The prevailing ethos of Yeouido is that size matters. There may not be a single one-story building on the entire island, and crossing some of the intersections have to qualify you for some sort of mileage rewards, but nowhere is this lopsided sense of scale more pronounced than on the island’s northwest tip, which is…
For several kilometers on the south side of the river, Line 2 jumps aboveground and traces the district borders between Yeongdeungpo-, Guro-, Dongjak-, and Gwanak-gus, before burrowing back down and continuing to the tonier eastern districts. While it’s in view, the line runs through Sindaebang Station, perched on its platform above the Dorim Stream (도림천). …
The further east you go along the Cheonggye Stream (청계천) the more the engineering of its western end gets stripped away and the more you’re able to step into its past. The process culminates in the Cheong Gye Cheon Museum (청계천문화관) and Cheonggye Stream Shack (청계천 판잣집), close to where the stream begins its southerly…
I left Yeokchon Station from Exit 1, and one of the first things I passed was a café called Santa House, which, yes, had a small gift shop below the café selling all sorts of Santa figurines and Christmas knickknacks. Instead of Santa himself or even a reindeer, though, the business’ logo had a black…
For almost anyone who travels, there’s a certain romance associated with rail travel that other modes of transportation can’t quite match. Flight had its moment of glam in the postwar years, but few still find anything romantic about the process of contemporary air travel with its steadily decreasing comforts and increasing security indignities. Boat travel…
Seoul Sub→urban 