Seoul

Introduction

Night time traffic in Seoul

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Seoul (서울) is the heart of South Korea, hosting about a quarter of the country's population of nearly 50 million. Seoul was also the historic capital of Korea from the 14th century until the nation's partition into North and South in 1948. Located just 50 kilometres south of the North Korean border, Seoul symbolises the division of North and South Korea.

Seoul enjoys a lively nightlife, which has earned it comparisons with Tokyo. Thankfully though, Seoul is much cheaper than the Japanese capital.

Neighbourhoods

Administratively, Seoul is divided into 25 districts, further subdivided into 522 sub-districts. For travellers the following areas are of importance:

• Jongno
• Gangnam
• Yeoui-do
• Hongdae and Sinchon
• Dongdaemun
• Hyehwa
• Yongsan and Itaewon
• Songpa and Seocho
• Yangcheon and Mok-dong
• Jung

Sights and Activities

• Gyeongbokgung Palace
• Deoksugung Palace
• Insadong
• Myeongdong
• Namsan Park
• Namdaemun/Dongdaemun Markets
• Itaewon
• Hangang River
• Olympic Park

Events and Festivals

Lotus Lantern Festival

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• Seoul Lunar New Year - Every January/February, Seoul celebrates its New Year with a grand festival lasting 3 days. This big event brings the city to a halt, where locals prioritize celebrations with their families over other activities.
• Lotus Lantern Festival - This traditional Korean folk festival honors Buddha's birthday, with brightly-colored lanterns lit up all around the city. Visitors can also enjoy browsing through local flea markets and attending culturally-fueled shows at a Nori-Madang (outdoor stage). Buddhist monks perform ceremonial rituals, and you may seem them around town carrying lanterns in procession.
• Prehistoric Cultural Festival - A fun event for children or adults who are interested in ancient Korean prehistoric cultural. Visitors can participate in craft-making stations, meet "ancient" Korean cavemen, and watch a display of traditional Korean music and dance. Food stalls and fireworks are also an integral part of the festival. This festival occurs once a year every fall in Seoul.
• Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival - This enjoyable event is held in the COEX Centre every year in July and features six days of all the movie-watching you and your children can handle!
• Seoul Drum Festival - Occurring every year in September, this dynamic and exciting festival features both local and international artists. For the event, the drummers take the stage to perform songs using traditional and electronic drums and other percussion instruments.
• Seoul Tano Festival - This spring agricultural festival, with deep historical roots, is held every May/June in Korea. The Tano Festival started as a planting ritual and a time to pray for a good harvest, but it has since become of the country's three greatest festivals of the year. Festivities include swinging contests for girls, and native Korean wrestling matches for the boys. This is a family-friendly event that also includes rope skipping, stick-tossing (chachigi), while traditional music and dance performances play throughout the event.
• Jongmyo Daeje - This historically important festival is celebrated the first Sunday of May. On this holiday, residents pay homage to their ancestors with offerings of food, wine, music, dance, and other celebrations. The majority of the festivities occur at the Jongmyo Shrine in Jongno, Seoul.
• Hangang Yeouido Spring Flower Festival - This festival features the beautiful springtime blossoms, street performers, and art displays. Visitors can come to view this magnificent site in Yeouiseo-ro every year during mid-April.
• Chuseok - This holiday is Korea's day of thanksgiving; it's the biggest and most important holiday in Korea. Families use this holiday to get together to hold lavish feasts and celebrate together. Deceased relatives are honored with incense offerings and rituals. Visitors to the city can expect to see dances parades around town, wresting matches, and traditional food like Songpyeon (rice dumplings) and Baekju (local white wine) are served. Dates of the festival vary annually depending on the lunar calendar, but it typically takes place in September.
• Dano Folk Festival - This eclectic festival is one of Seoul's most popular events because it is believed that on this day, "yang energy" is at its highest. To celebrate, festival goers participate in traditional fan-making and cheer on their favorite wrestler in sumo wrestling competitions. Some adherents also participate in ceremonial hair-washing and nail painting events that are believed to make one lucky in love. This event occurs annually in June.
• Seoul Fringe Festival - This festival is a forum for the ever-growing independent arts community in Seoul. During this festival, visitors can view a myriad of art events highlighting original works from local artists that will appeal to people of all ages.
• Korea-Japan Festival - A colorful festival highlighting the long-lasting friendship between these two cultures. Visitors can expect to see grand performances and displays of traditional dance, music, costumes, and theater from both cultures. Event occurs every year in September.
• Seoul Yangnyeongsi Herb Medicine Culture Festival - This festival celebrates Seoul's long history success in utilizing local herbs as medicine. Medicinal growers gather to sell their herbal concoctions at this event. Natural practitioners offer free screenings and diagnosis to those who want to try a natural approach to curing their ailments at this event. Held every October in the Seoul Yangnyeongsi Herb Medicine Market.
• Seoul International Fireworks Festival - The greatest in fireworks and special effects engineers from across the globe are invited to showcase their skills at this remarkable event. During the evening of this event, the Seoul night sky is illuminated with one of the best fireworks displays in the world. Look for this event in October.
• Itaewon Global Village Festival - This multi-cultural event brings together a fun mix of Korean tradition with other cultural traditions from around the globe. Visitors can expect to see a variety of dance, music, food, art, and other culture presentations. This event is held every year in October.

