Quick search
CTRL+K
Quick search
CTRL+K
Seoul is a beautiful and exciting encounter with ancient Korean culture, and at the same time you can feel that you are in one of Asia’s modern metropolises everywhere in the great city. The South Korean capital is an abundance of large palaces surrounded by green parks, and here you can feel the power, ancient calmness and mental balance that the beautiful palaces once were constructed to support and maintain.
Seoul has its share of nature within the city limits as well. The wide Han River flows through the city, and hills are scattered in and around the city center. On top of it all rests the Seoul Tower, where you can see it all from above, and from here you really feel the size of the city and the division of new modern buildings and the old palaces.
As the day goes on, there is plenty to do in the city where there are plenty of shopping malls, cafes, restaurants, museums and attractions for everyone’s interest. Indoor theme parks like Lotte World are some of the more popular choices when traveling with kids.
Seoul is close to the border with the sister country of North Korea, and if you have the opportunity, you should make a trip to the Demilitarized Zone, DMZ, where you not only get close to the country to the north, but in fact also enter North Korean territory. That is memorable as is many other attrations in the vicinity of Seoul.
Gyeongbokgung was the most important royal palace during Joseon Dynasty Korea. Built in 1395, it was the largest of the dynasty’s so-called five palaces, which also include Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung and Gyeonghuigung, all of which are located in Seoul.
The palace was built as the royal residence of the Joseon kings, whose dynasty was established in 1392 by King Taejo, who also initiated the construction of Gyeongbokgung. The palace’s name means shining happiness, and it was named in tribute to Korea and the permanent happiness and prosperity of the Korean kings.
It was King Taejo who built Gyeongbokgung, but Kings Taejong and Sejong exploited the facility in the 15th century. The palace burned in 1552, but was rebuilt the following year, only to be destroyed again during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. The palace was not destroyed by the Japanese, but set on fire by Koreans opposed to King Seonjo’s evacuation of the capital.
After the destruction of Gyeongbokgung Palace, the king, court and government moved to Changdeokgung Palace, while the burnt Gyeongbokgung lay in ruins for the following centuries. Nothing happened until 1867, when King Daewongun started rebuilding the palace.
After the reconstruction, there were a total of 330 buildings on the colossal palace grounds, and Gyeongbokgung once again stood as a symbol of Korea and the Korean royal family. However, the new situation did not last many years, as Japan occupied the palace in 1894 during the First Sino-Japanese War. And after the assassination of Empress Myeongseong the following year, Emperor Gojong moved from Gyeongbokgung.
In the 1900s, the palace got a new use, as the Japanese colonial government demolished large parts of Gyeongbokgung’s buildings from 1911, and in 1915 one of several large exhibitions was held in the area. The most visible change came with the construction of the Great Government Building for the Japanese General Government in 1926. The building stood immediately north of Gyeongbokgung’s southern entrance, and the Japanese building symbolically shielded the old throne room of the Joseon Dynasty.
In 1989, South Korea initiated a large-scale reconstruction of Gyeongbokgung, where it was decided that the entire old facility should be recreated. Among other things, this caused the Japanese government building to be demolished in 1996. Today, you can therefore again see and get an impression of large parts of the old residence palace as it stood in the time of the Joseon kings.
The Gwanghwamun (광화문) main gate is to the south, and then you pass the Heungnyemun (흥례문) and Geunjeongmun (근정문) gates on your way through the inner courtyards to the Geunjeongjeon (근정전) throne room, where the king held audiences and received diplomats. The current throne room is a reconstruction from 1867, and its name means ‘hall of diligent government’. In the courtyard around the hall, there are stones that marked where guests had to stand in relation to their formal importance.
Behind the throne room is the Sajeongjeon Hall (사정전), which was the king’s seat of government and the place where he met members of the government. Continuing north, you come to the king’s residence, Gangnyeongjeon (강녕전), originally built in 1395 by King Taejo. Behind the king’s residence is Gyotaejeon (교태전), which was the queen’s residence.
To the west of this is the Gyeonghoeru Pavilion (경회루), which is beautifully surrounded by water. The pavilion was used to hold state banquets and thereby functioned as the palace’s ballroom. South of Gyeonghoeru and the artificial lake, you can see the Gangnyeongjeon (강녕전) building that was used by the country’s government.
The parts mentioned were the main government and residence buildings of the palace, but so were many other facilities on the large palace grounds. For example, you can go further north along Gyeongbokgung’s central axis, where the fine pavilion Hyangwonjeong (향원정) is located on an island in beautiful surroundings. The pavilion’s name means ‘pavilion of far-reaching fragrance’, and you get here via the Chwihyanggyo (초향교) bridge, which means ‘the bridge of the intoxication of fragrance’.
Seoul Tower was built in the years 1969-1971 on top of Namsan Mountain. The tower’s foundation is 243 meters above sea level, and the tower itself is another 236.7 meters. Therefore, of course, there is an excellent view of the Korean capital from the observation deck of the tower.
In 1980, Seoul Tower opened to the public, and it has since become one of the city’s landmarks. Among other things, you can enjoy the view from Seoul Tower’s restaurant on the rotating floor, where it takes 48 minutes to make a 360 degree rotation.
Many people take the Namsan Cable Car/Namsan Keibeulka (남산 가레카) to the top of Namsen and thereby also to the area where Seoul Tower stands. The cable car passes a stretch of just over 600 metres, and along the way you come up 138 metres. It is a good idea to go to the tower at a time close to sunset, so that you can see Seoul both in daylight and with all the city’s evening lights.
Sungnyemun Gate, also known as Namdaemun (남대문), is one of Seoul’s and Korea’s most important structures. The gate was built as one of the eight gates in Seoul’s city walls leading to and from the city. Of these eight gates, there were four main gates to the east (Heunginjimun), west (Donuimun), north (Sukjeongmun) and south (Sungnyemun).
Built in the years 1395-1398, Sungnyemun is the largest gate ever built in Korea. The architecture is historic pagoda style with the characteristic wooden building on top of the solid city walls, a small part of which can be seen on both sides of the gate entrance itself.
The two-story pagoda building and the rest of the gate were originally used to receive special guests who arrived this way to the capital, and as a defense against, among other things, tigers that had to be kept out. When the city walls were looped, the gate became part of the city’s street network, and for a period trams ran here.
The National Museum of Korea is South Korea’s leading museum within Korean history, art and culture. The museum was founded in 1945 from the collections of Emperor Sunjong’s Imperial Museum from 1909 and the Museum of the Chōsen General Government established under Japanese rule.
Today, the museum is housed in a modern building, where the site’s fine collection is displayed in various permanent exhibitions relating to the history of Korea. More than 5,000 objects are on display, ranging from archaeological finds from ancient times to things from the making of modern Korea.
The museum’s floors are full of exhibitions, where on the ground floor you can go through ancient Korean history with many exciting archaeological finds and descriptions. The early modern history of the Joseon hall comes to light here, focusing on the time of the Joseon dynasty from 1392-1897. On the other floors you can see, among other things, collections of paintings, sculptures, handicrafts and art from other parts of Asia.
Changdeokgung Palace is one of the so-called ‘Five Grand Palaces’ that were built in Seoul during the Joseon Dynasty, which ruled from 1392-1897. The palace’s name means ‘Palace of Prosperous Virtue’, but it was usually simply called the Eastern Palace due to its location to the east of the main palace, Gyeongbokgung. Today, Changdeokgung is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The palace was built by King Taejong in 1405-1412 as a royal villa and residence at a time when Gyeongbokgung Palace had been built a few years earlier by Taejong’s rival for the throne. Taejong had also had his half-brothers murdered in Gyeongbokgung, which was also a reason for the construction of Changdeokgung as a new palace.
Changdeokgung Palace burned several times in history, including in 1592 and again in 1623, but each time the palace was rebuilt in a form and style that was faithful to the original construction. Changdeokgung was the residence and government palace until 1868, when Gyeongbokgung was rebuilt and restored as a residence palace. However, Changdeokgung Palace later became the last residence of Korea’s last crown prince, who died in 1970.
There are many buildings and pavilions on the palace grounds, which were once constructed between mountains and water as in the principles of feng shui. In addition, buildings were constructed in harmony with their surroundings as supporting tanks, which was inspired by the period of Korea’s Three Kingdoms that ended in 668.
Changdeokgung Palace was built in a simple and austere architecture in accordance with Confucian ideology. The palace’s buildings are divided into different areas and functions, the two most important of which are government buildings and residence buildings. The functions of the government were outward facing and therefore these are located in the front part of the palace.
