Lonely Planet Seoul , livre ebook

Seoul

Contents

Plan Your Trip

Welcome to Seoul
Seoul’s Top 10
What’s New
Need to Know
First Time Seoul
Top Itineraries
If You Like…
Month by Month
With Kids
Like a Local
For Free
Courses & Tours
Hiking
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Sports & Activities

Explore

Neighbourhoods at a Glance
Gwanghwamun & Jongno-gu
Sights
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Sports & Activities
Myeong-dong & Jung-gu
Sights
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Sports & Activities
Western Seoul
Sights
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Sports & Activities
Itaewon & Yongsan-gu
Sights
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Sports & Activities
Gangnam & Southern Seoul
Sights
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Sports & Activities
Dongdaemun & Eastern Seoul
Sights
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Northern Seoul
Sights
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Sports & Activities
Day Trips from Seoul
Demilitarized Zone & Joint Security Area
Suwon
Incheon
Ganghwado
Sleeping

Understand

Seoul Today
History
Food & Drink
Religion & Culture
Architecture
Arts

Survival Guide

Transport
Arriving in Seoul
Getting Around Seoul
Directory A-Z
Accessible Travel
Customs Regulations
Discount Cards
Electricity
Embassies & Consulates
Emergency & Important Numbers
Health
Internet Access
LGBTIQ+ Travellers
Maps
Medical Services
Money
Opening Hours
Post
Public Holidays
Safe Travel
Telephone Services
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Visas
Volunteering
Work
Language
Seoul Maps
Bukchon Hanok Village
Gwanghwamun
Insa-dong & Around
Myeong-dong & Around
Hongdae, Sinchon & Around
Yeouido
Itaewon
Yongsan-gu
Dongdaemun & Around
Apgujeong
Gangnam
Jamsil
Daehangno & Seongbuk-dong

Table of Contents

Behind the Scenes
Our Writers
Welcome to Seoul

Fashion- and technology-forward but also deeply traditional, this dynamic city mashes up palaces, temples, cutting-edge design and mountain trails, all to a nonstop K-Pop beat.

Design Matters
Over the last decade Seoul has worked hard to soften its industrial hard edges into an appealing urban ideal of parks, culture and design. Glass, concrete and steel are crafted into natural forms at the spectacular Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park and City Hall. The popularity of the beautifully landscaped parks alongside the central Cheong-gye stream and the Han River has spurred on the creation of more green spaces and cycle routes. Join Seoulites enjoying time out shopping in stylish boutiques and drinking at cool cafes and convivial bars.

Historical Fragments
Gaze down on this sprawling metropolis of around 10 million people from atop any of Seoul’s four guardian mountains and you’ll sense the powerful pungsu-jiri (feng shui) that has long nurtured and protected the city. History clings tenaciously to the ‘Miracle on the Han’, a phoenix arisen from the ashes of the Korean War. So while Seoul has its eye clearly on the future, you’ll also encounter fascinating fragments of the past in World Heritage–listed sites such as Jongmyo shrine, in the alleys between the graceful hanok (traditional wooden homes) in Bukchon, and striding along the magnificent Seoul City Wall.

24-Hour City
Whatever you want, at any time of day or night, Seoul can provide. An early-morning temple visit can lead to a palace tour followed by tea-sipping in Bukchon and gallery-hopping in Samcheong-dong. Soju (a vodka-like drink) and snacks in a street tent bar will fuel you for shopping at the buzzing Dongdaemun or Namdaemun night markets, partying in Hongdae or Itaewon, or singing in a self-service karaoke noraebang . Follow this with steaming, soaking and snoozing in a jjimjil-bang (sauna and spa). By the time you look at your watch, it will be dawn again.

Beyond the Walls
Public transport is brilliant, so there’s no excuse for not stretching your travel horizons beyond the city limits. The fearsome Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), splitting South from North Korea, exerts a powerful attraction and makes for a compelling day trip. To the west, Incheon is a fascinating port where the modern world came flooding into Korea at the end of the 19th century, and today whose Chinatown and waterfront are still an interesting fusion of people. To the south is Suwon, home to impressive World Heritage–listed fortifications, built by King Jeongjo, that snake 5.7km past majestic gates and pavilions.

