www.ktwon.com

For a city of its extreme size and density, green space is fairly common in Seoul.  In stark contrast to New York City, which really just has Central Park, Seoul has many large parks and green areas throughout the city.  There are also several wide open spaces along the river.  Just look at a map of Seoul and you will see how many parks open spaces there are.

Similar to Hong Kong, many of the parks are mountainous, where geography discouraged development, encouraging people to build up rather than out.  In fact, the main photo on the homepage of this blog is taken about 1-mile-as-the-crow-flies from one of the densest parts of the city.  However, as technology has allowed for transport and building higher into the mountains, Seoul has still preserved it’s green spaces.

The dedication to keeping nature in Seoul is evident everywhere.  Many of the busiest streets have trees along the sides or centers.  Trees and plants on rooftops are very common.  Corners of parking lots and school buildings are filled with small parks, and trees shade playgrounds.  I have even seen several buildings essentially using ivy as a siding material.

Given the density of Seoul and the relative preference for cars, parking is always at a premium.  So far, I haven’t seen any Japanese-style car elevators, but I have noticed people are very good at parking in close quarters.  The pictures represent typical street parking in Korea.  I have seen many cars parked closer to buildings, but did not get a picture.  I have also seen many cars parked sufficiently far away as to allow for passenger side egress.  Of note: None of these cars had any scrapes on the paint.

One thing you can’t really get outside of Korea is the BBQ.  It is characterized by food cooked at the table and served with unlimited side-dishes.  In Korea, authenticity is very important, and nobody would claim their BBQ was authentic if they cooked the food in the kitchen and brought it out to the table, as is common practice at Korean restaurants in the US.

In my hometown, there is one Korean restaurant that cooks at the table.  Most reviews give it more $-signs than starts, and the general sentiment is that if you’ve ever been to Korea, you will be disappointed even if it were free.  Meanwhile, there are restaurants on every corner in Seoul that serve BBQ for less than the cost of a mediocre hamburger in any US metropolis.

In conclusion, it is important to eat as much BBQ as possible in Korea.

If you can’t climb stairs, navigating Seoul will require some patience.  The ADA is pretty much unique to the USA, and Korea seems to be at the other extreme of the accessibility spectrum.  Almost every bathroom has a step-up, and many doors have steps at the threshold for no apparent reason.  Most residences have a step after the entryway separating areas where shoes can be worn.

But if physical limitations don’t keep you from climbing stairs, you will encounter them daily in Seoul.  It is a very hilly city.  If you look at a map, there are many green areas that are undeveloped.  Mainly because they were too hilly to build upon.  It is also a vertical city.  Maybe not as vertically built up as NYC or Tokyo, but the medium level of vertical density means that many storefronts, restaurants, coffee shops, pool halls, etc, are located on the 2nd, 3rd, even 4th floors and accessible to the public via stairs.  Skyscrapers always have plenty of elevators. 4 or 6 story buildings might not.

There are also public stairs left, right, and center.  Every subway station has at least 25 steps to enter or exit, and some have many, many more.  Many of the mountains have stairs leading up to the peaks.  The stairs might seem like a disadvantage, but they have many benefits: forced workout everyday no matter how lazy you are, overall an efficient form of transit, keeps the crazy motorbike drivers away from pedestrian areas, breaks up long walks, and generally easier than very steep hills without stairs.

Mag-Lev Tracks to the airport

Mag-Lev Terminal

Express Train Terminal at Incheon

No Queue for Customs, but they were prepared

I was in Seoul once before.  Late summer of 2009.  I stayed with my brother, who was in Seoul for work and who had a large apartment near the River. If I taught any English, I could easily pay back my flight and other expenses.  The U.S. was at the height of the recession, and I had been furloughed at work.

It was hard for me to believe that 7 years had already passed between my visits.  Indeed, Incheon Airport appeared identical.  The smell was exactly the same – granite.  I cleared customs and cashed in $100 for 114,500 Won, teh Google giving the rate as 1187.  (I am always surprised at people who think the airport has bad rates, and go without cash until they are at a bank that supposedly gives a marginally better rate, even though the convenience of the English speaking tellers right at the airport is hard to beat.  Murphy’s Law also implies the exchange rate will nose-dive after you arrive and before you exchange your cash, so waiting may well cost you more than you save.)

One change I had heard about was some sort of mag-lev/express train.  I envisioned this to be Korea’s response to the Shanghai mag-lev, and promptly purchased a ticket for W8000.  Upon riding the mag-lev, I was struck by the fact that it seemed to go only ~20mph.  Inspecting the map posted above the train door, I realized it just went to the various parking lots.  Thanks to the mag-lev detour, I missed my actual train by ~30 seconds.  This had me concerned because the ticket said ‘”consult receipt for seat assignment”‘ which seemed to imply I might need to buy another ticket.  However, it looked like the train I missed was less than half-full, so I hoped this wouldn’t be a problem.

The next train (half hour later, which is very infrequent for Seoul transit) was 90% full.  I sat in the seat I had been assigned on my ticket (even though it was the wrong time) and nobody gave me any funny looks or looked at their ticket as they walked past my seat.  The conductor checked the tickets of the people sitting in front of me, but didn’t ask for mine.  I assumed she didn’t want to waste any time dealing with a dumb foreigner.

In the end, I met my brother at the subway stop near our apartment a little after noon, despite my 8:00 am arrival.  I also managed to keep normal hours to minimize jet-lag, even after a 10 hour bus ride followed by two 8 hour plane rides and the layovers in between.

In conclusion, just take the “all-stops” train from the airport if you think there is any chance you’ll confuse an express train with a mag-lev.