The palace’s main entrance is the 1412 Donhwamun (창덕궁도화문), a two-story pagoda-style gate building located in the southwest of the palace. From here, after passing two more gates, you can see the throne room In-jeong-jeon (창덕궁 가사전), which was built in 1405 for, among other things, the coronation of new kings and the reception of foreign delegations. To the east of the throne room are the buildings Huijeongdang (창덕궁 희정당) and Dae-jo-jeon (창덕궁 마이전), which were respectively the king’s and queen’s chambers.
North of the palace buildings is the secluded area of Huwon (후원), a large and beautiful garden that was laid out for the royal family and the palace ladies. The inner garden, which was reserved for the royal family, is today called the Secret Garden/Biwon (비원), and throughout the area you can enjoy lawns, flowers, trees, lakes and pavilions, forming a harmonious recreational area where you can easily be traced back to the time of the Korean kings.
Dongdaemun Design Plaza is a particularly exciting modern urban space, where the architecture is futuristic and inviting to explore the many soft lines. The elongated and curved buildings were created by Zaha Hadid and Samoo and built from 2009 to 2013.
There used to be a stadium here, and it was opened in 1925 as the city’s first modern sports arena. The stadium was used up to and including the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, after which it was set up as a market in the Dongdaemun area, which had developed into the city’s center for fashion.
Located in the popular Dongdaemun, the old stadium was demolished in 2007 to make room for the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, which under the architecture provides space for, among other things, a design museum, a design lab and beautiful spaces for many different activities and exhibitions.
The appearance of the building is very much part of the experience. They consist of a smooth outer shell that almost floats above the earth’s surface, and which was made of concrete, aluminum, steel and stone. Inside, the building’s finish is rounded off with plaster reinforced with synthetic fibres, acoustic tiles, acrylic resin, stainless steel and polished stone.
Jongmyo is a Confucian shrine built and dedicated to the perpetuation of Korean kings and queens in the Joseon Dynasty. The shrine was established in 1394 by King Taejo, who founded the dynasty and moved the Korean capital to Seoul, then called Hanseong.
The central building of Jongmyo Shrine, Jeongjeon (정전), was originally constructed with seven niches that served as temple rooms for each king and queen. Later kings expanded the building several times, so that it reached a number of nineteen niches. After destruction during the Japanese invasion in the 1590s, Jongmyo had to be rebuilt, and the building today dates from 1601.
Usually, deceased kings were commemorated for three years at Jongmyo, after which they continued to be commemorated at the shrine. In total, there are memories of 19 kings and 30 queens in the many niches in Jeongjeon, which is Korea’s longest building in traditional Korean architecture. Jongmyo is today included in UNESCO’s list of world cultural heritage.
Bukchon Hanok Village is the name of an area of Seoul where an urban environment dating back 600 years has been preserved. Bukchon means the northern village, while Hanok is the term for one of the traditional Korean houses from the Joseon era, which is the distinctive feature of the area.
Bukchon Hanok Village is located between Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung Palaces and Jongmyo Shrine, and the area developed as a residential area for high-ranking officials and nobles throughout the Joseon era, starting with the first of the dynasty’s kings in 1392.
In Bukchon you can enjoy a stroll in the many narrow streets between the old houses, which for many function as cultural centers, restaurants and teahouses, giving visitors the opportunity to experience, learn and immerse themselves in traditional Korean culture. There is also a hanok opened as part of the Seoul History Museum.
Hangang Park is a park located in central Seoul along the Han River. The park is elongated and is divided into 12 parks in extension of each other. In the park as a whole, there are plenty of opportunities for exercise if you want to be active, for example on a bicycle and in running shoes, or if you simply want to enjoy Seoul from the water’s edge. Hangang Park was built 1982-1986 as a project to create a new urban space for Seoul’s residents.
There are different highlights that you can visit in the individual parts of Hangang Park. Yeouido Hangang Park/여의도 한강공원 is a park located in the district of Yeouido. It is several kilometers in length, and it is not least a well-visited place every year at the end of March and the beginning of April. At this time, the sakura trees are in bloom, and Yeouido Park is one of the best places in Seoul to see the many cherry trees in pink bloom. To be precise, you should take a walk along Yeouiseo-ro/여의서로 for the best look at the trees.
Banpo Hangang Park/반포한강공원 is another of the 12 parks in Hangang Park. It is from this park that one can see the spectacular Banpo Bridge Moonlight Rainbow Fountain/반포대교 달빛무지개분수, which is a fountain that emanates from the great Banpo Bridge that crosses the Han River at this location. With 380 nozzles and light cannons in rainbow colours, the fountain is an unforgettable sight, and something that is very popular with both locals and visitors to the city. The fountain is in operation in the evening, where you can check the times depending on the season. Normally you will also be able to enjoy the sight of it at 12:00 in the middle of the day.
Wongaksa Pagoda is a 12-meter high, ten-story marble pagoda that stands in central Seoul. The pagoda was built in 1467 as part of a temple that King Sejo had founded two years earlier. The temple itself was gutted by one of Sejo’s successors, but the marble pagoda survived.
In 1897, King Gojong’s financial advisor, John McLeavy, obtained permission to set up the old temple area as a park, and thus it became possible to visit the pagoda. You can still do that, and today the pagoda has been protected by glass.
Wongaksa Pagoda is one of the few pagodas made of marble in Korea, where granite was normally used. One can see dragons, lions, lotus flowers, phoenixes, Buddhas and the four heavenly kings carved on each floor of the pagoda. The pagoda was produced to look like it was made of wood. The pagoda has brackets, columns and arched roof shapes that mimic a wooden pagoda design.
Changgyeonggung is one of Seoul’s five Joseon Dynasty palaces, the others being Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung, and Gyeonghuigung. Together with Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung is the palace with the best preserved buildings and facilities from ancient times, and it is an area worth seeing.
Changgyeonggung was built in the first part of the 15th century by King Sejong as a residence for Sejong’s father, Taejong, who was the king of Korea before Sejong, and who abdicated in 1418. The palace was expanded in 1483 to accommodate dowagers.
The palace, like many other structures, was destroyed in 1592 during the Japanese invasion of Seoul and Korea, but the following Joseon kings rebuilt Changgyeonggung. Large parts of the palace were demolished at the beginning of the 20th century during the Japanese colonial period, when the Japanese instead built a park that was supposed to show the modern empire with Ueno Park as its counterpart in Tokyo.
Later, a museum, a botanical garden and a zoo were opened in the park, which are located elsewhere in Seoul today. Today, the palace and its beautiful park can be visited from the entrance to the east. Here is the Honghwamun Gate (홍화문), which was originally built in 1484, and after it you pass the Okcheongyo Bridge (옥천교), which, among other things, was supposed to keep evil spirits away.
After passing the bridge and a gate building, you come to the palace’s main hall, Myeongjeongjeon (명정전), which was originally built as a residence for dowager queens, but where, among other things, state banquets were held. The hall was built in 1484 and reconstructed in 1612, making it the oldest preserved main hall of Seoul’s five palaces. Behind Myeongjeongjeon are other buildings that had different representative functions.
Leeum Art Museum is one of the leading museums of its kind in Korea, and here you can see two different collections. There is a part of the museum which exhibits traditional Korean art and there is a part for contemporary art. In both parts of the museum you can see many interesting works.
In the Korean art collection you can see, among other things, landscapes and folk paintings, traditional ceramics and porcelain and many other arts and crafts such as knives, jewellery, Buddhist art, sculptures and manuscripts.
In the exhibition of contemporary art, you can see works by many famous artists such as Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Rothko, Yves Klein and Donald Judd. The museum also faces the site’s sunken garden, where birch trees and ferns are among the growths that form the garden as a museum space.
The other parts of the museum building are also interesting. One starts in the Korean Art Building, which is shaped by the geometry of an inverted cone and a simple hexagonal shape as architectural elements. The main exhibition hall for contemporary art uses construction techniques to create a completely open space without supporting pillars, which gives a special spatial impression.
Supyogyo is an ancient bridge that spans the Chunggwe Stream. There was originally a passage of earth and wood across the Chunggwe until the first stone bridge was built under King Taejong. The current bridge dates from the reign of King Sejong in 1420.
Supyogyo was temporarily moved in the years 1958-1965 when a restoration project was carried out by Chunggwe, but the bridge stands again where it was built.
The bridge is 27.5 meters long, and you can see decorative elements on the stone railing, and levels for the water level are engraved with Chinese characters. The name Supyogyo also comes from the tool used to measure the water level, which has been done since the 15th century with different versions of the tool.
