Walking around Seoul. South Korea
Seoul (Korean 서울, Seul - lit. “capital”) is a city, the capital of the Republic of Korea. It forms the only city of special status in the country, divided into 25 self-governing districts. The official name of the city is Seoul Special Status City (Korean: 서울특별시 Seul Teukpyeolsi) Population - 10.1 million people (2015), or 19.5% of the country's population. It forms the Seoul-Incheon agglomeration with a population of 23.5 million people (2015), the fifth largest in the world. Located in the north-west of the Republic of Korea near the Yellow Sea, on a plain surrounded by mountains, on the banks of the Han River, 24 km from the border with the DPRK. Chief political, economic and Cultural Center Republic of Korea. One of the leading financial centers in East Asia. Since 1394, under the name Hanyang, the capital of Korea; since 1948, under the name Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea. During the Korean War, the city was heavily destroyed. The remains of the fortress wall with a gate have been preserved, and the Gyeongbokgung palace complex of the 14th century has been restored. Objects available World Heritage UNESCO.
City name
The word Seul comes from the ancient Korean sable or sorabol ("capital") from the Silla period. Then this word was referred to the city of Gyeongju, former capital Silla. In Hanja, gyeon (京) means "capital"; this syllable is found, for example, in the official name of an administrative unit in Seoul during the years of Japanese colonial rule (Gyeongseon/Keijo) and in the names of iron and highways(Gyeongbuseong, 경부선 - Seoul-Busan railway line; Gyeongin Kosoktoro, 경인고속도로 - Seoul-Incheon Expressway).
Chinese transcription
Unlike most Korean geographical names, the word “Seoul” has no analogue in Hancha, and in Chinese the city is called by its former name (漢城/汉城, Chinese reading Hancheng, Korean Hanson; meaning “fortress on the Han River”, but if desired, can also be interpreted as “Chinese fortress", "Han fortress"). In January 2005, the city government requested a change to the city's Chinese name to 首爾/首尔 (Shǒu'ěr, Shou-er), which is an approximation of the Korean pronunciation in Chinese (in Korean itself, however, 首爾 is read 수이, Su-i). Moreover, 首 (shou) means “first” and “capital”. The Chinese adopted this name. This change only affects Chinese speakers and does not affect the Korean name of the city.
Main article: History of Seoul The city's first name is Wireseong, and has been the capital of the state of Baekje since 370 BC. e. During Goryeo times it was known as Hanseong (漢城, "fortress on the banks of the Han River"). During the Joseon Dynasty, which began in 1394, it was the capital of the state and was called Hanyang (漢陽). During the years of Japanese colonial rule, the administrative unit of Gyeongsong (京城, Keijo) was located on the city's territory; the name Seoul was finally approved in independent Korea in 1946. Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, was founded in 18 BC. BC, with its capital in the city of Viresong in the area of modern Seoul. Since then they have been preserved...
The capital of Korea is far from the most cheap city world, in terms of rubles, everything in it is much more expensive than in Russia. This also applies to excursion services.
If you buy tours and entry tickets, then this can eat up a fair share of your travel budget. However, on excursion program In Korea, you can save money by choosing free options. In this article we will tell you how.
1. Long connections between flights
Airline passengers are in the most privileged position Korean Air who are making a transfer in Seoul.
For their entertainment, the airline organizes free sightseeing tours in Seoul.
Everything is very simple and convenient - just go to a special counter at the airport, show your plane ticket and you can choose a tour. Tours are available for one, three or five hours, depending on the waiting time for your connecting flight. Excursions are conducted on comfortable buses, the story is told in English language.
How to sign up for a tour: You can sign up for the tour online or near the KoreanAir office on the Transit Tour in section B.
Important to remember: an English-speaking guide and bus are provided free of charge, but the tours are not entirely free, you will have to pay for entrances to museums, palaces and meals on your own.