Drummer, Jogye-sa | Kobby Dagan / Shutterstock ©

Why I Love Seoul
By Phillip Tang, Writer
Seoul sparkles with design magic. I’m bewitched by the fancy threads of Apgujeong with its angles all in the right place, but the real heart-stealer is the city’s knack for fashioning a hanok into a cutting-edge makgeolli hang-out, or a palace into the moonlit dining hall where I feasted on royal cuisine. I’ll peer across Gangnam’s slinky skyscrapers from the quiet of a sky-high temple, or scoff kimchi tacos in green spaces converted from oil tankers and highway overpasses, which might suggest NYC or Tokyo. Yet every temple eave, hotteok and K-Indie tune reminds me, I’m in Seoul.
For more, see our writers
Seoul’s Top 10

Bukchon Hanok Village
1 In a city at the cutting edge of 21st-century technology, where apartment living is the norm, this neighbourhood stands as a testament to an age of craftsmanship when Seoulites lived in one-storey wooden hanok , with graceful tiled roofs and internal courtyard gardens. Get lost wandering the labyrinthine streets, squished between two major palaces and rising up the foothills of Bukaksan. Take in the views and pause to pop into a cafe, art gallery, craft shop or small private museum along the way.
1 Gwanghwamun & Jongno-gu

NOOMNA NAKHONPHANOM / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Seoul’s Top 10
Changdeokgung
2 The ‘Palace of Illustrious Virtue’ was built in the early 15th century as a secondary palace to Gyeongbokgung. These days this Unesco World Heritage–listed property exceeds it in beauty and grace – partly because so many of its buildings were actually lived in by royal-family members well into the 20th century. The most charming section is the Huwon, a ‘secret garden’ that is a royal horticultural idyll. Book well ahead to snag tickets to view this special palace on the evening Moonlight Tours in the warm months.
1 Gwanghwamun & Jongno-gu

KELLY CHENG / GETTY IMAGES ©

Seoul’s Top 10
Gwangjang Market
3 This is one of Seoul’s best markets. Gwangjang Market trades in secondhand clothes, fabrics and kimchi by day, but alleys of vendors selling street eats stay active into the night. Stewed pig trotters and snouts, gimbap (rice, veggies and ham wrapped in rice and rolled in sheets of seaweed) and bindaetteok (plate-sized crispy pancakes of crushed mung beans and veggies fried on a skillet) are all washed down with copious amounts of makgeolli and soju (local liquors).
5 Dongdaemun & Eastern Seoul

EYEFORTHEWORLD / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Seoul’s Top 10
N Seoul Tower & Namsan
4 Protected within a 109-hectare park and crowned by N Seoul Tower, one of Seoul’s most distinctive architectural features, Namsan is the most central of the city’s four guardian mountains. Locals actively patronise the park, keeping fit in the cooler, sweeter air near hiking paths to the summit, including one that follows the line of the old Seoul City Wall. The summit itself is highly commercial but still worth visiting to marvel at the view, and see the multitude of inscribed padlocks adorning its railings, signifying lovers’ devotion.
1 Myeong-dong & Jung-gu

GUITAR PHOTOGRAPHER / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Seoul’s Top 10
Lotus Lantern Festival
5 One of Seoul’s most spectacular events, which is well worth building your travel plans around, is the Lotus Lantern Festival, which happens in May in celebration of the Buddha’s birthday. For weeks around this time, temples are strung with hundreds of rainbow-hued paper lanterns, a sight in itself. The highlight is a dazzling night-time parade that snakes its way through the city from Dongguk University to Jogye-sa, involving thousands of participants and every shape, size and colour of lantern.
z Month by Month

ALEX BARLOW / GETTY IMAGES ©

Seoul’s Top 10
Hongdae
6 The area around Hongik University, Korea’s leading art and design institution, has long attracted young, independent and creatively minded Koreans. Hongdae is packed with quirky bars and cafes, affordable boutiques, and cramped dance and live-music clubs where cool kids bop to K-Indie thrash bands and crooners, or chill with impromptu picnics along the Gyeongui Line Forest Park. Come for gourmet ice cream and artisan coffee, and pick up a designer souvenir at Saturday’s Free Market. The vibe is infectious and has spilled over into neighbouring Sangsu-dong and Yeonnam-dong.
3 Western Seoul

UKRID / SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Seoul’s Top 10
Seoul City Wall
7 More than 600 years after it was first built, Seoul’s original fortress wall stands firm, snaking 18.6km along the city’s major peaks of Bukaksan, Naksan, Namsan and Inwangsan. Hike alongside the City Wall and you will witness majestic gates at each compass point and morphing architectural styles from the Three Kingdoms period to modern restoration work. It’s a fascinating way to see a large swathe of the metropolis, while viewing its history through physical scars, where decay and foreign rule brought down sections, only to be reborn.
1 Dongdaemun & Eastern Seoul

VANBEETS / GETTY IMAGES ©

Seoul’s Top 10
Cheong-gye-cheon
8 A raised highway was demolished and the ground dug up to ‘daylight’ this long-buried stream. It transformed Seoul’s centre, creating a riverside park and walking course that’s a calm re