In the 1960s and 70s, as Seoul’s modernization shifted into high gear, large numbers of residents living in Hannam-dong (한남동) and around the Cheonggye Stream (청계천) were relocated to make way for development projects.  Overwhelmingly poor, many simply living as squatters, a large number were resettled in Sanggye-dong (상계동), in far northeastern Seoul, where roughly 1,500 small ...

Put on your varsity jacket and turn on your Vampire Weekend, we’re going back to school.

Seoul Sub→urban would like to thank Meagan Mastriani for inviting us to and showing me around her work neighborhood of Wangsimni.  Meagan writes about food, mostly, and you can check out her take on the local dining scene at her column, Savoring Seoul, in the online magazine Honest Cooking.

Inside Chungmuro Station, near the top of the main set of escalators, is a pair of walls covered in old photographs.  The color photos of well-dressed people accepting awards may have faded and aged even more poorly than the black and white film stills around the corner, but this little shrine is the first sign you get of the area’s close association withKorea’s oft-impressive film history.

Muakjae sits squeezed between Inwang Mountain (인왕산) to the east and the smaller An Mountain (안산) to the west, giving the neighborhood a bit of a bowling lane feel.  Uiju-ro (의주로) cuts northwest-southeast above Line 3, and there’s not much space off of it, meaning that the area doesn’t have much to see or do.

Back to where it all began. Well, almost. We started this project nearly two years ago one stop away, at Nonhyeon Station (논현역), and the trip to Hakdong brought some familiar sights with it. Foremost among these is Nonhyeon Furniture Street (논현가구거리), which runs along Hakdong-ro (학동로) between the Line 7 stations, and if you’re approaching from Hakdong you’ll want to ...

Nakseongdae is a classical Chinese name meaning ‘the place where a star has fallen.’ It was here, in 948, that the great Goryeo General Kang Gam-chan (강감찬) was born. Depending on which version of the legend you prefer, either his mother gave birth to him after dreaming that a star had fallen to her breast or said star fell when he was born. Either way, that’s some good juju.

The Noryangjin area ofSeoul, which nestles against the eastern end of Yeouido, is known above all else for its enormous fish market, one of the country’s largest.  And we will certainly get to that, but first we’re going to go on a brief tour of the surprisingly nice neighborhood around the market.

A recurring theme that’s come up here (and we’re hardly the first ones to point this out) is the juxtaposition between old Seoul and new Seoul – the way the city’s laser beam quick development resulted in modern developments and lifestyles existing side by side with those a half-century old.  I’ve remarked on this at numerous stops, but maybe nowhere we’ve yet been has it been quite ...

Seoul National University of Education Station – 16 clumsy syllables that in Korean are so elegantly expressed in just three: kyo-dae-yeok.  It’s a marvelous tongue it is.