The airline has six tour options that cover all the city's attractions:
— Gyeongbokgung Palace Complex, Insadong District (5 hours);
— Myeongdong Shopping District, Namdaemun Market (5 hours);
— Jeondeungsa Temple, Deokjinjin Fortress (4 hours);
— Jogyesa Temple, river canal Cheonggyecheon (4 hours);
— Excursion to Gwangmyong Cave (4 hours);
— G-Tower in Songdo, Songdo NC Cube Canal Walk in Songdo (2 hours).
Link to excursion descriptions
IN last years the popularity of this type of excursion has increased significantly and now the airport itself provides a similar type of free excursion, only in slightly larger quantities. You can find Transit Tour Desk desks at the airport (yes, desks - there are five of them) on the second floor (arrivals floor), near gates No. 42 and No. 25, as well as on the first floor near gate C.
If you are in Seoul with a transfer, be sure to take advantage of this offer.
2. Professional guides Free Tours
The Free Tours project was founded by enthusiasts from Dublin with the aim of providing free tours of the city for foreigners. Over the years, the number of cities has grown to 250 in more than 90 countries. Seoul is on this list! The tours are led by professionals, people who love their city and understand exactly how and what the traveler should be told about.
You also don't have to pay anything, but if you want you can always leave a tip. Of course, no one canceled payment for food, transport and other travel attributes.
Today there are 3 tours available for free:
1 market tour.
Seoul Walking Tour Night
Here you can see the traditional markets used by the locals. If you wish, you can try dishes prepared right there in the kitchen. After visiting the markets and eating food, it takes about 30 minutes to walk to the Seoul Sky Park viewpoint. During the walk, the guide will tell you about the history of Seoul and answer all your questions.
2nd tour of mountain historical points.
Mountain Climbing and Sights Tour Seoul
Here the first point will be the Seodaemun Prison, notorious among Koreans. Then there will be a climb to Mount Inwang, which will take 40-50 minutes. The mountain itself is not high and is more like a hike. After the ascent there will be a short walk along the mountain and a descent down. In between, you can try national fast food.
3 bike tour.
Hangang Bicycle Tour
As you may have guessed, the tour will be on bicycles, the rental of which will cost $20. The route will run along the Han River, beloved by Koreans. Then you can see artificial island Sebit. Next, the guide suggests ordering food delivery and having a picnic right on the river bank. Overall a great tour for the whole family.
3. Volunteering
If Seoul is the final destination of your trip, then “connecting” excursions from Korean Air are not available to you, but you can find options in the city itself.
First of all, you need to pay attention to the communities:
— Meteor Youth
— Seoul Mate
— Seoul Free Walk Tour
In them, Korean students and volunteers offer assistance to tourists in getting to know the culture and history of the Korean capital, and completely free of charge.
On community websites you can see the schedule, meeting point, etc. important information about the tour:
The excursions themselves are walking, their organizers are not professional guides, but students and volunteers who just like to do a good job and communicate with foreigners, but still this is an excellent and absolutely free chance to get to know Seoul as they see it local residents.
Excursions are conducted in English; you must register for them in advance, at least three days in advance, on the community websites.
Despite how it sounds, excursions with volunteers are no worse than paid excursions, and maybe even more soulful.
4. E excursion to the blue house (with a gift!)
Free excursions in the Korean capital are also offered to the residence of the country's president. The tour is in demand not only among tourists, but also among the Koreans themselves - to get on it you need to sign up much in advance, almost several months in advance. During the excursion, security measures are increased, passports are checked and the police are looking after the group; after all, it is almost a security facility. You can't disperse, everyone follows the same route. But some inconveniences are worth it.
Tourists are shown the main office, the guest house, the Spring and Autumn pavilions, the Muhungawa gorge, palaces, an impressive park and the main building - the Blue House (it is also sometimes called the Blue House). This name is by analogy with the White House because of the bright blue tiles. It’s very beautiful and original, although you can only take pictures in certain places. The program also includes a visit to the press center and watching a film about the residence. The excursion and film are in Korean, but if desired, tourists can be given an audio guide in English.
The best part is that after the excursion, participants will receive gifts. The presidential administration gives visitors silk wallets or scarves as souvenirs.