Bongwonsa Temple is a Buddhist temple founded in 889 by the monk Doseon Guksa. It was originally built on the site where Seoul’s Yonsei University is today, but moved slightly north to its current location in 1748.
The temple was continuously expanded, and the temple you can see today dates from 1911. It is a temple known for its beautiful location on the hilly slopes of Mount Ansan.
The temple area itself is relatively small, and here you can see, among other things, the hall with 3,000 Buddhas, which is beautifully decorated. Around the temple you can also see the statues of the so-called 16 arhats, who in Buddhism are persons who have become fully enlightened.
Gyeonghuigung Palace is one of Seoul’s famous five palaces from the Joseon Dynasty era, with Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung and Changgyeonggung as the other four. Gyeonghuigung means Palace of Peaceful Harmony, and the palace was built under King Gwanghaegun, who reigned as King of Korea in the years 1608-1623.
Gyeonghuigung is also called the Western Palace/Seo-gwol (西闕) because it is located west of central Gyeongbokgung. Gyeonghuigung was then also built as the king’s secondary palace, which was a place he could retreat to in case of, for example, threats against the king or other special situations.
The main part of Gyeonghuigung Palace was completed after a few years of construction in 1620 with over 100 buildings. It served as an annex to Changdeokgung Palace and was connected to Deoksugung by an arch bridge. The palace burned twice in the late 1800s, destroying most of the buildings. During the Japanese era of Korea, Japanese demolished the rest.
The Korean government later decided to reconstruct Gyeonghuigung and the rest of Seoul’s five palaces, which had suffered greatly during the Japanese colonial era. However, the previously large Gyeonghuigung could not be recreated when the palace was rebuilt in the 1990s, and this was not least due to the city’s growth on the original palace grounds.
Today you can see the most important buildings of the palace, and to get here you pass from the south Gyeonghuigung’s gate building, Heunghwamun (흥화문), which was built in 1616. From here you go to the old courtyard, where you can see, among other things, the palace’s main building, Sungjeongjeon (숭정전), which also dates from 1616. Both Heunghwamun and Sungjeongjeon were moved to other places in Seoul during the Japanese era, and they could therefore be moved back to their original location in connection with the reconstruction of Gyeonghuigung.
Deoksugung Palace is one of Seoul’s famous five palaces from the Joseon Dynasty. The other four are Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Gyeonghuigung and Changgyeonggung, and all five palaces are worth seeing and are located in central Seoul.
Deoksugung was built as a residence palace, and it was used by various members of the Korean royal family until the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910. Until then, much had been built on the palace grounds around the inner part of Deoksugung in a highly varied architecture.
The original palace was built in the 15th century as the residence of Prince Wolsan, who was King Seongjong’s brother. However, Deoksugung’s importance really only started with the Japanese invasion in 1592, when Seoul’s other four palaces were destroyed. That left Deoksugung as King Seonjo’s natural new palace, and in 1608 King Gwanghaegun was crowned in the palace.
In 1618, Changdeokgung Palace was rebuilt after the destruction in 1592, and the king therefore moved his residence from Deoksugung to the reconstructed palace. Since then, Deoksugung was used as a kind of reserve palace until Emperor Gojong moved here in 1897. The emperor abdicated in 1907 and maintained his residence in Deoksugung.
The Japanese colonial era from 1910 was harsh on Seoul’s palaces and also on Deoksugung. The palace grounds were opened as a public park and greatly reduced in size, and most of the palace buildings were demolished.
Today, there is quite a bit to see in the palace, whose entrance gate in the area’s southeast corner, Daehanmun (대한문) is known for its colorful changing of the guard that attracts many visitors. The guards traditionally opened and closed the palace gate. From Daehanmun, one can walk to Junghwamun Gate (중화문), which marks the entrance to Deoksugung’s inner courtyard, although some of the original walls surrounding the courtyard are missing today.
North of Junghwamun is the central building, Junghwajeon (덕수궁중화전), where the palace throne was and where official meetings and events were held. East of this is the building Hamnyeongjeon (함녕전), which was Emperor Gojong’s private quarters. It was in Hamnyeongjeon that Gojong died in 1919.
One of the distinctive features of Deoksugung compared to Seoul’s other palaces is the presence of buildings in Western architecture. There are three constructions in this style, and the small pavilion Jeonggwanheon (정관헌) from 1900 was the first Western-style house built on a Korean palace. The pavilion was built in the palace garden and designed by a Russian architect who incorporated Korean features.
To the west of Junghwajeon you can see the two largest Western-style buildings. Seokjojeon (석조전) from 1930 was designed by British John Harding, and the columned building was used for government meetings and diplomatic events, among other things. Today, Seokjojeon is set up as a museum of the Korean imperial era.
Immediately southwest of Seokjojeon is an extension to the building from 1930, which opened in 1938 as an art museum. The building is still set up as an art museum, and today you can visit one of the departments of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (국립현대미술관).
Heunginjimun is one of Seoul’s large and must-see city gates. The gate was built as one of the eight gates in Seoul’s city walls leading to and from the city. Of these eight gates, there were four main gates to the east (Heunginjimun), west (Donuimun), north (Sukjeongmun) and south (Sungnyemun).
Heunginjimun means the Gate of Rising Benevolence, and it is also known as Dongdaemun, which means the Great Eastern Gate. The nickname makes good sense with the large gate that was in the now former city walls, which until the city’s modern development enclosed the old royal residence.
The gate was built in 1398 under King Taejo, who founded the Joseon Dynasty and moved the capital to present-day Seoul. The current Heunginjimun dates from 1869 and is a reconstruction of the former gate. The architectural style is characteristic of the Joseon Dynasty era.
There is a distinctive feature of Heunginjimun, which is the added round wall, Ongseong (옹성), which is located as an extended extension of the gate itself. Ongseong was built as a fortification that could withstand attacks from multiple sides better than the gate building.
Saemoonan Church is a beautiful and modern architectural feature in Seoul’s streetscape, and the church is also historically important because Saemoonan was the first Protestant church in Korea. The church was founded in the country in 1887 and is Presbyterian. Saemoonan is today the mother church of the Presbyterians in the country.
Today, Saemoonan Church stands in Seoinn Design Group and Eunseok Lee’s exciting design, which elegantly opens the building towards the city and towards the sky, which has also been part of the idea with the construction. The semicircle that opens towards the city was thought of as a symbol of a mother’s arms and thereby of Saemoonan as a mother church.
The modern church building is the sixth edition of Saemoonan since its foundation in 1887, and in the street the church now stands almost like a small skyscraper with the sky-aspiring tower with the Christian cross high above street level. Behind the slender tower is a large rear building, where, among other things, the church’s administration is at home.
The architecture and design were inspired by the Gothic and by Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation, and thus the modern exterior is, so to speak, a reformation of the Gothic style. The interior is also modern with the main church room as a beautiful space dominated by wood and light.
KLI63 Building is a skyscraper that stands on the south bank of the Han River on the easternmost part of Yeouido Island (여의도). Yeouido is Seoul’s premier business district, and the 63 Building was built 1980-1985 as a landmark for the area and for Seoul.
The skyscraper opened as the tallest office building in the world outside North America, and at 249.6 meters it was South Korea’s tallest skyscraper until 2003. 63 Building’s design was inspired by the letter 人, which is the hanja character for a person, and the shape of the letter can be seen in profile of the building.
There are quite a few activities in the 63 Building, of which the observation deck 63 Golden Tower at the top of the skyscraper is a popular place with its fine view of Seoul. There is also a restaurant on the floors below the observation deck, and on the lower floors there is, among other things, a shopping center and an aquarium.
South Korea’s National Assembly is the seat of the country’s parliament and thus the legislative assembly. The building was opened as the dominant building on the northwestern part of the island of Yeouido (여의도). It happened in 1975, when the South Korean parliament moved from the then parliament building built by the Japanese colonial administration.
The former Japanese government building was built on the grounds of Gyeongbukgung Palace in 1926 and demolished in 1996 after a long discussion and the decision to rebuild Gyeongbukgung. Today, the top of the demolished building can be seen at the Korean Independence Museum in the city of Cheonan.
The National Assembly is located as the central building in a facility that also includes the assembly library building and secretariat. Both of these buildings are located in front of the National Assembly, where there are also fountains, lawns and several statues.
The National Folk Museum is an interesting museum located in the palace grounds surrounding Gyeongbokgung Palace in central Seoul. It is a museum that conveys the history of the traditional life and culture of the Korean people.
The folk museum has been in its current location since 1993, when it was housed in the buildings where the country’s national museum had been located. The buildings are worth seeing in themselves, as they were built with inspiration from various well-known historical buildings from South Korea.
