For the most part, Hwarangdae is a rather bland part of town. It’s pretty much as middle-class as you can get, the better part of the neighborhood being a shuffle of schools, churches, and businesses, many of them chain stores, that provide for the residents of the several apartment tower complexes both north and south…
Let’s begin with noodles. Just outside Exit 1, on the corner of Gongdaecheon-gil (공대천길), is a sign for Gongneung-dong Noodle Street (공릉동 국수 거리). We often comment on this blog about how much the city changes – the buildings that disappear and are replaced, the neighborhoods that are gentrified – but one change I don’t…
Not long ago we ventured out to Oryu-dong and Onsu, and I commented on how they felt more like provincial whistle-stops than like stations on Seoul’s metro. Given that those two are way out on the city’s edge, this wasn’t especially notable; what was more surprising was that I got the same feeling from Kwangwoon…
Most subway stations in Seoul lie above or below a neat four-way intersection, leaving navigating the area a straightforward affair. Seokgye, however, has one line below ground and one above ground and is wedged between streams, rail tracks, and highways, making a walk around the neighborhood a bit convoluted. I started out from Exit 2,…
As with so many of the stations that ring Seoul’s outer edges, Danggogae sits in the shadow of the nearby mountains, in this case Buramsan (불암산) to the southeast and Suraksan (수락산) to the north, and just outside of Exit 1 you’ll find a large map that outlines the local hiking trails, which a fair…
