
10:40 is too late.
Fortunately, the helpful lady at the information desk in Seoul Station was able to direct me out the
back of the station to Silloam Sauna, which I definitely had my doubts about. I mean, how many
cheap and still nice places have you ever seen around a big station? Though I was worried, my other
option was to stay in a motel, and I'm really glad I took the chance on Silloam.
From the outside, Silloam is unassuming, you might even miss it if you're not looking for it. From
Seoul Station, you should exit to the northwest (sort of the back, to the right if you're looking at the
ticket windows) and walk through or around Lotte Mart. From there, you'll see the overpass at the
large 4-way intersection to the right just ahead of you - you should be able to see the sign on the side
of the Silloam building as well. Walk across and then up the ramp and you're there.
Inside, the sauna is nice but, when I was there, not the cleanest. I entered around 11pm so I'm sure
they clean at night, but anyway, it gets the job done. There are quite a few interesting tubs (yellow
soil, wormwood, charcoal) and "sweating rooms" (infrared, jade, super-hot salt scrub room) inside
the sauna, though I didn't take the time to enjoy them when I was there. One strange thing is that
you can't adjust the temperature of any of the standing showers!
The real surprise came when I ascended the stairs into the jjimjilbang area: there's a LOT here! Again,
the rooms contain many unusual materials and are located around the edges of a central room on 3
different floors. The charcoal, yellow-soil, salt, and oxygen rooms are typical, as are the dens (caves,
pictured at the left); you can also find something they call elvan (maybe quartz or something?), loose
gravel, and a cold charcoal room. There's a singing room, cafe, coffee shop, restaurant, snack bar, PC
& game room, movie room, salon/barber shop, shoe repair place, and a little store. You can even
participate in yoga free of charge.
I quickly scanned the jjimjilbang for some nice place to sleep and found quite a few nooks and rooms
that would have been well-suited (you can get a sleeping pad and blanket from an old guy in one of
the main rooms if you sleep here), but figured I ought to head up to the top floor and at least take a
look at the sleeping rooms. First of all, cell phones must not be used (or at least activate silent mode)
in the sleeping rooms and there's also a "Snorer's room," to minimize disruption to other sleepers!
The men's and women's sleeping rooms have 400 and over 300 beds respectively. You'll never have
some ajumma's arm flop over you in this place! Each bed is separated by at least a low railing and
some have a small wall between them. There are lower and upper bunks each made up with a really
thick sleeping pad, pillow, and pile of blankets. Some upper bunks even have curtains for full privacy.
Plus the rooms are slightly air-conditioned, humidified, purified, and all the other -ieds you could
dream of. It's bliss. I had the best jjimjilbang sleep of my life here, even though it was only 5 hours
worth!
Finally, Silloam offers some special services to visitors since they are located near Seoul Station. You
can leave your larger suitcases or baggage in a parcel room - ask about this at reception. They will
also wash or dry clean your clothes! If you need this service, be sure to allow 2 hours for the cleaning.
서울 중구 중림동 128-104
Seoul, Joong-gu, Joongrim-dong 128-104
02-364-3944
RATES:
Enter from 5am-8pm (use from 5am til 12midnight that day)
Sauna: Adults 7,000 Children 5,000
Sauna & Jjimjil: Adults 9,000 Children 6,000
*5 hours free parking
Enter from 8pm-5am (use from 8pm til 12noon the following day)
Sauna: Adults 9,000 Children 6,000
Sauna & Jjimjil: Adults 12,000 Children 8,000
*free parking for full usage time
Wikimapia of Silloam Fire Pot Sauna
English, Korean, and Japanese available on the Silloam Bulgama (Fire Pot) Sauna website
http://www.streetfoodie.com/category/Korea/
Filipino Market, Hyewha-dong, Seoul
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
Operating between the hours of 10am – 5pm every Sunday, the Filipino market in Hyewha-dong is an
essential part of Seoul’s Filipino community, many of whom attend services at the nearby Catholic
Church.
The market sells a range of imported goods including super-strength San Miguel, tinned fish and even
fresh papaya – the sort of small comforts that provide a connection to home for immigrant
communities all over the world (kind of like costco without the massive trolleys)
Unsurprisingly, the busiest stalls (and the ones I was most interested in) were those selling hot food.
Filipino sausages, fried rice, deep fried spring rolls and curries dominated. For 6000 won, Sarah and I
got a plate with a few different types of curries and noodles to share.
This was my first experience of Filipino food, and although I have forgotten most of the names, I
haven’t forgotten the sensation. The impression I got was of mellow, harmonious flavours acheived
with a sparing use of chili, plenty of coconut milk and a touch of sugar to ever so slightly turn things
up at the edges.
Standouts included a creamy curry made with whole boiled quails eggs, peas and cauliflower, and a
dish made with chopped liver. There was also a samosa/cornish pastie style pastry snack that had
been filled with potatos, paprika and empanada.
It would take a couple of visits to get through the lot, but unfortunately it looks like the market in it’s
present state may not be there for much longer. Seoul Metropolitan Government recently decided to
relocate the Filipino vendors to make room for a fountain or something equally banal.
A vendor there told us the market was currently under “observation” and that her pavement space
had been cut down. Whether the ten or twelve buses full of riot police just down the street had
anything to do with that “observation” I can’t say, but I do know that to lose the market would be a
blow to any hopes the Government have of making Seoul a modern, vibrant tourist destination.