You can visit three primary themed exhibitions at the museum. In the History of the Korean People, one can learn more about everyday life in Korea from prehistoric times to the dissolution of the Joseon Dynasty in 1910, while village life is exhibited in another of the exhibits. The focus of the third part of the museum is the Confucian impact on Korean culture.
There are also other exhibitions which, among other things, show effects from the 20th century during and after the Joseon era. You can also see various effects in the museum’s outdoor area. Here, for example, there are spirit stations from villages, grinding mills and storage of rice and kimchi.
Lotte World Tower is a modern skyscraper that was built 2010-2016 and opened as the tallest building in South Korea and one of the tallest in the world. The skyscraper has 123 floors and measures 555 meters to the top, which is why Lotte World Tower naturally stands as one of the dominant profiles in Seoul’s skyline.
On the top floors of the skyscraper is Seoul Sky, which is furnished with, among other things, lounges, cafes and observation decks, from which there is an excellent view of large parts of the South Korean capital. On other floors, there are offices, apartments and hotel rooms, and various activities in the lower part of the high-rise building.
The Seoul Museum of Art is a museum that opened in 1988 and is owned by the city of Seoul. The museum’s main building was originally located in the palace grounds around Gyeonghuigung, but in 2002 the main branch of the museum was opened at Deoksugung Palace in South Korea’s former Supreme Court building.
The art museum is also known as SEMA, and it has a collection of more than 3,000 works of art, including paintings, sculptures and installations by Korean artists such as Gook Yoo, Nam June Paik and Lee Woo-hwan Lee. At SEMA, changing exhibitions of different nature and with works of a great variety by, among others, old masters and contemporary artists are arranged.
Cheonggyecheon is a 10.9-kilometer-long stream that flows from west to east through the center of Seoul. The stream first became known as Gaecheon in connection with the Joseon Dynasty’s establishment of a drainage system in the city. From the first half of the 15th century, the stream was deepened and reinforced at regular intervals.
Gaecheon got its current name during the Japanese colonial period, and they had plans to cover Cheonggyecheon, which was not realized at the time. After the Korean War, many Koreans moved to Seoul and some settled around the stream in shabby and temporary houses, and Cheonggyecheon became one of Seoul’s dirty areas.
In 1958, Cheonggyecheon was covered with concrete, and the industrialization and modern traffic planning of the time made a further impact when an elevated highway was built over the stream in 1976. In this way, Cheonggyecheon no longer existed until reconstruction began in 2003.
Today, you can once again enjoy the course of the Cheonggyecheon, which opens up the city with water, and along the banks of the stream, a varied urban environment has been created that has both recreated and rethought the area. The stream starts in the west with some impressive fountains, and if you go east, you can see almost sculptural streams before Cheonggyecheon lies as an elongated recreational area with trees along the water. Along the way you pass, among other things, the two rebuilt historic bridges, Gwangtonggyo and Supyogyo.
Gwangjang Market is a lively place where you can really experience South Korean market atmosphere. It is a colossal market area that you can visit, and there are several thousand stalls and shops with all kinds of goods and places to eat.
The market’s history dates back to 1905, when Gwangjang Market was established as a Korean replacement for Namdaemun Market, which had passed to Japanese control that same year. It was a group of Korean merchants and investors who established the market.
Today, you can enjoy the good atmosphere at Gwangjang Market, and there are countless street kitchens in the covered market streets in the northeastern part of the area. Here you can try many tasty dishes, which are eaten side by side with locals.
The War Memorial of Korea is a large facility that exhibits and marks the memory of Korea’s wars and military history. The site opened in 1994 in an area where there used to be a barracks, and the purpose of the memorial was partly to avoid wars in the future by learning from not least the Korean War of the 1950s and partly to be able to contribute to a peaceful reunification of North Korea and South Korea a day.
At the entrance to the war memorial is the Statue of Brothers/Hyeongje-ui sang (형전이상). The statue is a landmark of the site and a symbol of the Korean War with its encounter between a South Korean and a North Korean soldier on a hill that is split in two, referring to the division of North and South Korea.
In the memorial’s large exhibition, you can take a closer look at various themes in addition to the memorial hall itself. These are exhibitions about, for example, the Korean War and South Korea’s military, and at the war memorial you can also see a large outdoor exhibition of military equipment mainly from South Korea, China and the USA.
Cheong Wa Dae, also known as the Blue House, is a building with a surrounding park that was known as the office and official residence of the President of South Korea from 1948 to 2022. The Blue House, a building complex, was built 1937-1939 as the residence of the Japanese governor.
The area where Cheong Wa Dae is located was already developed with a royal villa in 1104, and development continued in the early Joseon period from the late 14th century, when Gyeongbokgung was built as a primary residence palace. To the north of the palace, among other things, pavilions were built and gardens laid out on the site where Cheong Wa Dae was built.
The name Cheong Wa Dae was first chosen in 1960 as a replacement for the former Gyeongmudae, which had been largely demolished by the Japanese to make way for the Blue House, which was built with inspiration from traditional architecture.
Historically, Cheong Wa Dae became the site where South Korea’s third president, Park Chung Hee, was assassinated on October 26, 1979. It happened during a banquet where the head of the South Korean intelligence service, Kim Jae-gyu, shot the president. Since 2022, the area has been open to visitors as a public park.
Seoul Station is the name of the main railway station in the South Korean capital. The station is a hub for rail traffic to the rest of the country, and from here you can take high-speed trains to Busan, among other things. The Seoul subway also connects the city and the train station.
The first railway station in Seoul opened in 1900, when the Korean Peninsula’s first railway from Noryangjin to the south side of the Han River was extended north and across the Han. New lines were opened in 1905 and 1921, and then the first railway station was expanded.
The expansion took place with the building that is today known as Old Seoul Station (구서울역사). The building was designed by Tsukamoto Yasushi of Tokyo Imperial University and completed in 1925. The style of the station was inspired by Western architecture, with a Byzantine dome over the central station hall.
Today, Old Seoul Station is located north of today’s modern railway station, which was built as a traffic hub with a much larger capacity than the old station building, which has been given new life as the culture center Culture Station Seoul 284 (문화역서울 284).
Gangnam Style Monument is a large sculpture that has stood in the streets of Seoul since 2015 as a tribute to Psy’s iconic 2012 music video and dance, Gangnam Style. The sculpture depicts a pair of colossal bronze hands positioned as seen in Psy’s video.
The monument is of course located in the district of Gangnam, where it is immediately east of the large and popular COEX Mall. You can see the monument and hear Gangnam Style as you approach. Many times visitors can also be seen trying their hand at Psy’s dance in front of the monument.
Starfield Library is almost an indoor urban space with the predicate library. A building that opened in 2017 and is located at COEX Mall, the library’s interior is one of the most iconic newer spaces in the South Korean capital, and plenty of selfies are taken here.
On a visit to Starfield Library, you immediately see the up to 13 meter high bookshelves, which are the library’s distinguishing feature, and which were built as part of the architectural experience. You don’t need to read or borrow books to come here, but the place also functions as a modern reading room and a library.
K-Star Road is an interesting K-pop spot in the Gangnam district. K-pop is part of the so-called hallyu/한류, which is the name of the South Korean wave of popular culture that has dominated many people’s knowledge of the country since the 1990s. The wave has not least been driven by social media, pop and South Korean TV shows, which many have probably heard of.
The K-Star Road project is a living example of popular culture, and the most interesting area for many visitors of a stretch from Apgujeong Rodeo subway station along Apgujeong-ro street east to Cheongdam Sageori. Here you can see a number of statues in different colors and patterns of bear-like toy character with a height of 1.5 meters each. The statues each represent a K-pop group such as Girls’ Generation, EXO and Block B.
It is a good idea to start a stroll along K-Star Road from Apgujeong Rodeo subway station, where the most famous statue stands. It is the one called Gangnamdol, which represents the entire K-Star Road. Gangnamdol represents Psy, who became world famous with Gangnam Style, and it is 3 meters high and thus significantly larger than the other statues. At the station you can also see the Gangnamdol Haus, where you can buy the statues in miniature.
Bongeunsa Temple is a Buddhist temple located as a beautiful and calm oasis in the otherwise busy and modern district of Gangnam. The temple was founded in the year 794 under King Wonseong by the then most important monk of the kingdom. The history of the temple has been quite mixed, where Buddhism in Korea was, for example, suppressed during large parts of the Joseon dynasty, which ruled from 1392 to 1897; however, with some exception in the mid-16th century, when the temple was moved to its current location.
