Almost immediately, Hwagok produced one of the most unique, most unusual, and, least kid sister-friendly businesses we’ve turned up in the course of this project. About a block and a half down Gangseo-ro (강서로) from Exit 5 was 곤충박물관 충우 (Insect Museum Chung-u), easily spotted by the sign outside with pictures of several different butterflies…
A short hello! from me, the newest photographer of the Sub→urban team. This is the first post for which I photographed and I really hope you enjoy what you see here as much as you enjoyed looking at Liz’s and Meagan’s shots. I would love to receive any feedback you may have on the photos you…
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…
Before modernization it wasn’t uncommon to find totem poles marking the entrance to Korean villages, serving as village guardians and frightening away evil spirits. These totems, most often called jangseung (장승), are now mostly found only in folk villages or serving as decorative elements in restaurants, but they once played an important role in Korean…
I’d been hoping for a bit more to be going on around Sangdo, given its relative proximity to Chung-Ang University (중앙대학교), and while it wasn’t an uninteresting neighborhood, it didn’t have any of the collegiate vibrancy that I’d thought it might. Much of the neighborhood, especially the areas outside Exits 2 and 3 was a…
Seoul Sub→urban 