Filipino Market next to Hyewha Catholic Church: Exit 1, Hyewha Subway Station
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Street Mandu, Hanti Station, Gangnam
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
I recently came across this mandu and steamed bun hole-in-the wall whilst out roaming the streets
near Hanti Station in Gangnam. The billowing clouds of steam and stacks of shiny aluminium
steamers instantly grabbed my attention, and I resolved to get in on the action asap.
Working out of an open shop front, this two person operation was churning out food at a frightening
pace. On the menu was two different types of regular sized mandu, a larger, bun sized mandu, and a
steamed bun of epic proportions. I chose a portion of kimchi mandu (6 pcs, 3000 won) and one of the
steamed buns (1pc, 1000.)
The steamed bun was enormous – a mountain of doughy, pliable bread that had been filled to
bursting with a hefty amount of sweet, chutney-esque Korean bean paste. It had a great, freshly
made quality to it, but was unfortunately not entirely to my taste.
My feelings towards the mandu however were much less ambiguous. These little brain shaped
parcels came stuffed full of chopped pork, kimchi, green onions and glass noodles. They had a
fantastic lip burning, tongue tingling spiciness to them, and tasted great with the accompanying bag
of soy sauce.
Directions: Turn left out of Hanti Station Exit 8 and walk for 30 seconds.
Posted in Korea, Seoul | No Comments »
Great pochangmacha in Jongno, Seoul.
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
One of the great things about Korean street food are pochangmachas. Literally translated as
“covered wagons,” these self contained tents are like mini outdoor restaurants, and are fantastic
places to start or end a night of eating and drinking.
A good place to check out one of these is a street off Jongno near Jongno 3-ga Station. Here, dozens
of pochangmachas line each side of the street, selling such delacies as octopus, skewered chicken
hearts and shellfish – all served with plenty of sojo and beer of course!
One such tent is run by Kyung-Sup Lim, a friendly young chef who preps, cooks and serves everything
in his tent single-handedly. The whole operation is a lesson in efficency and good service, and his
food is absolutely fantastic.
I started with a complimentary bowl of odeng (Korean fish cake) in a broth with chili flakes and little
squares of dried seaweed. The broth was lovely and warming, and the odeng nice and salty.
Later I ordered some octopus (10,000 won) For this I got a whole baby octopus, freshly killed then
boiled and mixed with sliced chilli, onions, and some sort of light, sesame oil dressing.
The octopus was cooked gently (it was semi-translucent in places) and tasted great with the
accompanying bowl of watery, tart chilli sauce.
I’ll definitely return to this pochangmacha. The menu has much more to discover (I saw Kyung-Sup
Lim frying up a batch of pork and chilli sauce that looked particularly inviting) and the tent had a
really happy, friendly atmosphere.
Directions: Come out exit 15 of Jongno 3-ga and take the first left (hint: it’s the street with all the
pochangmachas!) Kyung-Sup Lim occupies one of the last tents on the right side of the street.
Posted in Korea, Seoul | 3 Comments »
Sweet potato chips
Monday, April 19th, 2010
Sweet potatoes are a big feature of Korean street food. They are used to make glass noodles for
dishes such as japchae, and in winter they are often baked whole in little stoves. Another use for
sweet potatoes is sweet potato chips. These are made by deep frying long thin “chips” of sweet
potato until golden and crunchy.
To be honest, I’ve always given these things a wide berth. They never really look that appealing, and
most of the time I see them they look like they have been sitting around for ages. Recently however,
while wandering the Nampodong area of Busan (which in my opinion is the best place for street food
in the city) I came across a vendor slicing and frying them on the spot and decided to get stuck in
I have to say they were quite addictive, but I got nowhere near finishing the massive bag I got and I
soon abandoned them completely when I spied one of my favourite pajeon stalls up ahead.
Posted in Busan, Korea | No Comments »
Tempura and Dukbokki Sauce
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
This is fast becoming my street food of choice: Assorted pieces of deep fried what-nots (generally
octopus tentacles, slices of sweet potato and mini kimbaps) smothered in deokbokki sauce and eaten
with a cocktail stick underneath a tarpaulin.
After a certain time of day, I literally can’t walk past one of these places without stopping in for a
bite. If you find a good one, the batter will be nice and crisp and you will get the occaisonal surprise
item (such as deep fried chilli stuffed with glass noodles.)
This one outside Jukjeon station was so-so. The tempura looked like it had been sitting there for a
while and the deokbokki sauce was nothing special. At 2000 won a plate, however, you can’t really
complain. I’m now on a mission to find the best tempura tent in town!
Posted in Korea, Seoul | No Comments »
Recipe: Pajeon
Thursday, April 8th, 2010
Pajeon is my favourite Korean street food. While the pancake itself is great, the thing I love most
about eating pajeon is the dipping sauce – a spicy salty mix of soy sauce, sesame seeds and chilli.
Most of the pajeon you get on the street in Korea contains octopus, but for this pajeon I’ve gone for
some plump little prawns instead. The rest is mainly just spring onions, flour, water and eggs.
Don’t worry if it falls apart or anything starts to burn during the cooking process, pajeon tastes best
with a couple of charred pieces here and there!
Tteokburger (Rice Cake Burger)
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Korean street junk fusion is on the up. I feel like I’ve been reading for months about the Kogi Taco
trucks in LA, and a few weeks ago, Zen Kimchi posted an interesting piece about the bulgoki hotdogs,
chopped galbi and fries and beef and kimchi sandwiches that are becoming popular in the states.