In 1902, Bongeunsa Temple was made one of Korea’s 14 most important temples, and during the Japanese era from 1910 to 1945, Bongeunsa became the main temple for many smaller temples in and around Seoul. Most of Bongeunsa unfortunately burned down in 1939, and other parts were destroyed during the Korean War, whereby the majority of the temple buildings today are of recent date.
However, it is not something that spoils the impression and atmosphere of a visit today. The Panjeon/판전 building is a construction that survived the fire in 1939, and therefore you can see here decorations from the mid-19th century. You can also see Bongeunsa’s famous Buddha statue, which is 28 meters high. The statue shows Maitreya, which in Buddhism is the name of the next future Buddha.
Jogyesa Temple is the main temple of the Jogye Order within Korean Buddhism. The temple’s building was originally constructed in the early years of Joseon Dynasty rule in 1395, and it was granted the status of the order’s main temple in 1936.
The temple played an important symbolic role during the time as a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945. This made it one of the most important sites for Korean Buddhism, which the Japanese regime sought to suppress. The present temple was built in 1938 in a beautiful blend of temple and palace architecture.
The Demilitarized Zone or simply DMZ is probably a zone many have heard of. The zone arose after the Korean War, when the Korean country was divided into North Korea and South Korea. The zone runs across the entire Korean peninsula from east to west, stretching two kilometers on either side of the actual border, which once formed the front line.
Before the Korean War, the border between North Korea and South Korea was at the 38th parallel, a division that was adopted after World War II. With the armistice agreement in 1953 in connection with the Korean War, the DMZ was established, and it lies relatively close to the same latitude, but does not follow it along the length of the zone of approximately 250 kilometers.
The best-known area in the Demilitarized Zone is the so-called Joint Security Area, which is located on the border close to the west coast of the peninsula. It is an area close to Seoul, where both from North Korea and South Korea you can get very close to the border itself and even take a few steps into the neighboring country.
Centrally in the Joint Security Area, there are a number of buildings across the Korean border, and here you can hold joint meetings between the countries. The border itself runs through the conference rooms and down the middle of the conference tables, where delegations from North Korea and from the UN Command consisting primarily of South Korea and the United States meet face to face.
On either side of the conference buildings is a larger building. In North Korea stands Panmungak, while Freedom House stands in South Korea. The Joint Security Area is also the site of the famous Bridge of No Return, where prisoner exchanges since the ceasefire have taken place. There are also two tall flagpoles near the border; among others North Korea’s with an impressive height of 160 metres.
One can visit the DMZ from both Seoul and Pyongyang. The most visited tours are from the South Korean capital, and on a tour you get a good impression of both the Demilitarized Zone and the Joint Security Area, which are included in the tours. In this way, you learn about the history of the zone, and you get to see for yourself the border, the conference buildings and some of the tunnels that have been dug here.
The Third Tunnel is an unfinished tunnel that was discovered in 1978 in the area along the border between North Korea and South Korea. The tunnel was found after an underground explosion, and at the time the tunnel went 435 meters under South Korea from the border itself. The tunnel measures a total of 1,635 meters in length, and it has a profile of approximately 2×2 meters. It lies in the bedrock approximately 73 meters below ground level and was thus well hidden.
The Third Tunnel is one of several tunnels found in the Demilitarized Zone along the Korean border. There is access to the facility for tourists, and on a visit you first go underground to the place where the tunnel is located. Here, a small train runs into the tunnel itself, and it naturally stops at a suitable distance from the actual border with North Korea. Access to the border is not available and barriers have been set up in several places against it. At the closest point, you as a tourist are 170 meters from North Korea.
Dong-gureung is the name of a beautiful forest area in eastern Seoul where there are 17 tombs from the Joseon period, and of those there are nine actual mausoleums. This is where the name of the place comes from; it means the nine eastern royal tombs. Among other things, you can see the mausoleum of King Taejo, who founded the Joseon dynasty and ruled from 1335 to 1408. The tombs are on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
King Taejo’s mausoleum from 1408 is called Geonwonneung (건원릉), and in chronological order the others are King Munjong’s Hyeonneung (현릉) from 1452, Myeongbinmyo (명빈문) from 1479, King Seonjo’s Mongneung (목릉) from 1600, King Hyeonjong’s Sungneung (숭릉) from 1674, Queen Jangnyeol’s Hwineung (휘릉) from 1688, Queen Danuis Hyeneung (혜릉) from 1718, King Yeongjo’s Wonneung (원릉) from 1776, King Heonjong’s Gyeongneung (경릉) from 1849 and Crown Prince Hyomyeong’s Suneung (수릉) from 1890.
All the graves are relatively close to each other, and you can easily walk from mausoleum to mausoleum and thereby form an impression of the whole area and the individual graves, which are all in clearings. Some have buildings, while others are adorned with statues. From the parking lot and the entrance to Dong-gureung, there are paths that lead from grave to grave, and in addition to the interesting mausoleums, you can also simply enjoy nature.
Suwon Hwaseong is an impressive fortress built in 1794-1796 by King Jeongjo, which was in the latter part of the Joseon period. The fortress walls are 5.75 km long, and there are four gates and two sluice gates to the center of the facility. Since 1997, the fortress has been included in UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites.
Suwon Hwaseong is located as city walls, towers and other defensive structures around the city of Suwon south of Seoul. The complex also included King Jeongjo’s palace in the city, Hwaseong Haenggung (화성행궁). It is believed that King Jeongjo built Hwaseong Fortress as part of a planned move of the capital from Seoul to Suwon.
Suwon was strategically located on the road between Seoul and the sea to the west. In addition to that, the king wanted to leave factional strife in the court to implement reforms, and this could be done from Suwon, which the king believed had the potential to grow into a new and prosperous capital. People were to move to Suwon in return for tax exemption, and the king also built public institutions to develop the city.
It was the architect Jeong Yakyong who designed the fortress, which revolutionized the Korean fortifications of the time. They usually consisted of walls with a separate fortress where the townspeople could take refuge. Suwon Hwaseong was built as an integrated complex, with the city center located as part of the facility.
Today you can see the solidly built walls around the city, varying in height and thickness depending on the landscape they stand on. The four gates in the wall are Janganmun (장안문) to the north, Hwaseomun (화서문) to the west, Paldalmun (팔달문) to the south, and Changnyongmun (창룡문) to the east, and the gates to the north and south are the largest and most spectacular.
You can also see Haenggung (행궁), which was King Jeongjo’s palace in Suwon, which he could use when he was in the city and not in his palace in Seoul. When Jeongjo did not reside in the palace, it was used by his delegates as a sort of seat of government. The palace was built from 1789 and consists of more than 20 buildings.
Achim Goyo Arboretum is an arboretum that is also called The Garden of Morning Calm. The Arboretum was established in 1996 by the garden professor Han Sang-Kyeong, who wanted to create a unique garden based on the perfect Korean pattern, and the result is a beautiful experience.
Located in the area east of Seoul, The Garden of Morning Calm is a beautiful park created on the concepts of asymmetry and balance. The arboretum is divided into several sections, including one with approximately 1,000 flower species from all over Korea. You can also see Sukgeun Garden, which is shaped like the Korean peninsula as a symbol of the desire for reunification.
Gangnam-gu
coexmall.com
Dongdaemun-gu
18-12 Euljiro 6/yuk-ga
doota.com
17-2 Euljiro 6/yuk-ga, Jung-gu
freya.co.kr
494 Apgujeong-dong, Gangnam-gu
galleria.co.kr
Myeong-dong
migliore.co.kr
Itaewon (Itaewon 1-dong / Hannam 2-dong), Myeong-dong
COEX Aquarium/코엑스 몰
Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu
coexaqua.com
Everland/에버랜드
310 Jeondae-ri, Pogok-myun
everland.com
Seoul Land/서울 랜드
Makgye-dong 33, Gwacheon-si
seoulland.co.kr
Lotte World/롯데 월드
Jamsil-dong 40, Songpa-gu
lotteworld.com
The first settlements in Seoul can be dated back to more than 6,000 years through archaeological finds. At that time, there was an agricultural culture in the fertile land area along the Han River.
Seoul became the capital of Korea during the time of the Paekche Kingdom, which began in 57 BC The name Seoul simply means capital in Korean. In the time until the year 668 it was the Time of the Three Kingdoms. In addition to Paekche, there were also the Koguryo and Shilla kingdoms.
In 668, the Shilla kingdom conquered the other kingdoms, and they also seized Seoul, renaming it Hansong. After the unification of Korea during the Koryo dynasty, which ruled from 918, the city was renamed once more, now to Yangju – to change its name again to Namgyong, the southern capital, in 1067. At that time it was one of Korea’s three main cities .
