Seoul in 7 days

This is my first time to Korea. Honestly I did not know what to expect. My Korean knowledge is limited to a few Korean dramas, some popular Korean foods in Canada, and some tips from our Korean friends at church.

Flight and transportation

We chose Seoul as our first stop of South Korea because it was the capital and the largest metropolis of the country. We hoped it would also be more traveller friendly too.

We woke up at 5 am and took an early flight with HK Express from Hong Kong to Seoul. The flight itself was short, about 3 hour and 30 mins. The Incheon International Airportwas spacious and modern. It was comparable to other airports in major cities.

Once we arrived, we could easily find our way to the transferring train station. At a booth between the train station and the airport, you can buy Korean transportation card called T-money. The good thing about the T-money card is that it can be used in Seoul, Jeonju, and Busan. Since we were going to Jeonju and Busan later on in our trip, getting the T-money card is a no-brainer. There were English speaking staffs helping tourists out. So, the experience for first time travellers was pretty good.

Clean subway

My first impression of the Seoul subway was how clean it was. In fact, it was so clean that even the track was lit up. In comparison, the Toronto subway was a lot dirtier. I wouldn't dare to imagine what we would find if we light up the subway track.

Walking on the street

As we walked around the neighborhood, instead of finding Starbucks everywhere, we found a lot of small local coffee shops. Each coffee shop was unique and had a different clientele. We tried a few of them and they were comparable to the coffee shops in North America. My host, Ha Ha, joked that the younger generation would sacrifice their regular meals with instant noodles in order to save money for the expensive coffee.

Tactile paving for the visually impaired

Compared to China cities, Seoul's streets were more accessible to the visually impaired. Tactile paving could be found everywhere and they generally followed the right path, unlike what was stated in this article.

Going from China to South Korea was a major culture shift. In general, the streets were quieter and there weren't as many scooters as in China. Scooters also seemed to follow the same traffic rule as cars and did not mix with pedestrians. It was a major relief for us, or family with kids, to be able to cross the road without worrying too much.

The street on Seoul was also very orderly with instruction for every thing imaginable. Sometimes, there were too many instructions and I got confused. For example, on a one-way street, you can sometimes find arrows pointing in both direction except that the wrong way one has a cross on it.

Confusing wrong way marker

In Seoul, a one-way street usually have a painted marker that shows an arrow with a cross on it. Sometimes, however, the marker was so prominent that it made you pause to think which was the right way.

Another difference between China and South Korea was that most stores did not open until 10am. In a residential area, like where we stay, very few restaurants would be open for breakfast. People were expected to have their breakfast at home.

Modern churches in South Korea

Christianity (combine Protestants and Catholics) is still the majority religion in South Korea. They had modern and fancy buildings that were not easy to find in North America. Picture above is one of them.

Navigation App

When you are in South Korea, there are many options when it comes to navigation. Unfortunately, none of them is a full solution for foreigners.

When we were looking for a more obscure location (i.e. not close to a subway station or a bus stop), we found that we needed to use multiple navigation apps to help orient ourselves. Most locals were comfortable with the Korean language Naver Map. So, in the worst case, we gave let the locals setup the destination in Naver Map and we would just follow its direction.

Public transit

Perhaps the bigges difference between Chinese and Koreans can be found when you are riding their respective subway/metro. In China, we could hear people either talking to each other or on the phone. Some even watched movies on their smartphone with speakers fully on (though they were usually warned by the subway assistant inside the car). In general, there were lots of activities going on inside the subway car. In Seoul, however, the subway car was dead silent. Our kids were usually the loudest and we had to constantly remind them to keep their voices down to avoid disturbing other passengers.

Another difference we noticed in the subway was that in China (say Beijing), people who were in their 60s would give up their seats to our kids but in South Korea, our kids were expected to give up their seats to them. In China, we also saw few elderly and almost no people with physical challenges using the public transit or even on the street. In South Korea, however, these people seemed more active and more visible. Maybe it was a sign of a more mature society, it was good to see how South Koreans show their respects to the forerunners of the society and that the underprivileged were not excluded.

History

We visited a few museums in Seoul, including the Korean folk museum, the Korean Contemporary History Musm, the Historic Site, and the 70’s Village. I could tell that the Koreans had been leading a simple and peaceful life. They did not have big ambition and they had never raged any war against another country. Unfortunately, they were often bullied or invaded by neighboring countries like Japan and China. In fact, when Hideoyoshi of Japan wanted to invade China through Korea, the Koreans tried to stop him and turned it into a Japan-Korea war. It was difficult to survive when it was sandwiched by two major power but it did, until 1910.

In 1910, Japan formally annexed the Korean Empire. It was not until 1945 (after WWII) that the Korean got their country back. When we were there, it was actually the 100th anniversary of the Korean Declaration of Independence, so we got to see more exhibits about this major event. (yes, it took 30 years after the Declaration of Independence that the Koreans became independent) Unfortunately, shortly after their true independence, they were split again into North Korea and South Korea.

The Koreans did not shy away from their disagreement with the Japanese. Inside some metro stations, we saw some public displays of their ongoing dispute with the Japanese government (e.g. their territorial claim of the Dokou Island). In fact, when we were there, there was a trade war between Japan and South Korea. Some South Koreans were boycotting Japanese products, like Japanese apparel and its beer

In the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, where the focus was on modern history, we learnt a lot about the history during the time when the North and the South were separated. We could feel the people's pain of the separation and their yearning for reunification.

Protests

Contrary to their quieteness and calmness in the public transit, South Koreans actually had a unique culture of protests. It was easy to walk into one of them unknowingly. During our stay in Seoul, we encounted a peaceful protest after touring the palace. We did not feel unsafe at all because the protest looked peaceful and the Seoul policeman outnumbered the protestors 3 to 1.

Staying

We stayed in a hostel called Haha Guesthouse Itaewon. The hostel was located near the Samgakji metro station, which was very convenient. The hostel is a bungalow (single storey) with a few rooms, a shared kitchen, and a shared bathroom. The host, Haha, was very friendly and prepared for her guests every morning. Every day, the breakfast was different. During weekday, we had Korean style breakfast like congee, rice cakes, bibbam, and omelettes. On the weekends, we had self serve western breakfast. It was a perfect way to start our day. We were well taken care of and the kids loved staying there.

Korean Electric Socket

The Korean Electric Socket requires a plug with two rounded pongs. We used this universal plug and it worked perfectly.