As most of these things seem to be happening in America though, thus far I haven’t really felt able to
relate. On Friday night however, en route to the pub, I got the opportunity to sample what may well
be the next item in this flavour mashing craze; the Tteokburger.
Selling from a street stall near Gangnam station, the Rice Cake or ‘Tteok’ burger is pretty much what
it sounds like. Beef patties are roughly formed around three or four thick, cylindrical ricecakes. They
are then cooked on a hotplate, and sandwiched into a sesame seed bun with some shredded
cabbage and lots of ketchup and mustard.
As street burgers go this was pretty good. The patty was thick and meaty (even with the addition of
the rice cakes the burger probably had more beef than any of the nearby fast food chains,) and the
tteok managed to lend a bit of substance to the burger without being intrusively chewy or bland.
What I really loved about this burger however was the sauce overload. A couple of good squirts of
ketchup and that watery Korean mustard (it looks like cheese in the photo) and the burger turned
into the sort of cheap, sweet, messy affair that’s made for right between the third and fourth beers
of a Friday night.
Now that’s what I’m tteoking about!
Posted in Korea, Seoul | 5 Comments »
Gukwah-ppang
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
One of the best parts of Korean street food has to be the bread. During the winter months especially,
vendors abound selling warm, freshly baked bread products such as hoddeok, gyran-ppang and the
distinctive fish-shaped Bungeo-ppang.
Another popular bread snack is Gukwha-ppang. This small, flower-shaped bread is very similar to
Bungeo-ppang, and involves sweet bean paste contained inside a light, pancake like batter. Like
Bungeo-ppang, it requires a heavy, dimpled pan to cook, and you can often see Gukwha-ppang
operations mounted on the back of small flatbead vans.
This one is located immediately outside the entrance to the Seoul Arts Centre. Despite having just
dined on doncass at a nearby orange restaurant, the long line that was forming and the sight of silky,
elastic dough being rolled out freshly for each order proved too much to resist!
We ordered a hoddeok and six Gukwha-ppang and promptly retired to a nearby bench with our
spoils. Warm and fresh, the Gukwha-ppang was both light and rich. The batter tasted exactly like
pancakes (western ones, not Korean ones) and the sweet beanpaste centre provided a bit of focus to
the snack.
I have to confess however that it was the Hoddeok I was really impressed with. I love the contrast
between the bready, slight crispy shell and the warm, sticky cinnamon mixture within.
I’m getting hunger ppangs just thinking about it!
Posted in Korea, Seoul | No Comments »
Korean Halva
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Back when I was a carefree type I came across some excellent Halva in Beijing. The Halva was nutty,
sticky and a bit of a jaw breaker, but nevertheless it became one of the highlights of my Asian street
food odyssey.
I thought that was it for halva-esque snacks for a while, but last weekend whilst on a reconnaisance
mission to the Andy Warhol Exhibition at the Seoul Art Museum, for Sarah’s new art blog, I
discovered this look-alike.
Like the Beijing Halva, this street food snack was sweet and packed full of nuts. Unlike our Chinese
friend however, the centre was made up of a white nougat-like substance that was soft and chewy in
some places, and hard and crunchy in others.
I have to admit that I didn’t think much of this stuff to begin with. The centre seemed a little boring,
and compared to jam-packed halva it wasn’t too exciting nut-wise. After taking it home and letting it
sit for a while however, I began to see it in a different light. The centre, far from being bland, was
fantastically sweet and the nut casing packed a serious protein punch.
More than this, it has inspired me to act. There is a van outside our apartment block that sells bags of
loose nuts for peanuts – add a little honey, and I sense a recipe coming on!
Posted in Seoul | No Comments »
Baked Sweet Potato
Friday, March 5th, 2010
These baked sweet potatoes are a popular Korean street food and are ubiquitous throughout Seoul.
The potatoes are baked all day long in a small, hot stove with a chimney attached (pic on its way) and
sell for about 1000 won a piece.
The prolonged exposure to heat concentrates the sugar in the flesh and caramelises the skin, making
the potato tooth-achingly sweet (even by sweet potato standards.)
Oh, and they also make great pocket hand-warmers for the cold walk home!
***Seoul’s Best Street Food***
Only have a few days in Seoul? Check out this unmissable Street Food!
» Pochangmacha in Jongno-3-ga
» Rice Cake Burger in Gangnam
» Filipino Market, Hyewha-dong
http://www.seouleats.com/p/korean-night-dining-tour.html
Korean Night Dining Tour
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Korean Night Dining Tour
Culinary Tour Schedule for the May 2010
Night Dining Tour every Thursday, Friday and Saturday Night (Minimum 3 people per tour) May 1315, 20-22, 27-29, June 3-5
Sign up by contacting Daniel Gray at 010 6661 7769, seouleats@gmail.com
The Korean Night Dining Tour focuses on the Korean Drinking Culture and Bar food. It is the perfect
tour for those arriving to Seoul and experiencing jet lag. The tour starts at 6pm at Kwangjang Market
to see the different types of street food available in the market stalls. Then we tour the back alleys of
historic Jongno 3-ga to visit a tent restaurant and enjoy Korean bar food with alcohol. Round 3 is pork
barbecue (Garmaeggisal) grilled on charcoal grills. The tour finishes with a rice wine (makgeolli) and
pajeon tasting. This tour shows the real Korea.