If your budget is limited, even in expensive Seoul, there is an opportunity to see the main attractions and find an English-speaking guide completely free of charge. I hope our advice will be useful to you, and you will send us your photo reports about such excursions in Seoul 😉
Have a good trip!
py.sy. don’t go to Seoul, go to Turkey, there are also excellent excursions there:
Customs formalities went very quickly, there was no queue at all. We also received our luggage immediately.
In total, no more than 30 minutes passed from the moment we landed to the exit from the airport.
HOW TO GET FROM INCHEON AIRPORT TO SEOUL
To get from Incheon Airport to Seoul, you can take a bus that takes about an hour to the city center and stops at many popular hotels. The cost of travel 15000 KRW per person.
You can take a high-speed train that goes to railway station non-stop in 50 minutes. The cost of travel 8000 KRW per person.
The third method is the regular metro - it is the most economical, and we chose it.
All three methods are described in great detail on the website. VisitKorea don't be lazy, read it.
PLEASE NOTE that to purchase a metro ticket at the airport you will need local money - won. We brought won with us from Russia, you can also exchange dollars at the airport building, or withdraw cash from a card.
So, we chose the metro. How to get to Seoul.
There is nothing complicated or scary about this, even if this is your first time traveling. Once you have collected your baggage, watch and follow Airport Railroad signs and follow the directional arrows. If you suddenly get lost, don’t hesitate to ask for help, Seoul people are very helpful people and someone will definitely tell you the way.
We read in great detail about the metro and how to get to the city in the blog “DISCOVER KOREA TOGETHER” and we advise you. We won’t focus on this; there’s quite a lot of information on the Internet—look through it.
ABOUT METRO IN SEOUL
We, as we wrote above, got to the city by regular subway, the cost of a trip to Seoul Station (train station) is - 4250 KRW per person. We didn’t buy a metro card because we didn’t plan to travel a lot on the subway in 4 days; we would have had to pay 5,000 KRW for the cards for two of us—we didn’t. Each trip on the metro we took a new card, for which you need to pay a deposit of 500 KRW. When leaving, he returned to us. Then you will understand why we didn’t spend money on a travel card, since in total we went down the metro no more than 5 times. If you plan to stay in Seoul for more than 4 days and travel mainly by metro, then with a pass it will be much more convenient and, most likely, cheaper, since without a card each trip costs 100 KRW more.
Be sure to download to your smartphone metro map app- a mega-convenient thing. It works offline, shows all stations, builds a route, calculates the cost of the trip and even tells you when the next train will arrive. Without one of these apps, you'll be blind on the Seoul subway.
We had two of them:
Both applications are in English, but not in Russian.
We used the SEOUL METROPOLITAN app more often.
To the station Seoul Station We drove from the airport for about an hour. Time flew by, we admired the views outside the window, studied the metro map and made plans for the evening.
From Seoul Station we needed to get to City Hall Station, next to which our hotel was located. It's just one stop. We got out, bought a ticket again and went. note that ticket must be saved until the end of the trip; when exiting, it must be applied to the turnstile to exit.
So at about 17:00 we found ourselves near our hotel.
KOREANA HOTEL - our hotel in Seoul
We lived in the Koreana Hotel next to the city hall at City Hall station, from it it is convenient to get to any part of the city.
All major tourist attractions are within walking distance from the hotel. Excursions depart near the hotel tourist buses Upon arrival, we rode around Seoul at night in a bus with an open roof. A few steps from the hotel Cheonggyecheon stream, a large street with cafes, and across the road there is a huge food court. Very close Deoksugung Palace, Gwanghwamun Square and chief Seoul Gyeongbokgung Palace. A five minute walk from the main shopping Myodong street. Also nearby Central Market cities. Across the street from the hotel at City Hall Station is a shuttle bus stop to the Everland amusement park. The airport bus stops right outside the hotel.
Seoul (Cor. "capital") - the capital and The largest city Republic of Korea with a population of more than 10 million people. This is a quarter of the population of all of South Korea. Also, Seoul ranks seventh among cities in the world in the number of corporate headquarters included in the list of the five hundred largest transnational corporations according to Fortune magazine.
