Seoul Gallery

Seoul is a new destination for us and we didn’t really know what to expect: a developing city like Bangkok, a developed city like Kuala Lumpur, a rich and well established city like Tokyo or London? Well, we have been surprised to find that Seoul is not only in the Tokyo and London bracket, it is actively setting the standard for what a modern, high-tech metropolis looks like and has achieved this in just a few decades.

It is similar in size and population (around 9 million people) to London if London is defined as ‘Greater London’ but strip away the leafy outer suburbs of London (as Seoul has none), a fairer comparison would be to define London as the area within the north and south circular ring roads and then, Seoul manages to maintain its population density over twice the area of London. In other words, Seoul can be said to occupy an area twice as large as London with 3 times the population. And for sure, it feels enormous with a very extensive metro network with 9 lines and distances between visitor attractions typically measuring up to 12km.

The other features which stand out are the number of 10 lane highways which pass through the city, the number of skyscrapers, not dissimilar to Hong Kong, but over a much larger area and, especially in the centre, massive advertising/entertainment/information screens (and by massive I mean covering the whole sides of buildings) of extremely high quality and visibility even in direct sunlight. They are also very generous in provision of public toilets, over 65year-olds gain free entry to public monuments like palaces and transport prices are typically 85 UK pence (US 1.15) per metro or bus journey.

Seoul is clean and well maintained and exceptionally safe. Credit cards of all types are the default way to pay, apart from topping up transport cards where cash must be used and there is no tipping. People are generally very polite: public service staff on transport and TV news tend to bow after delivering their service, though queueing is somewhat ‘assertive’. On the downside, it is true that they have not eliminated rough sleeping, property prices are very high and there is a high stress work culture. Many people walk around glued to their smartphones and there are a lot of surveillance cameras. And many of the place names are difficult to pronounce and indeed remember when plugging them into search engines.

Cultural sites seem to close following public holidays, though not on the actual holiday day and some restaurants close too – which seems to be counter-intuitive and caught us out. But despite these ‘visitor traps’ it feels like a city which has largely got its act together.

In terms of what to see in Seoul, this is what our itinerary covered:

• The central Sejong-daero road leading from City Hall to Gyeongbokgung Palace. The palace is the grandest and most important of Seoul's five royal palaces. At 10.00am there is a changing of the guard ceremony performed by local re-enactors (as opposed to serving military personnel) but worth getting up for. The Sejong-daero road leading to the palace hosts the futuristic-looking City Hall and numerous dramatic skyscrapers, many with massive advertising screens.
• Bukchon Hanok Village - A historic neighbourhood filled with hundreds of traditional, stone-walled Korean houses (hanoks) dating back to the long Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1897)
• Cheonggyecheon and the Cheonggyecheon Stream – an 11km natural river park that flows right beneath the bustling skyscrapers of downtown Seoul. Parts of it, particularly at the Cheonggyecheon end are illuminated at night.
• Seoul Forest - opened in 2005, this massive 290-acre eco-park transformed a former royal hunting ground, military facility, and golf course into a sprawling urban oasis with extensive tree plantations bordered by modern architecture.
• Starfield Library (inside COEX Mall) – this famous library is a wide-open public space featuring colossal, 13-meter-tall glowing bookshelves packed with thousands of titles in the area of Gangnam, home of the pop hit ‘Gangnam Style’ to which a golden hand statue is dedicated.
• Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) - designed by the legendary architect Zaha Hadid and which features no straight lines. It’s main interest for us was it’s exterior shape which looks like a silver spaceship and some time was devoted to finding an appropriate photographic viewpoint.
• Seoullo 7017 - is a 1-kilometer elevated linear park built on top of a decommissioned 1970s highway overpass. The ‘70’ in the name represents the year it was constructed as a concrete overpass whilst the ‘17’ is the 2017 year it was reopened as a park. The entire concrete walkway is lined with over 24,000 plants and flowers and provides dramatic views of the old station the massive 17 lane roadway below and a building sized display screen on ‘Seoul Square’, one of the largest displays in the world.
• North Seoul Tower / Namsam Park - The N Seoul Tower is a 236-meter-tall communication and observation tower perched at the absolute peak of Namsan Mountain in Namsam Park. Since it sits on top of a mountain, the tower reaches a total height of 479 meters above sea level, making it the highest point in downtown Seoul. Built in 1969 as South Korea's very first general radio wave tower, it officially opened its observation deck to the public in 1980 and has since become the city's most beloved structural icon.
• Hangang Park and Banpo Bridge - a massive network of 11 distinct riverside parks along both banks of the Han River (Hangang). Sellers in the park offer plastic picnic mats and seats and Koreans make extensive use of the spaces for water sports, walking and cycling or just meeting up with friends. At one end of the network is Banpo Bridge which puts on a 20 minute illuminated water fountain display to music 4-5 times each night.
• Changdeokgung Palaceand Insadong. The palace is arguably the most beautiful and architecturally significant of Seoul's five royal residences. It is the only palace in Seoul designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and covers a very extensive area of parkland as well as a maze of courtyards. Insadong is just a 15 minute walk from the palace and is known for its traditional arts & antiques and artisanal crafts & stationery.
• Yeonnam-dong cafés, Gyeongui Line Forest Park and Hongdae. This is an area adjacent to Hongik University so features a strong youth culture with the cafes in Yeonnam-Dong to the extensive area of Hongdae – a extremely vibrant neighbourhood dominated by the 2km ‘Red Road’ (much of which is painted red) which threads through its centre and lined along the upper end with a very extensive range of restaurants, fashion shops and, in the evening, street performers. Joining the Red Road at the top end is the Gyeongui Line Forest Park – a 6.3km long urban park built on the route of the rail line which once connected Seoul to north Korea.

We spent 5 full days in Seoul and this schedule was fairly hectic. Visitors could dedicate a week to the capital without getting bored.