At the same time, it became the starting point for the current growth of Seoul. Until now, it was a small town that still had a distinct agricultural production and culture, but when King Munjong erected a summer palace here in 1068, other population groups moved to the area. It was the start of the city’s real transformation towards becoming the central city that Seoul is today.
In 1392, the Chosun Dynasty came into being, and now the city was called Hanyang. King Yi Song-Gye undertook a thorough investigation to find the best place to establish a unified capital capable of accommodating both a general development and a defensive position. The result was, after two years, that Hanyang formally became the entire capital of Korea, and King Yi Song-Gye began moving his administration and court to this.
It embarked on a new era, beginning with many large buildings, not least palaces and government buildings. The Kyongbuk Palace was erected and it remained the kings residence for several centuries. The 17 kilometer long city wall was also built, in just 98 days with the help of nearly 200,000 workers.
The time of the Chosun Dynasty in Korea was a time when the country was very secluded from the outside world. The biggest opening was to the Chinese neighbors, and Chinese culture had a great influence on the Korean over the centuries.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the city’s population was approximately 200,000. That number remained stable over the following two centuries, mainly due to the isolated policy vis-à-vis the outside world, whereby a development based on increased trade did not affect Korea. 1876 marked the year in which Korea opened diplomatic relations with the western countries. It quickly created a new growth period based on new trade, production and foreign representations.
In 1910, open Korea became part of the Japanese Empire. The city remained the Korean peninsula’s administrative center, but it changed its name again, this time to Kyongsong. However, the development did not stop with Japan’s rule, and by the mid-1930s the population had risen to 750,000. The Japanese era stopped with the end of World War II, where the new, independent Korea became a reality. The city was given its current name, Seoul, on August 15, 1945.
In the years following independence, there was great pressure on the development of the capital, and in 1949 Seoul was expanded with a number of new administrative areas. The city’s population now numbered more than 1,400,000.
Shortly after, the Korean War started, causing a very severe destruction of Seoul, which was almost to be rebuilt from the ground up. Before the end of the war in 1953, Seoul had been captured and recaptured several times, each time causing great fighting in the streets.
Seoul remained the capital after the war, but now only for South Korea (Pyongyang became the capital of North Korea). Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, tremendous reconstruction work was carried out by both the entire population and by special legislation that gave the country’s prime minister the power to take immediate action and responsibility for development.
During the period, the area of the city grew dramatically. The original city in today’s northern and traditional center has grown by the large and modern neighborhoods along the Han River, where there are apartment complexes, entertainment and shopping centers for the city’s now more than 10 million inhabitants.
The success of the new South Korea was shown to the world in earnest with the holding of the first Asian Games in 1986 and two years later the Olympic Games. Most recently, in 2002, World Cups were held in South Korea and Japan.
Seoul, South Korea
Overview of Seoul
Seoul is a beautiful and exciting encounter with ancient Korean culture, and at the same time you can feel that you are in one of Asia’s modern metropolises everywhere in the great city. The South Korean capital is an abundance of large palaces surrounded by green parks, and here you can feel the power, ancient calmness and mental balance that the beautiful palaces once were constructed to support and maintain.
Seoul has its share of nature within the city limits as well. The wide Han River flows through the city, and hills are scattered in and around the city center. On top of it all rests the Seoul Tower, where you can see it all from above, and from here you really feel the size of the city and the division of new modern buildings and the old palaces.
About the Whitehorse travel guide
Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
Published: Released soon
Author: Stig Albeck
Publisher: Vamados.com
Language: English
About the travel guide
The Whitehorse travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the Canadian city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.
Whitehorse is waiting for you, and at vamados.com you can also find cheap flights and great deals on hotels for your trip. You just select your travel dates and then you get flight and accommodation suggestions in and around the city.
Read more about Whitehorse and Canada
Canada Travel Guide: https://vamados.com/canada
City tourism: https://visitwhite-horse.ca
Main Page: https://www.vamados.com/
Buy the travel guide
Click the “Add to Cart” button to purchase the travel guide. After that you will come to the payment, where you enter the purchase and payment information. Upon payment of the travel guide, you will immediately receive a receipt with a link to download your purchase. You can download the travel guide immediately or use the download link in the email later.
Use the travel guide
When you buy the travel guide to Whitehorse you get the book online so you can have it on your phone, tablet or computer – and of course you can choose to print it. Use the maps and tour suggestions and you will have a good and content-rich journey.
Changgyeonggung is one of Seoul’s five Joseon Dynasty palaces, the others being Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung, and Gyeonghuigung. Together with Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung is the palace with the best preserved buildings and facilities from ancient times, and it is an area worth seeing.
Changgyeonggung was built in the first part of the 15th century by King Sejong as a residence for Sejong’s father, Taejong, who was the king of Korea before Sejong, and who abdicated in 1418. The palace was expanded in 1483 to accommodate dowagers.
The palace, like many other structures, was destroyed in 1592 during the Japanese invasion of Seoul and Korea, but the following Joseon kings rebuilt Changgyeonggung. Large parts of the palace were demolished at the beginning of the 20th century during the Japanese colonial period, when the Japanese instead built a park that was supposed to show the modern empire with Ueno Park as its counterpart in Tokyo.
Later, a museum, a botanical garden and a zoo were opened in the park, which are located elsewhere in Seoul today. Today, the palace and its beautiful park can be visited from the entrance to the east. Here is the Honghwamun Gate (홍화문), which was originally built in 1484, and after it you pass the Okcheongyo Bridge (옥천교), which, among other things, was supposed to keep evil spirits away.
After passing the bridge and a gate building, you come to the palace’s main hall, Myeongjeongjeon (명정전), which was originally built as a residence for dowager queens, but where, among other things, state banquets were held. The hall was built in 1484 and reconstructed in 1612, making it the oldest preserved main hall of Seoul’s five palaces. Behind Myeongjeongjeon are other buildings that had different representative functions.
Leeum Art Museum is one of the leading museums of its kind in Korea, and here you can see two different collections. There is a part of the museum which exhibits traditional Korean art and there is a part for contemporary art. In both parts of the museum you can see many interesting works.
In the Korean art collection you can see, among other things, landscapes and folk paintings, traditional ceramics and porcelain and many other arts and crafts such as knives, jewellery, Buddhist art, sculptures and manuscripts.
In the exhibition of contemporary art, you can see works by many famous artists such as Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Rothko, Yves Klein and Donald Judd. The museum also faces the site’s sunken garden, where birch trees and ferns are among the growths that form the garden as a museum space.
The other parts of the museum building are also interesting. One starts in the Korean Art Building, which is shaped by the geometry of an inverted cone and a simple hexagonal shape as architectural elements. The main exhibition hall for contemporary art uses construction techniques to create a completely open space without supporting pillars, which gives a special spatial impression.
Supyogyo is an ancient bridge that spans the Chunggwe Stream. There was originally a passage of earth and wood across the Chunggwe until the first stone bridge was built under King Taejong. The current bridge dates from the reign of King Sejong in 1420.
Supyogyo was temporarily moved in the years 1958-1965 when a restoration project was carried out by Chunggwe, but the bridge stands again where it was built.
The bridge is 27.5 meters long, and you can see decorative elements on the stone railing, and levels for the water level are engraved with Chinese characters. The name Supyogyo also comes from the tool used to measure the water level, which has been done since the 15th century with different versions of the tool.
Bongwonsa Temple is a Buddhist temple founded in 889 by the monk Doseon Guksa. It was originally built on the site where Seoul’s Yonsei University is today, but moved slightly north to its current location in 1748.
The temple was continuously expanded, and the temple you can see today dates from 1911. It is a temple known for its beautiful location on the hilly slopes of Mount Ansan.
The temple area itself is relatively small, and here you can see, among other things, the hall with 3,000 Buddhas, which is beautifully decorated. Around the temple you can also see the statues of the so-called 16 arhats, who in Buddhism are persons who have become fully enlightened.
Gyeonghuigung Palace is one of Seoul’s famous five palaces from the Joseon Dynasty era, with Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung and Changgyeonggung as the other four. Gyeonghuigung means Palace of Peaceful Harmony, and the palace was built under King Gwanghaegun, who reigned as King of Korea in the years 1608-1623.
Gyeonghuigung is also called the Western Palace/Seo-gwol (西闕) because it is located west of central Gyeongbokgung. Gyeonghuigung was then also built as the king’s secondary palace, which was a place he could retreat to in case of, for example, threats against the king or other special situations.