Let's go for a walk around this large and very expensive city.
I'll start with the first thing that unpleasantly surprised me. Seoul is VERY, VERY expensive. If you compare prices with Moscow, they are 2 times higher. A can of cola would cost you 60 rubles. Absolutely everything is expensive here. This was my first mistake - I didn’t even bother to find out about the situation with prices in advance. As a result, it was decided to stay in the most affordable hotel - the so-called “hotel for an hour”, or “love motel”. People stayed in these rooms for a short time, but we decided to settle there for 10 days. Because in other places it was already much more expensive, and any purchase significantly hit my pocket.
By the way, the room was a small closet with a bunch of napkins (I wonder what they were for :-))) And there was also a transparent bathroom and toilet. At night, the motel was immersed in a cacophony of voluptuous sounds, and sometimes it was very difficult to fall asleep. We weren’t the only ones who stayed here for a long time; there were also decent families who decided to save money. I’m afraid to imagine how staying in this motel will affect the psyche of their young children.
Seoul is a city where you will hardly find any signs in English; Korean characters are everywhere. To survive, you needed to know at least a couple of phrases. “Anyonhaseyo” - hello, “pap tu ge” - two cups of rice, please, “saithe” - soda, please :-)))
I'll start with the positives. Seoul has a lot of interesting themed restaurants and cafes. Here, for example, Hello Kitty restaurant is made in the spirit of that famous cartoon cat, and the staff here more or less speaks English:
By the way, a cup of coffee and a donut cost me about 250 rubles. Another interesting establishment is Tom's Cat Caffee - a cafe where cats walk. Lots of cats! You drink tea and read a book, and these furry creatures jump on you, ask to pet you, run and play with each other.
The second point that I didn’t really like is that there are almost no escalators anywhere in the metro, there are steps everywhere. As a visiting tourist, I basically don’t care, but what about pensioners? It happens that in just one descent you can count about 100 steps:
Tickets are purchased from special machines, the cost depends on how many stations you need to go through...
There are a lot of stations in Seoul, in fact, it is connected to the suburbs. The average distance between stations is 3 minutes drive. If you need to get to the other end of the city, get ready to spend a lot of money and time, because trains cannot boast of high speed.
The next plus is information about when the next train will arrive. All this is displayed on a special board. When the train arrives at the station, a joyful melody plays on the platform, which is very similar to the melody from some anime cartoon. And when the train leaves, a sad melody plays. Great idea.
I also liked the equipment of the carriages. The carriages are light, but no one sits in the seats for pregnant women and the disabled. The only thing that sometimes embarrassed me was that the locals stared at us. Tourism is very poorly developed in Seoul.
The streets of the city are very clean, the roads are smooth everywhere, the markings are laid out very evenly, very steeply:
One of the most visited places in Seoul is Namsan Tower. Like all self-respecting TV towers, it has observation deck, which we climbed:
My impression of the city was affected by the weather, which was terrible. During all these 10 days, the sun was never able to break through the clouds. The sky was always gloomy:
Despite the fact that flights over the city are prohibited, some buildings have helipads:
The terrain in Seoul is mountainous, and there are not as many high-rise buildings as we would like =)
The locals love to go to the mountains. Some even reach monasteries that are hidden from human eyes. But to find them, you need to spend a lot of time.
Low-rise buildings predominate in Seoul:
Koreans love everything original, and this invention is no exception. The so-called reconciliation bench. If only they could put these in Moscow!
At the foot of the tower there is a bridge of lovers. No one breaks these locks, as they do here:
In many courtyards there are free exercise machines - an excellent social policy!
In some places there is real chaos on the roads - local residents walk straight along the roadway:
As night approaches, Seoul transforms and becomes an even more beautiful city:
They are clearly not sparing money on electrifying the city. Everything is very beautifully lit. Nightlife in Seoul deserves its own story. In short, I highly recommend you hang out at a Korean club. This is the only way you can understand what this city really is like.