Time: Starts at 6pm and finishes at 10pm. Tours run on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday
Night (Min 4 ppl per tour)
Fee 80,000 ($72) won per person.
Location: Kwangjang Market and Historic Jongno 3-ga.
Contact: Daniel Gray at seouleats at gmail dot com (+82) 010-6661-7769.
www.ongofood.com
The General of Kwangjang Market
Korean Tent Restaurant
Grilled Pork
Plum Wine
Korean Night Dining Tour
No visit to Korea would be complete without experiencing the kinetic nightlife scene. Since many
visitors will be just arriving, this is the best way to overcome jet lag. Our tour will introduce visitors to
the drinking culture and some of the best nighttime dining areas in Korea. The tour will introduce
visitors to the Jongno 3-ga area, which used to be the busiest area of Seoul. This area has not been
gentrified like other parts of Seoul and has a thriving nightlife and underground scene. Here you'll
see the real Korea.
The tour will start with a visit to a visit to a Korean Drinking Tent (Pojangmacha). You'll be introduced
to drinking food with traditional Korean alcohol such as soju and chungha.
Then you'll go to a pork barbecue restaurant specializing in garmaeggisal: a special cut of pork
located near the pig's diaphragm. Here we'll have pork barbecue with beer and soju and learn
different Soju bomb drinks (Potanju) while playing drinking games.
After the barbecue restaurant, you'll be given a brief tour of the colorful Jongno 3-ga area to find
hidden eateries and drinking establishments. The third place will be a local rice wine bar (makgeolli)
place to try a couple different makgeollis with Korean pancake (Pajeon).
Tour Schedule:
6pm: Visit to Kwangjang Market
7pm: Visit to a Tent Restaurant
8pm: Visit to a Korean Pork Restaurant: Garmaeggisal Restaurant
9pm: Visit to a Rice Wine Restaurant to taste different alcohols with Korean Pancake
The tour starts at 8pm and finishes at 11pm. A map of the area will be provided. The cost of this tour
is 80,000 per person (4 person minimum). Contact Daniel Gray to make your reservation.
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Korean Tasting and Tea Tour
First, visitors will be taken to a Korean Restaurant to enjoy a custom tasting menu of over 20
different Korean dishes paired with several traditional alcohols. The dishes are small, so you can
enjoy a range of different tastes, styles, and textures. While you are enjoying your food, the guide
will explain the dishes you are eating and offer interesting tidbits of information about Korean history
and culture. Our guides are experts in Korean culture and cuisine so you will be able to learn and eat
at the same time.
After the tasting, there will be a brief walk around Insadong to show you where you can find the best
restaurants, eateries, and bars that are off the beaten path.
Then you will go to a Korean teashop to have a tasting of several different Korean teas and learn
about the tea culture in Korea while enjoying different tea snacks.
Tour Schedule:
11:45am: Visit to a Korean Restaurant to Enjoy a Custom Tasting with wine
1:30pm: Tour of Insadong to find the best hidden eats
1pm: Tea Tasting with Dessert
2pm: Street Food Tasting
Tours start at 11am and at 4pm on Saturdays and on request The tour costs 80,000 per person
(Minimum 4 people per tour). A map and a guide of the area will be provided. Contact Daniel Gray to
make your reservation.
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Seoul Kunst
http://www.seoulartfiend.com/
Maya Deren at i-gong
May 10th, 2010
Maya Deren
There have been numerous occassions already during my short stint in Seoul when I have been
totally overjoyed at finding some really good shows which I wouldn’t neccessarily have expected to
see. The Maya Deren retrospective at i-gong in Hongdae is one such case. Since reading about this
somewhat obscure and exciting avant garde film maker, writer, dancer, poet and theorist of the
1940’s and 50’s in my rapidly distancing under-grad days, I’d only managed to watch her most
famous short film, ‘Meshes of the Afternoon,’ (1943-59). It certainly made an impression on me,
which is why I was so excited to see it again along with her other short films, Martina Kudlacek’s
2005 documentary on her, and some contemporary international short films which drew influence
frorm her absolutely beautiful, thoughtful and symbol laden films, which magically weave together
themes of time, a post modern fragmentation of the self, upset equilibriums, rituals and classical
forms.
I watched the documentary ‘In the Mirror of Maya Deren’ after watching all of the films that Maya
had directed. It’s a sensetive portrayal of a passionate, serious and determined woman with candid
interviews from former friends, her first husband Alexander Sasha Hammid who collaborated with
her on some of her early films and her old employer, dancer/ anthropologist, Katherine Dunham of
Katherine Dunham Dance Company fame. The film reiterated themes I had picked out from her films
and consolidated them. It also contained audios of Maya speaking about her work and a really cool
recording of her singing a bluesy song that just went, “I got stones in my head, I got pebbles in my
bed…” in her syrupy seductive purr, that has been stuck in my head ever since. I really got the sense
of how she had an almost bewitching effect on many people who came across her, and now I too,
even through the misty veils of second hand experience, feel enraptured by her spell!
All of her films were shot in black and white, and there is no spoken word in any of them. ‘At Land,’
(1944), ‘A Study In Choreography for the Camera,’ (1945) ‘Ritual and Transfigured Time,’ (1946), and
‘Private Life of a Cat,’ (1947), are silent, emphasising the graceful forms depicted, which are
commonly depicted through the medium of dance. Movements are often slowed down, paused or
reversed in an effort to reveal the structure of motion, which are full of what she describes as
“pulsations, agonies, indecisions and repititions.” Her hommage to Classical Greek forms is made
most blatantly in ‘Ritual…’ where four performers dance their own steps which are occassionally
paused mid movement, in a garden amongst perfectly sculpted statues.