Weather

Seoul has cold but relatively dry winters, averaging around zero degrees Celsius during the day and around -8 °C at night, but dropping as low as -22 °C sometimes. Most of the precipitation during this time is in the form of snow. Summers are tropical with hot and humid conditions. Temperatures average between 26 °C and 31 °C from June to September with nights around or above 20 °C. This is also the wet season with July topping at almost 400 mm of rain. The best times obviously are spring and autumn with much less rain and agreeable temperatures.

Getting There

By Plane

Seoul Incheon International Airport (ICN) serves as the gateway to Seoul and South Korea. It is one of the busiest airports in the world, located around 70 kilometres west of the capital and has been ranked one of the best airports in the world, together with the ones in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Korean Air serves dozens of destinations in Japan and China, as well as other cities and countries in Asia. It also has connections to about a dozen cities in North America and even more to European cities. It has flights to Australia, Sao Paulo and Pacific destinations like Fiji and Guam on top of that.
Another big airline is Asiana Airlines with just slightly less destinations further away but even more in both China and Japan.

Getting to/from the airport:

• Rail: The Incheon International Airport Railroad (A'REX) started operations in 2007. The station is located in the Transportation Center adjacent to the main terminal building. From 2007 onwards, only the first phase of the construction was opened to the public (Incheon International Airport - Gimpo Airport). The remaining phase of the construction is expected to be completed by 2010 (Gimpo Airport - Seoul Station). Until then, from the old Gimpo airport there are connections to the Seoul Metro Lines 5 and 9.
• Car: Link to the main land is provided by the Yeongjong Bridge and an expressway. Tolls are collected at the bridge. A second expressway on the Incheon Bridge connects the island with central Incheon. Parking and rental cars are available at the airport.
• Taxi: both white (cheap) and black (expensive) taxis are available at the airport.

The old Gimpo International Airport now mainly functions as a center for domestic flights although there are services to Tokyo, Osaka and Shanghai.

By Train

Seoul is the northern terminus of the KTX high-speed line. There are three KTX stations within city limits:

• Seoul Station for trains to Busan, Ulsan, Kyeongju, Daegu, Daejeon Cheonan/Asan, and Suwon. Accessible via subway lines 1 & 4.
• Yongsan Station for trains to Mokpo, Gwangju, Daejeon and Cheonan/Asan. Also on line 1 & 4 (Sinyongsan Station).
• The newly added KTX at Youngdeungpo is now running to southern destinations.

Nearly all ordinary (non-KTX) services also use one or both of the above terminals, but services east to Chuncheon or Gangneung and southeast to Gyeongju via Danyang use Cheongnyangni Station to the east of the city on line 1.

By Car

By Bus

There are several bus terminals, but Seoul Express Bus Terminal is the largest and serves pretty much the entire country, but most services head east (incl. Busan, Daegu, Daejeon). Lines to Jeolla, however, use the Central City/Honam Terminal right next door. Nambu Bus Terminal, Nambu Bus Terminal stn (Line 3). Serves places southwest of Seoul (Southern Gyeonggi, South Chungcheong and nothern North Jeolla). Sinchon Bus Terminal, Sinchon (Underground) stn (Line 2) or Sinchon stn (Gyeongeui Line). Buses to Ganghwa Island.

By Boat

Getting Around

By Car

By Public Transport

The extensive Seoul Metro Subway is inexpensive and easy to use.

By Foot

By Bike

Eat

Drink

Sleep

As with any large city, Seoul has many different areas to stay, such as Gwanghwamun, Insadong, Bukchon Hanock Village, Myeongdong, Itaewon, Honggik/Sinchon/Ewha.

Budget and Midrange

Upscale

Work

Learn

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet is widely available in South Korea. The country is the sixth highest user of Internet in the world and there are internet cafes around the country in public places such as airports, train stations and bus terminals in South Korea. ‘PC bangs’ are rooms full of computers, predominantly started for people to play games. They are cheap and many open 24-hours with snacks available.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

Korea Post is the national postal service and has fast, reliable and well-priced services. Standard letters and postcards start at 400 Won for domestically send ones. On their website you can find more about pricing details, as there are many different rates, depending on the zone (which country) you want to send it to, how much it weighs, wether it is air or ground service etc. Generally, post office hours are from Monday to Friday 9:00am to 6:00pm, though the larger central post offices tend to be open until 8:00pm and sometimes also on Saturday or even Sunday, usually only mornings.

External Links

• Official Governmental Website
• Official Tourism Website