neighborhood guide

The alley-style shopping district around Mukdong Dokkaebi Market in Seoul’s Jungnang-gu has been selected as a target site under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ 2026 “Promising Alley Commercial District” …

Seoul has designated five neighborhoods, Jangchungdan-gil, Hapmareu, Seonyurowoon, Oryu Beodeul and Yangjaecheon-gil, as new “local brand” commercial districts under a city program aimed at helping small, independent alleyway shops build …

Two subway stops from Hongdae, Mangwon-dong offers a version of Seoul that increasingly feels rare: a neighborhood that still mostly belongs to the people who live there. Before 1984, when …

Not long ago, Seongsu-dong was known mainly for its red-brick shoe factories and industrial warehouses. Today it’s arguably the single fastest-growing destination for foreign visitors to Seoul, and the numbers …

Walk out of Exit 3 of Hangangjin Station in Seoul’s Yongsan District these days, and within three minutes you’ll spot the five-story Comme des Garcons building across the street. Step …

An elderly woman stopped Seoul-based travel writer Ji-Hoon Park outside Apgujeong-Rodeo Station’s Exit 4 with a question that says everything about this street’s history: “Is Rodeo Street still crowded these …

On a weekday afternoon in Sinsa-dong’s Garosugil, the street that spent two decades as one of Seoul’s defining shopping destinations is quiet enough to notice. “For lease” notices start near …

Get off at Mangwon Station, two stops past Hongik University on Line 6, and nothing about the exit signals you’ve arrived anywhere special. Climb the stairs and the first thing …