As I’ve mentioned before, I have a particular affinity for the northwest side of town, where things always feel a bit more relaxed, the air smells fresher, and the mountains, so near, seem to be more a part of the neighborhoods’ fabric than elsewhere, interweaving themselves with the manmade structures erected in the spaces between…
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,…
No, that’s not a typo. Nor is it Engrish. For a long time I hadn’t even noticed the anomaly in Ewha Womans University’s name; then, when I did, it rankled my English-major sensibilities. This was the university that produced South Korea’s first female Constitutional Court justice, its first female prime minister, that was one of…
For as many times as I’ve been to Sinchon Station – I live practically right down the street – I’d never actually been in the part of the neighborhood south of Sinchon-ro (신촌로), so it was there that I decided to start things. Plus, it was the early afternoon, and things north of the station…
Seoul’s modern history is a tumultuous one, but the city keeps her scars well hid beneath hard-earned layers of development and success. There are some areas, though, where the wounds have been left exposed, and you can get a glimpse of the troubles the capital and its people have been through. A good place to…
Seoul Sub→urban 