Tucked between Cheonhodae-ro (천호대로) and Cheonggyecheon (청계천) on the southwest side of Dapsimni Station is the little neighborhood of Yongdapdong (용답동). Before getting to the moderately well-known antique markets on the opposite side of the avenue, Liz and I decided to pop in to this area for a look-see. It was pleasantly busy on a…
Exit 1 at Namseong Station put us on Sadang-ro (사당로), which we quickly turned off of to the south to take a look at Sadang Market (사당시장). It wasn’t really a proper market in the conventional sense, more simply an area with a higher than average concentration of small grocers and the like set up…
It’s always been a mystery to me why Seoul doesn’t have a proper Chinatown. Whether it’s San Francisco, Bangkok, or Cholon in Ho Chi Minh City, these ethnic enclaves with their hanging roast duck, temples devoted to Tian Hou, and kitschy Mao souvenirs are always one of the most interesting areas of a city, not…
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 