Dear readers, apologies for the glacial pace of new posts recently. I’m currently working on edits and re-writes for the English version of our book, which we hope to have released in the fall, and until that’s wrapped up the blog will be in something of a state of suspended animation. We appreciate your understanding. More…
The gates that gave their names to the Dongdaemun and Namdaemun neighborhoods still stand, and their presence puts the stamp of history on the areas around them. They’re constant reminders of the city’s Long Ago and chains that link the contemporary lives lived around them to the lives lived there hundreds of years ago. Seodaemun,…
I’m writing this at Hakrim Dabang (학림다방), on the second floor of a building whose windows look out over Daehang-no (대학로). As this project has progressed I’ve shied away more and more from talking about restaurants, cafes, bars, or any other kind of business because with the Darwinian rate of turnover among businesses in Seoul…
Dongmyo Station takes its name from the nearby shrine, built to honor the Chinese general and deity Guan Yu (162-219). Near-ubiquitous on the other side of the Yellow Sea, shrines like these are rare in Korea where, despite its long history as an on-again off-again vassal state to China, the strong Confucian tradition prevented worship…
If there’s one station that can be said to be the center of Seoul’s subway system, the nexus from which everything expands and to which it returns, it’s Jongno-3-ga. One of the system’s oldest stations, it’s also one of the few that connect more than two lines, and it sits right in the heart of…
Seoul Sub→urban 