Only a couple stops down the line from my local, Chang-dong Station sits just west of Jungnang Stream (중랑천) on the eastern edge of Dobong-gu. The Sunday we went there was bitingly cold, one of the first days signaling that the new winter was here. Surrounding Exit 1 were a cluster of five or six…
In far southwestern Seoul, across the Anyang River (안양천), Gaebong Station is squeezed between a pair of highways: Nambusunhwan-ro (남부순환로) and Gyeongin-ro (경인로). With these two roads criss-crossing at an interchange a half kilometer west of the station, the neighborhood doesn’t lend itself to walking around too much. Arriving at the station in the middle…
Living in Seoul, one grows accustomed to reading the city vertically. I grew up in small and mid-sized Midwestern cities where architecture sprawls low and wide, and as such, was trained to see urban environments two-dimensionally, as a series of buildings placed next to each other. But after living in Korea for a while one’s…
Arriving at Nonhyeon at noon, we emerged from the station to find the morning’s rains stopped and a bright midday sun glinting off puddles and still-wet street signs. What had looked like it would be a gloomy, damp outing an hour ago had been transformed into the perfect weather for Nonhyeon-dong’s signature sport: armoire hunting.…
Seoul Sub→urban 