Maya Deren, 'Meshes of the Afternoon,' film
”Meshes of the Afternoon,’ (1943-59), ‘Meditation on Violence,’ (1948), and ‘The Very Eye of Night,’
(1952-9) all have ritualistic tribal sounding musical accompaniments, emphasising her preoccupation
on voodoo and ritual which she explored fully during her four visits to Haiti. The cinematic fruits of
these visits were edited by her second husband and musical collaborator, Teiji Ito, to make ‘Divine
Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti,’ (1985). The musical accompaniments themselves are wonderful
and are works of art in their own right. They provide intrinsic rhythm to what’s happening on screen
whether it be a bang of a drum to signify a short but confusing jump in time, as in ‘Meshes…’ or a
flute played on an Eastern musical scale to emphasise the perfect balance and inner calm of the Wu
Tang theories as physically demonstrated in ‘Meditation…’
Her films have a nervous, confusing air to them, and she takes a lead from Duchamp and his allies in
conveying fragmented and disjointed dream-like, or even nightmarish narratives. In ‘Meshes…’ Maya
is caught up in a distorted cycle of trying to catch up with a hooded figure, going back into her house
and up the stairs and falling asleep, until three Mayas all sit round a table, suspiciously eyeing
eachother up, before her husband reveals himself as the hooded figure. In ‘At Land…’ Maya awakens
on a beach, pulls herself up and over some driftwood into another realm where a dinner party is
taking place. She drags herself down the long table and follows some fallen chess pieces back down
onto the beach. At one point in this film, as she runs, a close up is shown of her feet. Three steps are
shown; one in a house, the next in some grass and the last back in the dinner party, upsetting
depictions of time and space.
Maya Deren 'The Very Eye of Night,' film still
‘The Very Eye…’ was her last finished cinematic effort, and the one which I remember most vividly. It
could be described as a sort of celestial ballet; white negative forms of ballet dancers float across a
blackened screen with sparkling stars, in and out of shot. It is thoroughlly enjoyable as a simple
abstraction of graceful and fluid shapes on a black background although it is much more than that. It
sums up most perfectly in my mind what Maya wanted; not to recount a story, but to leave the
viewer with images or even auras of the films.
Maya Deren prided herself on the fact that she made her films for what Hollywood spent on lipstick.
Repelling from the Joan Crawford and Bette Davis type actresses, she chose to make films which
celebrated the human body but embraced abstraction, and echoed the unsure, anxious feelings of
modern times which can still be related to today. She had started out as a poet but felt that she
expressed herself much better through the medium of film. Personally, I’m so glad that she made this
shift and that we still have some of the most influential films to come out of the 20th century to
enjoy. Thank you so much to i-gong for bringing Maya into my life!
i-gong will be showing a Yoko Ono retrospective next! Hooray!
+
Inwangsan
May 6th, 2010
This magical little hillside area of Inwangsan, just north of Anguk is hardly a secret; it’s listed in the
Lonely Planet as one of two recommended walks in Seoul. However, after my first venture up this
beautiful hillside I just had to put it in here as one of my favourite haunts. It’s a lovely mini escape
from Seoul that affords a great view over it too. It can be steep in places, so beware! If it’s dry and
dusty like it was for me, you’ll be navigating some downward paths by hunching down and skidding
on your feet, or maybe by bumping down on your derriere. Only in the most elegant of fashions, of
course!
The hillside itself is like a dreamy Korean landscape; soft, streaky, very noble looking, yellow grey
rock faces and deep green pines scrabbling to bury their spindly toes into the dusty peach earth. At
this time of year too, with all the azaleas and cherry blossoms, it’s especially picturesque. Easily
accessible from Dongnimmun subway, you will begin to ascend the hill past a collection of depressing
identikit apartments into a far more serene environment. Follow the path up past a Shamanist
temple and bronze bell, where people have left offerings of magkeolli (rice wine) and sweets (lucky
spirits!). Thereafter, follow the path to the left and past occassional collections of bizarre looking
stand alone rock formations which have been eroded oddly to give them the appearance of swiss
cheese. You will be faced with a choice of paths that will then wind you round the hillside. We passed
a number of people chanting Shamanist mantras and ringing small bells whilst undertaking a
ritualistic ripping and binding of white cotton, which embues even more magic into the atmosphere
of Inwangsan. Whilst scrambling up the rocks, you are treated to amazing views south over Seoul. A
perfect location to play spot the landmark in!
We followed the fortress wall back down the hill and the walk only took two hours, so this is what I
mean when I say it’s a perfect mini escape from Seoul. You could choose to follow the wall further up
and into Inwangsan, which I will definitely be doing at some point in the near future. The best thing
about this walk is that within 10 minutes of leaving the subway, you are transported into a landscape
that looks like it could have been lifted from a traditional silk mounted ink drawing, yet are looking
down onto the sprawling metropolis below.
Take line 3 to Dongnimmun and exit by exit 2. Turn into the first alley on the left and it’s straight
forward from there. Don’t forget your camera!