The main part of Gyeonghuigung Palace was completed after a few years of construction in 1620 with over 100 buildings. It served as an annex to Changdeokgung Palace and was connected to Deoksugung by an arch bridge. The palace burned twice in the late 1800s, destroying most of the buildings. During the Japanese era of Korea, Japanese demolished the rest.
The Korean government later decided to reconstruct Gyeonghuigung and the rest of Seoul’s five palaces, which had suffered greatly during the Japanese colonial era. However, the previously large Gyeonghuigung could not be recreated when the palace was rebuilt in the 1990s, and this was not least due to the city’s growth on the original palace grounds.
Today you can see the most important buildings of the palace, and to get here you pass from the south Gyeonghuigung’s gate building, Heunghwamun (흥화문), which was built in 1616. From here you go to the old courtyard, where you can see, among other things, the palace’s main building, Sungjeongjeon (숭정전), which also dates from 1616. Both Heunghwamun and Sungjeongjeon were moved to other places in Seoul during the Japanese era, and they could therefore be moved back to their original location in connection with the reconstruction of Gyeonghuigung.
Deoksugung Palace is one of Seoul’s famous five palaces from the Joseon Dynasty. The other four are Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Gyeonghuigung and Changgyeonggung, and all five palaces are worth seeing and are located in central Seoul.
Deoksugung was built as a residence palace, and it was used by various members of the Korean royal family until the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910. Until then, much had been built on the palace grounds around the inner part of Deoksugung in a highly varied architecture.
The original palace was built in the 15th century as the residence of Prince Wolsan, who was King Seongjong’s brother. However, Deoksugung’s importance really only started with the Japanese invasion in 1592, when Seoul’s other four palaces were destroyed. That left Deoksugung as King Seonjo’s natural new palace, and in 1608 King Gwanghaegun was crowned in the palace.
In 1618, Changdeokgung Palace was rebuilt after the destruction in 1592, and the king therefore moved his residence from Deoksugung to the reconstructed palace. Since then, Deoksugung was used as a kind of reserve palace until Emperor Gojong moved here in 1897. The emperor abdicated in 1907 and maintained his residence in Deoksugung.
The Japanese colonial era from 1910 was harsh on Seoul’s palaces and also on Deoksugung. The palace grounds were opened as a public park and greatly reduced in size, and most of the palace buildings were demolished.
Today, there is quite a bit to see in the palace, whose entrance gate in the area’s southeast corner, Daehanmun (대한문) is known for its colorful changing of the guard that attracts many visitors. The guards traditionally opened and closed the palace gate. From Daehanmun, one can walk to Junghwamun Gate (중화문), which marks the entrance to Deoksugung’s inner courtyard, although some of the original walls surrounding the courtyard are missing today.
North of Junghwamun is the central building, Junghwajeon (덕수궁중화전), where the palace throne was and where official meetings and events were held. East of this is the building Hamnyeongjeon (함녕전), which was Emperor Gojong’s private quarters. It was in Hamnyeongjeon that Gojong died in 1919.
One of the distinctive features of Deoksugung compared to Seoul’s other palaces is the presence of buildings in Western architecture. There are three constructions in this style, and the small pavilion Jeonggwanheon (정관헌) from 1900 was the first Western-style house built on a Korean palace. The pavilion was built in the palace garden and designed by a Russian architect who incorporated Korean features.
To the west of Junghwajeon you can see the two largest Western-style buildings. Seokjojeon (석조전) from 1930 was designed by British John Harding, and the columned building was used for government meetings and diplomatic events, among other things. Today, Seokjojeon is set up as a museum of the Korean imperial era.
Immediately southwest of Seokjojeon is an extension to the building from 1930, which opened in 1938 as an art museum. The building is still set up as an art museum, and today you can visit one of the departments of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (국립현대미술관).
Heunginjimun is one of Seoul’s large and must-see city gates. The gate was built as one of the eight gates in Seoul’s city walls leading to and from the city. Of these eight gates, there were four main gates to the east (Heunginjimun), west (Donuimun), north (Sukjeongmun) and south (Sungnyemun).
Heunginjimun means the Gate of Rising Benevolence, and it is also known as Dongdaemun, which means the Great Eastern Gate. The nickname makes good sense with the large gate that was in the now former city walls, which until the city’s modern development enclosed the old royal residence.
The gate was built in 1398 under King Taejo, who founded the Joseon Dynasty and moved the capital to present-day Seoul. The current Heunginjimun dates from 1869 and is a reconstruction of the former gate. The architectural style is characteristic of the Joseon Dynasty era.
There is a distinctive feature of Heunginjimun, which is the added round wall, Ongseong (옹성), which is located as an extended extension of the gate itself. Ongseong was built as a fortification that could withstand attacks from multiple sides better than the gate building.
Saemoonan Church is a beautiful and modern architectural feature in Seoul’s streetscape, and the church is also historically important because Saemoonan was the first Protestant church in Korea. The church was founded in the country in 1887 and is Presbyterian. Saemoonan is today the mother church of the Presbyterians in the country.
Today, Saemoonan Church stands in Seoinn Design Group and Eunseok Lee’s exciting design, which elegantly opens the building towards the city and towards the sky, which has also been part of the idea with the construction. The semicircle that opens towards the city was thought of as a symbol of a mother’s arms and thereby of Saemoonan as a mother church.
The modern church building is the sixth edition of Saemoonan since its foundation in 1887, and in the street the church now stands almost like a small skyscraper with the sky-aspiring tower with the Christian cross high above street level. Behind the slender tower is a large rear building, where, among other things, the church’s administration is at home.
The architecture and design were inspired by the Gothic and by Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation, and thus the modern exterior is, so to speak, a reformation of the Gothic style. The interior is also modern with the main church room as a beautiful space dominated by wood and light.
KLI63 Building is a skyscraper that stands on the south bank of the Han River on the easternmost part of Yeouido Island (여의도). Yeouido is Seoul’s premier business district, and the 63 Building was built 1980-1985 as a landmark for the area and for Seoul.
The skyscraper opened as the tallest office building in the world outside North America, and at 249.6 meters it was South Korea’s tallest skyscraper until 2003. 63 Building’s design was inspired by the letter 人, which is the hanja character for a person, and the shape of the letter can be seen in profile of the building.
There are quite a few activities in the 63 Building, of which the observation deck 63 Golden Tower at the top of the skyscraper is a popular place with its fine view of Seoul. There is also a restaurant on the floors below the observation deck, and on the lower floors there is, among other things, a shopping center and an aquarium.
South Korea’s National Assembly is the seat of the country’s parliament and thus the legislative assembly. The building was opened as the dominant building on the northwestern part of the island of Yeouido (여의도). It happened in 1975, when the South Korean parliament moved from the then parliament building built by the Japanese colonial administration.
The former Japanese government building was built on the grounds of Gyeongbukgung Palace in 1926 and demolished in 1996 after a long discussion and the decision to rebuild Gyeongbukgung. Today, the top of the demolished building can be seen at the Korean Independence Museum in the city of Cheonan.
The National Assembly is located as the central building in a facility that also includes the assembly library building and secretariat. Both of these buildings are located in front of the National Assembly, where there are also fountains, lawns and several statues.
The National Folk Museum is an interesting museum located in the palace grounds surrounding Gyeongbokgung Palace in central Seoul. It is a museum that conveys the history of the traditional life and culture of the Korean people.
The folk museum has been in its current location since 1993, when it was housed in the buildings where the country’s national museum had been located. The buildings are worth seeing in themselves, as they were built with inspiration from various well-known historical buildings from South Korea.
You can visit three primary themed exhibitions at the museum. In the History of the Korean People, one can learn more about everyday life in Korea from prehistoric times to the dissolution of the Joseon Dynasty in 1910, while village life is exhibited in another of the exhibits. The focus of the third part of the museum is the Confucian impact on Korean culture.
There are also other exhibitions which, among other things, show effects from the 20th century during and after the Joseon era. You can also see various effects in the museum’s outdoor area. Here, for example, there are spirit stations from villages, grinding mills and storage of rice and kimchi.
Lotte World Tower is a modern skyscraper that was built 2010-2016 and opened as the tallest building in South Korea and one of the tallest in the world. The skyscraper has 123 floors and measures 555 meters to the top, which is why Lotte World Tower naturally stands as one of the dominant profiles in Seoul’s skyline.
On the top floors of the skyscraper is Seoul Sky, which is furnished with, among other things, lounges, cafes and observation decks, from which there is an excellent view of large parts of the South Korean capital. On other floors, there are offices, apartments and hotel rooms, and various activities in the lower part of the high-rise building.
