106 attractions in Seoul, including Seongsu-dong, Sukjeongmun Gate and Sungnyemun Gate (Namdaemun). Map, details and practical tips before you go.
Towns & cities
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Seongsu-dong was, not long ago, a semi-industrial patch of eastern Seoul packed with shoe workshops, print shops and car repair garages. As its red-brick factories and warehouses turned into cafés, galleries and pop-up stores, it became on…
Fortresses
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Sukjeongmun is the north gate of Hanyangdoseong, the wall that enclosed Hanyang, the Joseon capital. It is one of the four great gates together with the east, west and south gates, but it stands deep in the hills on the eastern ridge of Bu…
Fortresses
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Sungnyemun was the main southern gate in the wall around Hanyang, the capital of Joseon, and is commonly called Namdaemun, "Great South Gate". Standing among the office towers between Seoul Station and City Hall, it shows how the old walle…
Old towns & squares
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Sinsa-dong Garosu-gil is a two-lane street in Gangnam that runs from Dosan-daero near Sinsa Station to the junction in front of Hyundai High School. Its name simply means "tree-lined street": about 160 ginkgo trees stand along both sides,…
Zoos
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Follow the underground passages from Samseong Station deep into COEX Mall and, in the middle of a shopping centre, you suddenly find yourself under the sea. SEA LIFE COEX Aquarium opened in 2000 and is Seoul's best-known city-centre aquari…
Mountains & peaks
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Achasan is a low granite mountain on the border between Gwangjin District in Seoul and the city of Guri. Its height is given as anywhere from 285 to 296 m depending on the source, but from the ridge you look out over the Han River and the…
Mountains & peaks
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Ansan is a modest hill about 296 m high in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. A Joseon-era beacon tower has been restored on the summit, and the Ansan Jarak-gil, a loop of about 7 km around the hillside, is famous as a step-free forest trail. You can wa…
Gardens & parks
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In the middle of Yeouido, surrounded by the National Assembly, broadcasters and bank towers, a long strip of woodland crosses the island. Yeouido Park was created on land that had been an airfield and then a vast asphalt plaza, so a walk h…
Gardens & parks
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Right next to the National Museum of Korea, Yongsan Family Park is a spread of wide lawns and ponds set among gentle slopes. The land was part of the Yongsan military base, used by the Japanese army in the colonial period and by US forces…
Palaces
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Unhyeongung is the house where Gojong, the 26th king of Joseon, was born and lived until he took the throne at the age of 12, and where his father, the regent Heungseon Daewongun, ran the country for almost a decade. It is much smaller tha…
Gardens & parks
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Every autumn the hill of Haneul Park in Seoul's Mapo District ripples with silvery eulalia grass, yet underneath it is a mountain of rubbish. The park was created by capping and stabilising the Nanjido landfill, where Seoul dumped its wast…
Towns & cities
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Itaewon, in Seoul's Yongsan District, is usually described as the city's most international neighbourhood. Restaurants serving food from all over the world, an old jazz club and a second-hand bookshop, and Middle Eastern shops around the m…
Old towns & squares
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East of Daehangno, on the slope just below Naksan Park, Ihwa Mural Village is a tangle of stairways and alleys that became Seoul's best-known mural village after a public art project in 2006 painted its walls and steps. Many works have sin…
Old towns & squares
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Just north of Jongno 3-ga Station, a patch of low tiled roofs is squeezed between office towers. Ikseon-dong is one of the oldest clusters of hanok in Seoul, and its alleys, often barely wide enough for two people, are now lined with cafés…
Old towns & squares
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Brushes and hanji paper, old ceramics and quiet tea houses all share one street. Insa-dong has been at the heart of Seoul since the Joseon dynasty, and today its main street and side alleys are lined with craft shops, galleries and tea roo…
Mountains & peaks
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Inwangsan is a 338 m rocky mountain rising west of Gyeongbokgung Palace. The Seoul City Wall runs along its ridge, and from the top you can see the palace, Bugaksan, Namsan and the whole of downtown Seoul. Reachable straight from the subwa…
Gardens & parks
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At the eastern foot of Namsan, right outside Dongguk University Station, Jangchungdan Park is today a neighbourhood park for walks and exercise, but it began as an altar for those who died for the country. Its name comes from Jangchungdan,…
Museums
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The War Memorial of Korea is a large museum of military history on the former site of the Army Headquarters in Yongsan, Seoul. It covers the wars fought on the Korean Peninsula from the Three Kingdoms period to the present, above all the K…
Churches & monasteries
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On a cliff above the Han River in Hapjeong-dong, Jeoldusan Martyrs' Shrine marks the place where large numbers of Catholics were executed during the persecution of 1866. A riverside walk with views of Yanghwa Bridge, a church holding marty…
Churches & monasteries
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Jogyesa in the middle of Jongno-gu, Seoul, is the head temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. Its main hall and a lacebark pine thought to be around 500 years old stand among office towers, and the grounds are open 24 hours a day, s…
Historic sites & memorials
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Jongmyo is the royal ancestral shrine where the spirit tablets of the kings and queens of the Joseon dynasty were kept and honoured with rites. It lies in the middle of Jongno in central Seoul, yet behind its walls the woods, wide stone co…
Palaces
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Changgyeonggung is a Joseon palace in Jongno, Seoul. Together with Changdeokgung, from which it is separated by a single wall, it was known as the "East Palace". Built to house senior royal women, it is modest in size, yet it has Myeongjeo…
Palaces
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Changdeokgung was built in 1405 as a secondary palace, yet it became the palace where Joseon kings spent the most time. Instead of the strict symmetry of Gyeongbokgung on the flat ground, its halls follow the slopes of a spur of Bugaksan m…
Gardens & parks
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Cheonggyecheon is a stream that runs west to east through the heart of Seoul. For decades it was buried under concrete with an elevated expressway on top; in 2003–2005 the road came down and the stream was brought back to the surface. Toda…