Let’s start with Myeongdong. Myeongdong is a famous commercial district in Seoul. Stepping out of Myeongdong Station, you immediately feel the bustling atmosphere here; it gives off a vibe similar to Nanjing East Road, with flagship stores of major brands standing side by side. Since there are many Chinese and Japanese tourists in this area, you’ll see plenty of signs in Chinese and Japanese along the streets. However, I’m not particularly interested in commercial streets like this, as they tend to look pretty much the same everywhere. Besides, my main goal was to visit Seoul Tower. Looking around nearby, I happened to find an animation center and a comic street. Right at the entrance of a hotel, you can see signposts for the famous Larva character and the Seoul Animation Center. There are also many interesting little shops lining the streets.
Since the roads around here are mostly ups and downs, and Seoul Tower is located on a mountain, even though I took the cable car up, the cable car station itself is situated at a relatively high elevation, so there was still quite a bit of uphill walking involved in between. The station is basically right next to the Embassy of China in South Korea. The Namsan Cable Car is quite large—more like a bus—with each cabin holding up to 48 passengers. It spans 605 meters in length, takes only 3 minutes for a one-way trip, and runs approximately every 10 minutes. When I arrived, there wasn’t much of a line; a cable car pulled in, we all boarded immediately, and we reached our destination very quickly. However, after getting off the cable car, there was still a flight of stairs to climb, and that section was under construction, making the path somewhat difficult to navigate. Near the top, you’ll find the famous Love Lock Wall, covered with colorful love locks. This platform is completely open-air, offering a nice spot to take in the scenery as well.
Seoul Tower stands 236.7 meters tall and was built in 1975. Although the tower itself isn’t exceptionally tall, its location atop a mountain makes it the second-highest observation deck in Seoul (the highest being Lotte World Tower, with 123 floors reaching 556 meters). After purchasing tickets at the entrance, you can head inside. The elevator features a screen on its ceiling, so the ride up is far from boring. Once you reach the top, the experience is pretty much like any other observation deck. Following a major renovation in 2005, Seoul Tower was renamed N Seoul Tower—the “N” stands both for Namsan Mountain and for “New.”
You can see Lotte World Tower in the distance.
From this angle, you can see the Namsan Cable Car.
I visited around dusk, spent some time relaxing at the Twosome Place upstairs, wrote a few postcards, and before long, night had fallen. It was a nice opportunity to take in the night view, but honestly speaking, compared to Shanghai or Hong Kong, Seoul practically has no night skyline at all…
After coming down from the tower, I happened to be hungry, so I headed to the famous twotwo chicken restaurant in Myeongdong. But I’m not sure if it was just Korean fried chicken in general or specifically this place—the chicken didn’t seem freshly fried, or perhaps it had been double-fried, resulting in skin that was incredibly tough, almost impossible to bite into. That said, the sauce tasted pretty good… Also, restaurants in Korea aren’t particularly solo-diner friendly, as most dishes are served in portions meant for two. Still, even after eating every bite I could manage, I somehow wasn’t completely full… So overall, I’d say this place is a bit of a tourist trap…
Additionally, along the way, I saw many tourists struggling to drag their suitcases uphill, searching for hotels perched on the mountain. So when booking accommodation, make sure to check carefully and try to avoid hotels that require hiking uphill. Maps don’t really show these steep inclines clearly, but trust me—it’s quite exhausting to walk them.
Photos in this post taken with a SONY A5100 + 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, post-processed in Lightroom.
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