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April 30th, 2010
May 2010 Listings
The Crossroads of Civilisations: Ancient Culture of Uzbekistan, 17th November 2009- 26th September
2010, National Museum of Korea, Yongsan-gu
A look at one of the important centres of the silk route, from prehistoric times through it’s bronze
and iron ages to the 8th century.
Opening hours: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9am-6pm, Wednesday and Saturday 9am-9pm, Sunday
and holidays 9am-7pm, closed Mondays
Admission: Adults 10,000 won, youths 9,000 won, juniors 8,000 won, children 6,000 won, seniors
5,000 won, infants and disabled free
www.museum.go.kr/EngMain.do
Bukchon: a traditional Korean village within downtown Seoul
March 17th, 2010
View of hanok traditional homes in Bukchon
I’d heard stories of a hanok (traditional Korean house) village within downtown Seoul that was host
to numerous independent cafes, galleries, museums and shops, but was always a little sceptical. An
old hanok village, amidst all these dwarfing, spangly high rises? Pah!
On Sunday however, after a little internet research, I was delightfully proved wrong. Bukchon sits
nestled beside Gyeongbok Palace under the watchful eye of a large, and particularly Asian looking,
slate grey rocky mountain. It’s within easy walking distance of Anguk subway station, so it can easily
be combined with a day out to Insadong. Insadong and Bukchon are comparable in that they are
touristy because of their traditional feel, but in terms of authenticity, and for a much less hectic
atmosphere, Bukchon wins hands down – perfect for Sunday afternoon strolling!
Detail of metalwork on door, Bukchon
It’s a hilly area of well maintained hanoks with graceful low roofs resembling gentle grey lapping
waves. The houses are clustered together in a disorientating fashion, separated by skinny, snaking
alleyways and usually arranged in a square shape around central courtyards. High walls and thick
wooden gates adorned with precise metal work protect the privacy of the homes and promote a
serene environment, while dark stained wooden posts with white painted ends support the tiled
roofs and wooden latticed shutters keep out hot sun and curious eyes, (it’s so nice to see wood!) Big,
brown, ceramic kimchi pots and flower pots crowd together outside doorways.
Despite this maze-like arrangement however, Bukchon is surprisingly easy to navigate. There are a
few south- north main thoroughfares which cut through the hanoks that help keep you right, and
there are also helpful signs showing the way to some of the main attractions in the area. Stop off at
one of the Tourist Information Centres located just north of Anguk station to pick up a map of the
area before you set off. You can also buy a 10,000 Won ticket here which gets you entry to Gahoe
Minhwa Museum, Donglim Maedup Museum, Seoul Museum of Chicken Art and Han Sangsoo
Embroidery Museum within the area.
Without doubt, you will stumble upon numerous small museums which mainly showcase elements of
traditional Korea, be it in terms of arts and crafts, ways of living, or food. There are also numerous
galleries which support leading contemporary Korean art. Because it was a Sunday, I found the Seoul
Museum of Chicken Art, which displays all types of arts and crafts related chicken motifs from around
the world, to be closed. The Traditional Doll Centre was also closed. Given my affection for birds and
dolls, I was dismayed. However, I was especially taken by the lovely Owl Art and Craft Museum; a
room dedicated to one lady’s 40 year old collection of owl paraphenelia which takes form in clocks,
stamps, clothing, vases and even lamps. She will even serve you tea in her owl mugs!
Owl Art and Craft Museum, Bukchon
Toykino Museum has 6 rooms filled with film and animation models- a must for Spiderman fanatics!
However, it’s not as interesting or atmospheric as the old dusty collection of toys in Toto in Insadong.
If you’re feeling in need of a pick me up after a while of pounding these often precorious streets,
there are loads of cafes and restaurants ranging from traditional Korean teashops and fare, to Italian,
Chinese, Malay, Singaporean and Indian food. All are a bit on the pricey side, so if you’re short for
cash, seek out a long line of Koreans waiting for some great street food.
Traditional woven Korean slippers, Bukchon
There are far too many sights to list here, or even visit in one day. I earmarked a few things on my
map before setting off, but I found that the most pleasure I got was from simply wandering and
losing myself in the twisting alleys and discovering museums, galleries and photo opportunities as I
came across them. The further from the main thoroughfares you venture, the quieter it becomes; it’s
likely that you will only hear the sound of your own footsteps and a few chirping birds. I will
definitely be back on a Saturday to check out what I missed out on this time. Avoid Mondays, when
most museums in Seoul are closed (unless you’re looking for an even quieter experience!)
If you’re wondering what a peaceful, pre- Industrial Korea was like, then Bukchon is your answer.
Directions: Take orange line 3 to Anguk station and leave from exit 1 or 2. Head north and you’re
there.
Inwangsan
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
This magical little hillside area of Inwangsan, just north of Anguk is hardly a secret; it’s listed in the
Lonely Planet as one of two recommended walks in Seoul. However, after my first venture up this
beautiful hillside I just had to put it in here as one of my favourite haunts. It’s a lovely mini escape
from Seoul that affords a great view over it too. It can be steep in places, so beware! If it’s dry and
dusty like it was for me, you’ll be navigating some downward paths by hunching down and skidding
on your feet, or maybe by bumping down on your derriere. Only in the most elegant of fashions, of
course!
