Nothing is permanent in this fashion-filled, helter-skelter city that completely rebuilds itself every decade and vibrates with energy night and day. Every evening a tsunami of Seoulites sweeps into entertainment districts, where smoky barbecue restaurants, goblin-sized teashops, plush mugwort saunas, DVD mini- cinemas and more are stacked up 10-storeys high along narrow alleys. Seoul spreads a virtually unknown culture and cuisine at your feet.
Yes, the future has already arrived, but the past has not been completely uprooted - Seoul’s mighty fortress wall and gates still stand, as do World Heritage palaces, royal shrines and tombs. A neighbourhood of hanok (traditional Korean one-storey wooden houses with tiled roofs), built by yangban (aristocrats), has miraculously survived the Korean War and the rush to bulldoze and modernise. Traditional cultural performances, feisty festivals, folk villages and folk museums allow visitors to peep into Seoul’s feudal past when Confucian scholar noblemen in hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) wore black horse-hair hats and lorded it over their wives, concubines, peasants and slaves.
Some hotels still offer rooms where you can sleep on a padded quilt on an ondol (underfloor-heated) floor in a room furnished in yangban style. In traditional restaurants furnished like folk museums everybody sits on floor cushions, feasting on a table-top barbecue of beef, pork or chicken along with rice, seasoned soups and a multitude of piquant sauces and vegetable side dishes.
The wide-ranging and healthy Korean cuisine is another of the city’s attractions. Discover the delights of ginseng chicken, meat-and-lettuce wraps, spicy tofu soup, hotteok (sweet pita bread) and omijacha (berry) tea. Restaurants in every price range also offer Japanese, Western, Chinese and fusion food as well as the chance to sample special meals, such as royal court cuisine, which are hard to find outside Seoul.
The weather is at its best in spring, which is also festival time - Buddha’s birthday celebrations and picnics under the cherry blossom make this a popular season to visit, but autumn with its transcendent tree tints, blue skies and music concerts is also highly recommended. Even the freezing winters are tempered by the ondol, while the hot and humid summers are made bearable by air-conditioning. Seoul hosts an endless stream of small festivals, so whenever you visit you can expect a special cultural event or two to be taking place.
Splashes of nature are beginning to appear out of the blue: Cheonggye stream, which used to be covered by a road, has been uncovered and reborn, and an instant woodland, Ttukseom Seoul Forest, has been planted on what used to be a racetrack and sports fields.
Thousands of expats live and work in Seoul - most enjoy their stay and a few never leave. Their main struggle is usually with the language as English is not widely spoken or understood. Seoul has its rough edges: traffic congestion, ugly high-rises, and not all the characteristics that have lead to the city’s astonishing economic success are endearing. But as with working abroad anywhere, a positive attitude, adaptability and understanding are the keys to an enjoyable long-term stay.
Recommended excursions include touring the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which is a fascinating but stark reminder of the dangerous division of the country; walking around the rebuilt walls of Suwon’s World Heritage fortress; and boarding a ferry to the beaches and seafood restaurants on unspoilt islands in the West Sea.
No other Korean city approaches the size and importance of rush-rush Seoul with its nearly 11 million residents and another eight million who live within commuting distance. It is the dynamic political, financial, educational and cultural hub of the world’s 11th largest economy. Seoul is a 600-year-old capital, a complex, rarely explored Asian city that is a fascinating cultural bibimbap of rude energy, Confucian rules and democratic values, where Buddhists and shamanists rub shoulders with Christians and atheists.
Last updated: Sep 24, 2008
