If you’ve eaten in a restaurant today, odds are some of your meal came from Garak Market (가락시장). This is where many of Seoul’s restaurateurs come to restock their kitchens. Cheaper and fresher and bigger than just about anywhere else in the city, it’s the mother of all markets. Let’s start with the numbers. Korea’s…
I like Yeongdeungpo-gu. It doesn’t have much charm, but it has more interesting and idiosyncratic spots than most people realize, or at least remember: the machine shops and art scene in Mullae, the Chinese neighborhood in Daerim, the parks and behemoth Yoido Full Gospel Church on Yeouido, Seonyudo’s industrial island oasis. It’s also the (mostly)…
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,…
We’ve been to a lot of parks, yeah? And let’s be honest, a lot of them blend together a little bit. A few benches, a pavilion or two, some playground and exercise equipment, basketball hoops, maybe a fountain and bam, you got your standard issue Seoul neighborhood park. Munjeong Park (문정공원), just outside of Exit…
The facades of the buildings around Sinseol-dong crossing come in unfashionable shades like burnt sienna or bearing the tint of decades of dirt and pollution. It’s a palette that buildings only get if they’re reused and used again, and it tells you just what kind of place Sinseol-dong is. A couple blocks south from Exit…
Seoul Sub→urban 