The hillside itself is like a dreamy Korean landscape; soft, streaky, very noble looking, yellow grey
rock faces and deep green pines scrabbling to bury their spindly toes into the dusty peach earth. At
this time of year too, with all the azaleas and cherry blossoms, it’s especially picturesque. Easily
accessible from Dongnimmun subway, you will begin to ascend the hill past a collection of depressing
identikit apartments into a far more serene environment. Follow the path up past a Shamanist
temple and bronze bell, where people have left offerings of magkeolli (rice wine) and sweets (lucky
spirits!). Thereafter, follow the path to the left and past occassional collections of bizarre looking
stand alone rock formations which have been eroded oddly to give them the appearance of swiss
cheese. You will be faced with a choice of paths that will then wind you round the hillside. We passed
a number of people chanting Shamanist mantras and ringing small bells whilst undertaking a
ritualistic ripping and binding of white cotton, which embues even more magic into the atmosphere
of Inwangsan. Whilst scrambling up the rocks, you are treated to amazing views south over Seoul. A
perfect location to play spot the landmark in!
We followed the fortress wall back down the hill and the walk only took two hours, so this is what I
mean when I say it’s a perfect mini escape from Seoul. You could choose to follow the wall further up
and into Inwangsan, which I will definitely be doing at some point in the near future. The best thing
about this walk is that within 10 minutes of leaving the subway, you are transported into a landscape
that looks like it could have been lifted from a traditional silk mounted ink drawing, yet are looking
down onto the sprawling metropolis below.
Take line 3 to Dongnimmun and exit by exit 2. Turn into the first alley on the left and it’s straight
forward from there. Don’t forget your camera!
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Bukchon: a traditional Korean village within downtown Seoul
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
View of hanok traditional homes in Bukchon
I’d heard stories of a hanok (traditional Korean house) village within downtown Seoul that was host
to numerous independent cafes, galleries, museums and shops, but was always a little sceptical. An
old hanok village, amidst all these dwarfing, spangly high rises? Pah!
On Sunday however, after a little internet research, I was delightfully proved wrong. Bukchon sits
nestled beside Gyeongbok Palace under the watchful eye of a large, and particularly Asian looking,
slate grey rocky mountain. It’s within easy walking distance of Anguk subway station, so it can easily
be combined with a day out to Insadong. Insadong and Bukchon are comparable in that they are
touristy because of their traditional feel, but in terms of authenticity, and for a much less hectic
atmosphere, Bukchon wins hands down – perfect for Sunday afternoon strolling!
Detail of metalwork on door, Bukchon
It’s a hilly area of well maintained hanoks with graceful low roofs resembling gentle grey lapping
waves. The houses are clustered together in a disorientating fashion, separated by skinny, snaking
alleyways and usually arranged in a square shape around central courtyards. High walls and thick
wooden gates adorned with precise metal work protect the privacy of the homes and promote a
serene environment, while dark stained wooden posts with white painted ends support the tiled
roofs and wooden latticed shutters keep out hot sun and curious eyes, (it’s so nice to see wood!) Big,
brown, ceramic kimchi pots and flower pots crowd together outside doorways.
Despite this maze-like arrangement however, Bukchon is surprisingly easy to navigate. There are a
few south- north main thoroughfares which cut through the hanoks that help keep you right, and
there are also helpful signs showing the way to some of the main attractions in the area. Stop off at
one of the Tourist Information Centres located just north of Anguk station to pick up a map of the
area before you set off. You can also buy a 10,000 Won ticket here which gets you entry to Gahoe
Minhwa Museum, Donglim Maedup Museum, Seoul Museum of Chicken Art and Han Sangsoo
Embroidery Museum within the area.
Without doubt, you will stumble upon numerous small museums which mainly showcase elements of
traditional Korea, be it in terms of arts and crafts, ways of living, or food. There are also numerous
galleries which support leading contemporary Korean art. Because it was a Sunday, I found the Seoul
Museum of Chicken Art, which displays all types of arts and crafts related chicken motifs from around
the world, to be closed. The Traditional Doll Centre was also closed. Given my affection for birds and
dolls, I was dismayed. However, I was especially taken by the lovely Owl Art and Craft Museum; a
room dedicated to one lady’s 40 year old collection of owl paraphenelia which takes form in clocks,
stamps, clothing, vases and even lamps. She will even serve you tea in her owl mugs!
Owl Art and Craft Museum, Bukchon
Toykino Museum has 6 rooms filled with film and animation models- a must for Spiderman fanatics!
However, it’s not as interesting or atmospheric as the old dusty collection of toys in Toto in Insadong.
If you’re feeling in need of a pick me up after a while of pounding these often precorious streets,
there are loads of cafes and restaurants ranging from traditional Korean teashops and fare, to Italian,
Chinese, Malay, Singaporean and Indian food. All are a bit on the pricey side, so if you’re short for
cash, seek out a long line of Koreans waiting for some great street food.
Traditional woven Korean slippers, Bukchon
There are far too many sights to list here, or even visit in one day. I earmarked a few things on my
map before setting off, but I found that the most pleasure I got was from simply wandering and
losing myself in the twisting alleys and discovering museums, galleries and photo opportunities as I
came across them. The further from the main thoroughfares you venture, the quieter it becomes; it’s
likely that you will only hear the sound of your own footsteps and a few chirping birds. I will
definitely be back on a Saturday to check out what I missed out on this time. Avoid Mondays, when
most museums in Seoul are closed (unless you’re looking for an even quieter experience!)
If you’re wondering what a peaceful, pre- Industrial Korea was like, then Bukchon is your answer.