On weekends, all the people hang out in karaoke bars and clubs, get completely drunk, and in the morning you need to carefully walk the streets, since many people end up sleeping right on the streets after a stormy night.
And in Korea they really love foreigners, especially Europeans. If you are a young European, then you will definitely not be deprived of the attention of Korean women. Be careful By the way, Korean women are really very beautiful and sweet.
Particular attention is paid to the safety of pedestrians. This picture is not uncommon in Seoul:
Like any civilized city, Seoul has a bicycle rental service. Also read the articles “” and “”:
There are a lot of similarities with New York. For example, some areas are connected using bridges:
In the distance you can see the same Namsan TV tower - from it we looked at the high-rise Seoul for the first time
:
The most high buildings barely exceed the 60 floor mark:
Another look at the city from a nearby business center:
The Banpo automobile bridge, which begins to release colored streams of water in the evenings. According to locals, it was a beautiful sight. But... in reality everything was completely different. Not impressed at all. If you have ever seen a fountain show in Dubai, then you will agree with me. And it is precisely this attraction that lures tourists to South Korea!
But the beauty, as I already understood, does not lie at all in these sights... Just before sunset, the clouds parted and I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets of my life:
It's difficult to convey this beauty through photography, but I did my best
I also met strange people here who fought with an invisible enemy in shoes... To the music of "mortal kombat":
It is worth noting that in their culture South Korea borrowed a lot from the USA. In fact, the states imposed almost everything on them - style, culture, fashion, architecture. Therefore, the old generation does not like tourists and looks with disgust at the younger generation, who dresses very stylishly and, at times, provocatively.
This is so, a lyrical digression. Walking past this monument, for the first time in a week I heard a conversation between two Russians. It’s good that no one but us understood them, otherwise I would have been very ashamed of them:
- Oh, damn, look, it's Mao Zedong!
- What are you, an asshole?? He's in Japan!!!
Next tourist place - Namdaemun Palace. Hordes of tourists completely discouraged anyone from taking photographs. I really don’t like large crowds of tourists, but what did I expect?
All kinds of deities:
On the last day of our stay, a landfall hit the territory of Korea, which significantly flooded our previous point - Jeju Island. I didn’t feel anything except a strong wind, and no people or metal structures were flying through the air, but all the establishments and shopping centers were closed. God saves man, who save himself.
Late in the evening, returning to my own love motel, I first noticed these curtains in the parking lot. The fact is that many government officials come to such motels to have a good time with the priestesses of love, and in order to keep the rooms from shining, such curtains were invented. Of course, this is all just a formality:
Thus ended Seoul. I had extremely mixed feelings. On the one hand, I really liked the nightlife, but on the other hand, the city did not excite me at all. Perhaps this was influenced by the fact that we had already traveled to Seoul for 2 weeks and were a little tired. Don't know.
In any case, if you have money, then the city is worth visiting at least for nightlife. See you soon
Panorama of Seoul on the map for online viewing of city streets. Travel around interactive map Seoul - street panorama. with search discussed earlier. You move through the city streets in real time
Panoramic photos of Seoul streets
We look at the photos of the sights and the city plan, what to see, and pictures of the province. You can zoom in or out on Seoul street panoramas using the +/- zoom tool. Nearest locality and surrounding areas nearby - Incheon
Virtual tour navigating the streets of Seoul and the roads of the neighborhood depends only on you. Panoramic photographs - pictures are controlled using arrows on photo images from Google Maps - show interesting things in the world! It’s even simpler - where you clicked with the mouse, you moved there. To now see the location of the streets in detail
Panoramic photographs of Seoul and the provinces in South Korea are available to everyone to view online tour without leaving your computer. They also work on mobile maps of cities and towns. You can take a virtual tour of the area and navigate in real time along the roads of the region. Show your route with names and type of area, look for nearby shops and banks. View your house and a panoramic view of the suburb on the map, search for places nearby, find out how to get there on foot or get to the street
Coordinates - 37.551506,126.96240
Map of Seoul (South-Korea) with photos - images and panoramas of the world provided by the map service Google Street View
