Virtual walk around Seoul. Walking around Seoul

It makes an extraordinary impression on all travelers who reach the “land of Morning Freshness”. Walking around Seoul is reminiscent of a science fiction film, where ancient buildings coexist with masterpieces of modern architects. The city is home to amazing religious buildings and futuristic buildings with helipads on the roofs.

And the most incomparable views open from observation platforms located in unusual buildings. The first is on the television tower, in a restaurant that also rotates, so the guest can see everything without turning his head. The second site is located on a skyscraper with amazing windows tinted with pure gold.

Various walks around Seoul

Guests develop their travel routes around Seoul themselves, based on their personal hobbies and activities. Some people are attracted by the old city, so the main stops along the way will be magnificent palaces, amazing temples, and religious shrines.

Nature lovers can expect magnificent parks that are home to a huge number of endemic species and visitors from other regions of the planet. The main park in the city is Namsan; it is considered a symbol of Seoul and a favorite place for walks for citizens.

Another interesting point is that Seoul is great for walking with children; it has many interesting establishments, from which it is extremely difficult to take children away:

• Lotte World is one of the world's largest indoor amusement parks;
• "Seoul Land" - a theme park, a miniature copy of the city;
• Everland is another entertainment center for the younger generation.

Seoul appears before guests in all its splendor; the main thing for a tourist is not to get confused, immediately plan a route and go on a hike for new impressions.

Discovering the sights of Seoul

The city, despite its focus on the future, dynamism and high speeds, preserves unique monuments of ancient architecture. Guests are greeted by the only representative of the Joseon Dynasty - Changdeokgung Palace, the oldest Geumjeongyo Bridge, at the end of which is the entrance to the chamber where royal audiences are held - Injeongjeong. There are other palace complexes, for example, Gyeongbokgung, Honnyemun, Hyangwonjeong, the last two now have museum exhibitions. The most difficult thing for a guest is to try to remember and pronounce Korean names.

I like Seoul. I love this city for no reason, even though I've only been here 3 times. I feel that in it I am calm, distant from any negativity. I love just walking the streets, looking around, at people passing by. Ride the subway, eat at a myriad of eateries and drink great Korean beer. Last year, I again visited the city simply out of love for it; I could have gone to ChunCheon or Busan, but once again I chose Seoul. I wanted to walk and photograph every corner, every house, street, people, but no matter how much time I had, it was always not enough, and the weather was not very favorable. Therefore, the story will be short, within the framework of what was seen in one day.

It just so happens that the first place I get to in Seoul is the subway.

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I can’t compare it with any other metro yet, but I think it’s very difficult to get lost in Seoul. Everything is so simple and clear that you don’t have to worry about any other transport (buses, taxis, etc.). You can get to almost any point without problems. Of course, it is advisable to have a metro map, then any tourist or non-tourist routes can be calculated very quickly. You can get a map directly in Seoul, but it is better to pick up a “guide to Korea” brochure at the Consulate. The first thing you will have to pay attention to is buying a ticket, where and how to buy it, but this is also not a problem, since Koreans are always happy to help you) They themselves come up and offer help, but as they say, they have not been married for the first year). Although every year some new products appear in the metro. For example, if 3 years ago tickets could be bought at the box office, then next year they can only be bought from a machine. This year, the machines have become even more sophisticated and you can now program ticket cards as you need. When buying a card, you always overpay a little (500 won), but when you exit at your station, you can return this money by putting the card in a special machine or add more money and reprogram it for another trip. In general, everything is simple) so don’t be afraid to take the subway in Korea) and it’s also clean and there are clean toilets on every corner, and this is oh how important it is in Korea (for me, anyway).

From the metro along numerous lines I go out into the city and...

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...I just walk around watching people pass by.

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But the incessant rain forces us to adjust the route, driving us to various shopping centers, museums and other establishments with a roof over our heads) The first was Techno-Mart at Gangbyeon metro station. Huge center, 9 floors. 7 of them are stuffed with various equipment (photos, videos, computers, phones, household)

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Traveling by escalators or elevator

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On the top floors there are various cafes and restaurants. 10.
In the meantime, while men are busy choosing equipment, and kids are eating ice cream in a cafe, women can stroll around and buy clothes and various accessories on the lowest floor. eleven.
I must say that another electronics center located at Yongsan station is practically no different from Techno-Marta and I did not notice any difference in price.

The next shopping complex was COEX. It is located at Samgseong subway station. There was this beauty at the entrance

And like this

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Since I’m not keen on shopping, I just walked around the center out of curiosity, had lunch at one of the many cafes and bought something at the souvenir shop.

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At every step in Coex there are signs to various boutiques and entertainment halls. The Khimchi Museum and Aquarium seemed the most interesting to me. But in reality, you can visit them once, no more. Although the Aquarium will undoubtedly be interesting for children.

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And of course the metro in the opposite direction

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I'll tell you a little about where I stayed. Dongdaemun Subway Station. This is practically a Russian quarter. In local cafes, restaurants and shops you can meet Russians, Kazakhs, Ukrainians, etc. There are inscriptions in Russian. In nearby hotels and motels there is always a person or phone number you can call and explain in Russian what you need (for example, it could be special requests regarding a room or, say, transfer to the airport, port or to another city, etc. ).

I stayed at the budget YuSungJang Motel. The cost of a room with one double bed is 30,000 won (just under $30). The amenities are the usual - cable, wired Internet, air conditioning, refrigerator with a free fortified Korean drink)) dispenser with cold and hot water, shower, toilet. And in order to rest at night I didn’t need anything else.

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The capital of Korea is far from the cheapest city in the 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 entrance tickets, this can eat up a fair share of your travel budget. However, you can save money on an excursion program in Korea by choosing free options. In this article we will tell you how.

1. Long connections between flights

Korean Air passengers who make a transfer in Seoul are in the most privileged position.
For their entertainment, the airline organizes free sightseeing tours of 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 narration is in English.

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, Cheonggyecheon River Canal (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 recent 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 a 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 the artificial island of 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 and other 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 the locals see it.

Excursions are conducted in English, and 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 the high-speed train, which goes non-stop to the train station 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 application- 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. Please note that the ticket must be kept until the end of the trip, and 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 on tourist buses depart near the hotel; 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 of the city. 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 (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. The main political, economic and cultural center of the 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. There are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

City name

The word Seul comes from the ancient Korean sable or sorabol ("capital") from the Silla period. At that time, this word referred to the city of Gyeongju, the former capital of 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 railways and roads (Gyeongbuseong, 경부선 - Seoul-Busan railway line; Gyeongin Kosoktoro, 경인고속도로 - expressway Seoul-Incheon).

Chinese transcription

Unlike most Korean place names, the word "Seoul" has no equivalent in Hancha, and in Chinese the city is called by its former name (漢城/汉城, Chinese reading Hancheng, Korean Hanseong; meaning "fortress on the Han River", but If desired, it can also be interpreted as a “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...