Directions: Take orange line 3 to Anguk station and leave from exit 1 or 2. Head north and you’re
there.
Tags: Bukchon, Donglim Maedup Museum, Gahoe Minhwa Museum, Han Sangsoo Embroidery
Museum, hanok, Owl Art and Craft Museum, Seoul Museum of Chicken Art, Toto, Toykino Museum,
Traditional Doll Centre
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Old ‘Flying Bird’ Tea Shop, Insadong
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Exterior, Old Tea Shop, Insadong
2F 2-2 Kwan Hun-Dong, Chong Ro-Gu, Insadong
(If you are walking south down the main street of Insadong, about half way down, take one of the
streets branching off to the left.)
Opening hours: 10am- 11pm
Cup of tea: 6,000 won
Bird fans unite! Here is a teashop that is home to a number of lovely wee finches who are free to fly
as they please overhead as you quench your thirst. Tea and birds… what more could one want when
in need of respite from the tourist trampled streets of Insadong?
Even the softest of steps up the old wooden stairs and into the tea shop create giant groans which
may make you think twice about completing your journey up them. However, upon entering, you will
find that the Old Tea Shop is lovely and cosy. Beautiful, aged wooden furnishings are clustered
together in the small space to provide nine different seating areas; choose between a table with little
stools, floor seating, or private, screened-off booths. Maybe you’d like the to sit at the table made
from a big ceramic bowl with goldfish in, covered with glass? Feast your eyes on a plethora of
wooden carvings, old chests, paintings and ceramics which serve the double purpose of decorating
the interior and providing perches for your new feathered friends.
Birds and interior, Old Tea Shop, Insadong
Perhaps this idea would not wash with Health and Safety bores at home, but these birds seem to be
toilet trained and the place is kept clean. And of course there’s the tea, served with complimentary
sweet rice cakes. A variety of teas are offered at 6,000 won a cup. A lovely traditional style tea shop
with some extra tweet atmosphere.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_Seoul_Tower
Seoul Tower
Der N Seoul Tower (korean. 엔서울타워 oder N서울타워, En Seoul Tawo) ist ein der Öffentlichkeit
zugänglicher Fernsehturm in der südkoreanischen Hauptstadt Seoul. Der 236,7 Meter hohe Turm
steht auf 243 m ü. N.N. des Berges Namsan. Deshalb nennen Koreaner den Turm häufig auch
Namsan Tower (남산타워). Der Turm verfügt über eine offene Terrasse, auf 133 Meter Höhe über ein
Drehrestaurant, und zwei interne Aussichtsgalerien. Die obere Aussichtsplattform hat eine Höhe von
138 Meter. Am Fuße des Turms befindet sich ein Museum und diverse Ausstellungen. Der Turm ist
auf einem quaderförmigen Bau errichtet, ähnlich dem Tokyo Tower in Japan. Vor seinem Umbau im
November 2005 hieß der Turm nur Seoul Tower.
Technische Daten
Baubeginn: Dezember 1969
Einweihungsdatum: 30. Juli 1975
Architekt: Jong Youl Chang
Gesamtgewicht: 15.000 t
Gesamtlänge der Antenne: 101 m
Sitzplätze im Restaurant: 184
http://www.nseoultower.net/english/nseoultower/intro.asp
N Seoul Tower, a landmark of the metropolitan city of Seoul
N Seoul Tower, a landmark of the metropolitan city of Seoul is to be introduced with its new name and
look to provide more fun and excitement.
From the highest point, Seoul Tower has been embracing the city for the last 25 years giving
memories and stories to people. In 2005, Seoul Tower was reopened as N Seoul Tower. Many
citizens and foreign tourists have visited the Tower and were taken by the scenic view of the city while
also enjoying the nature of Namsan mountain. Seoul Tower is located on the peak of Namsan in
Seoul, a city of 10 million people. Owing to the tower’s unique structure, the observatory section offers
versatile views as the seasons change the appearance of Namsan. Adding to the colourful scenery of
the mountain, N Seoul Tower was renovated in 2005 with newly designed high-tech multi media. N
Seoul Tower now provides a new cultural space in the center of the city.
You will have an unforgettable experience at N Seoul Tower, the best place to view the city, with its
convenient facilities and beautiful surroundings.
Tickets and Rates
Section
Adult
Observatory - Package Contents
Youth Children
Observatory
Individual
Ticket 7,000won
5,000won
3,000won
Youth : Age 13~18 / 65 over
Operating Hours: 14:00 ~ 18:00
○ Choices of vehicles
- City circulating bus number 2
- Black taxi with foreign passengers
- Group tour bus / City tour bus
- Others : If using private a vehicle, park the car at one of the parking lots near the circulating bus
stop.
(Check the details for specific information.)
○ Circulating bus (Yellow Namsan circulating bus number 02)
1) Subway stations near the bus stop
- Chungmuro Station (line 3 and 4) exit 1 (in front of Daehan Cinema), Dongguk Univ. Station (line
3) exit 6
2) Operating hours and intervals : every 5~8 minutes, 08:00 ~24:00
3) Fare : cash 550 won, transportation card 500 won (discounted for transfer)
4) Bus routs
N Seoul Tower - Namsan Public Library - Namsan walking path B course - Seoul Animation Center Toegyero 3 ga Daehan Cinema (Chungmuro Station exit 1) - Toegyero 5 ga - Dongguk Univ. Station (exit 6) National Theater of Korea - N Seoul Towe