The Seoul Museum of Art is a museum that opened in 1988 and is owned by the city of Seoul. The museum’s main building was originally located in the palace grounds around Gyeonghuigung, but in 2002 the main branch of the museum was opened at Deoksugung Palace in South Korea’s former Supreme Court building.
The art museum is also known as SEMA, and it has a collection of more than 3,000 works of art, including paintings, sculptures and installations by Korean artists such as Gook Yoo, Nam June Paik and Lee Woo-hwan Lee. At SEMA, changing exhibitions of different nature and with works of a great variety by, among others, old masters and contemporary artists are arranged.
Cheonggyecheon is a 10.9-kilometer-long stream that flows from west to east through the center of Seoul. The stream first became known as Gaecheon in connection with the Joseon Dynasty’s establishment of a drainage system in the city. From the first half of the 15th century, the stream was deepened and reinforced at regular intervals.
Gaecheon got its current name during the Japanese colonial period, and they had plans to cover Cheonggyecheon, which was not realized at the time. After the Korean War, many Koreans moved to Seoul and some settled around the stream in shabby and temporary houses, and Cheonggyecheon became one of Seoul’s dirty areas.
In 1958, Cheonggyecheon was covered with concrete, and the industrialization and modern traffic planning of the time made a further impact when an elevated highway was built over the stream in 1976. In this way, Cheonggyecheon no longer existed until reconstruction began in 2003.
Today, you can once again enjoy the course of the Cheonggyecheon, which opens up the city with water, and along the banks of the stream, a varied urban environment has been created that has both recreated and rethought the area. The stream starts in the west with some impressive fountains, and if you go east, you can see almost sculptural streams before Cheonggyecheon lies as an elongated recreational area with trees along the water. Along the way you pass, among other things, the two rebuilt historic bridges, Gwangtonggyo and Supyogyo.
Gwangjang Market is a lively place where you can really experience South Korean market atmosphere. It is a colossal market area that you can visit, and there are several thousand stalls and shops with all kinds of goods and places to eat.
The market’s history dates back to 1905, when Gwangjang Market was established as a Korean replacement for Namdaemun Market, which had passed to Japanese control that same year. It was a group of Korean merchants and investors who established the market.
Today, you can enjoy the good atmosphere at Gwangjang Market, and there are countless street kitchens in the covered market streets in the northeastern part of the area. Here you can try many tasty dishes, which are eaten side by side with locals.
The War Memorial of Korea is a large facility that exhibits and marks the memory of Korea’s wars and military history. The site opened in 1994 in an area where there used to be a barracks, and the purpose of the memorial was partly to avoid wars in the future by learning from not least the Korean War of the 1950s and partly to be able to contribute to a peaceful reunification of North Korea and South Korea a day.
At the entrance to the war memorial is the Statue of Brothers/Hyeongje-ui sang (형전이상). The statue is a landmark of the site and a symbol of the Korean War with its encounter between a South Korean and a North Korean soldier on a hill that is split in two, referring to the division of North and South Korea.
In the memorial’s large exhibition, you can take a closer look at various themes in addition to the memorial hall itself. These are exhibitions about, for example, the Korean War and South Korea’s military, and at the war memorial you can also see a large outdoor exhibition of military equipment mainly from South Korea, China and the USA.
Cheong Wa Dae, also known as the Blue House, is a building with a surrounding park that was known as the office and official residence of the President of South Korea from 1948 to 2022. The Blue House, a building complex, was built 1937-1939 as the residence of the Japanese governor.
The area where Cheong Wa Dae is located was already developed with a royal villa in 1104, and development continued in the early Joseon period from the late 14th century, when Gyeongbokgung was built as a primary residence palace. To the north of the palace, among other things, pavilions were built and gardens laid out on the site where Cheong Wa Dae was built.
The name Cheong Wa Dae was first chosen in 1960 as a replacement for the former Gyeongmudae, which had been largely demolished by the Japanese to make way for the Blue House, which was built with inspiration from traditional architecture.
Historically, Cheong Wa Dae became the site where South Korea’s third president, Park Chung Hee, was assassinated on October 26, 1979. It happened during a banquet where the head of the South Korean intelligence service, Kim Jae-gyu, shot the president. Since 2022, the area has been open to visitors as a public park.
Seoul Station is the name of the main railway station in the South Korean capital. The station is a hub for rail traffic to the rest of the country, and from here you can take high-speed trains to Busan, among other things. The Seoul subway also connects the city and the train station.
The first railway station in Seoul opened in 1900, when the Korean Peninsula’s first railway from Noryangjin to the south side of the Han River was extended north and across the Han. New lines were opened in 1905 and 1921, and then the first railway station was expanded.
The expansion took place with the building that is today known as Old Seoul Station (구서울역사). The building was designed by Tsukamoto Yasushi of Tokyo Imperial University and completed in 1925. The style of the station was inspired by Western architecture, with a Byzantine dome over the central station hall.
Today, Old Seoul Station is located north of today’s modern railway station, which was built as a traffic hub with a much larger capacity than the old station building, which has been given new life as the culture center Culture Station Seoul 284 (문화역서울 284).
Gangnam Style Monument is a large sculpture that has stood in the streets of Seoul since 2015 as a tribute to Psy’s iconic 2012 music video and dance, Gangnam Style. The sculpture depicts a pair of colossal bronze hands positioned as seen in Psy’s video.
The monument is of course located in the district of Gangnam, where it is immediately east of the large and popular COEX Mall. You can see the monument and hear Gangnam Style as you approach. Many times visitors can also be seen trying their hand at Psy’s dance in front of the monument.
Starfield Library is almost an indoor urban space with the predicate library. A building that opened in 2017 and is located at COEX Mall, the library’s interior is one of the most iconic newer spaces in the South Korean capital, and plenty of selfies are taken here.
On a visit to Starfield Library, you immediately see the up to 13 meter high bookshelves, which are the library’s distinguishing feature, and which were built as part of the architectural experience. You don’t need to read or borrow books to come here, but the place also functions as a modern reading room and a library.
K-Star Road is an interesting K-pop spot in the Gangnam district. K-pop is part of the so-called hallyu/한류, which is the name of the South Korean wave of popular culture that has dominated many people’s knowledge of the country since the 1990s. The wave has not least been driven by social media, pop and South Korean TV shows, which many have probably heard of.
The K-Star Road project is a living example of popular culture, and the most interesting area for many visitors of a stretch from Apgujeong Rodeo subway station along Apgujeong-ro street east to Cheongdam Sageori. Here you can see a number of statues in different colors and patterns of bear-like toy character with a height of 1.5 meters each. The statues each represent a K-pop group such as Girls’ Generation, EXO and Block B.
It is a good idea to start a stroll along K-Star Road from Apgujeong Rodeo subway station, where the most famous statue stands. It is the one called Gangnamdol, which represents the entire K-Star Road. Gangnamdol represents Psy, who became world famous with Gangnam Style, and it is 3 meters high and thus significantly larger than the other statues. At the station you can also see the Gangnamdol Haus, where you can buy the statues in miniature.
Bongeunsa Temple is a Buddhist temple located as a beautiful and calm oasis in the otherwise busy and modern district of Gangnam. The temple was founded in the year 794 under King Wonseong by the then most important monk of the kingdom. The history of the temple has been quite mixed, where Buddhism in Korea was, for example, suppressed during large parts of the Joseon dynasty, which ruled from 1392 to 1897; however, with some exception in the mid-16th century, when the temple was moved to its current location.
In 1902, Bongeunsa Temple was made one of Korea’s 14 most important temples, and during the Japanese era from 1910 to 1945, Bongeunsa became the main temple for many smaller temples in and around Seoul. Most of Bongeunsa unfortunately burned down in 1939, and other parts were destroyed during the Korean War, whereby the majority of the temple buildings today are of recent date.
However, it is not something that spoils the impression and atmosphere of a visit today. The Panjeon/판전 building is a construction that survived the fire in 1939, and therefore you can see here decorations from the mid-19th century. You can also see Bongeunsa’s famous Buddha statue, which is 28 meters high. The statue shows Maitreya, which in Buddhism is the name of the next future Buddha.
Jogyesa Temple is the main temple of the Jogye Order within Korean Buddhism. The temple’s building was originally constructed in the early years of Joseon Dynasty rule in 1395, and it was granted the status of the order’s main temple in 1936.
The temple played an important symbolic role during the time as a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945. This made it one of the most important sites for Korean Buddhism, which the Japanese regime sought to suppress. The present temple was built in 1938 in a beautiful blend of temple and palace architecture.
Similar to Seoul Travel Guide
