Seoul, Right Now

There are many places in Seoul where you can look at the city. From a tall building, you can see rows of apartment towers. From a bridge, you can watch the Han River flow through the city. From Namsan, you can look down at the buildings and streets below. But Haneul Park offers something different. You are standing in a vast field of silver grass, high above the Han River, while one of the world's busiest cities stretches out in front of you. And if you arrive near sunset, Seoul seems to change while you are watching. The City Begins in the Distance Haneul Park is part of World Cup Park in western Seoul. It sits on what was once a landfill at Nanjido. Today, it is one of the city's best-known places for seeing Seoul from above. The park is about 98 meters above sea level and has a large field of silver grass, along with numerous viewpoints and resting places. From the park's newer viewing areas, you can look toward the Han River and the city beyond it. The view stretches fr...

Once a month, a group of men in their 90s meets in Jongno 3-ga. They do not all live nearby. Some come from Incheon or Bucheon. Others come from Hanam. Some live in Yangjae-dong in Seoul, while another lives near Dobongsan Station, at the northern edge of the city. Yet once a month, they make their way to the same place. Jongno 3-ga. A Meeting Place in the Middle of Seoul One reason is simple: transportation. Jongno 3-ga Station is where Seoul Subway Lines 1, 3, and 5 meet. For people coming from different parts of the Seoul metropolitan area, it is a practical place to gather. But transportation alone does not explain why they keep coming back. Jongno 3-ga has almost everything they might want to do during one of their monthly meetings. Most months, they start with a meal. They sit down together and eat a bowl of beef soup. There is nothing particularly elaborate about the meal. They meet, eat, talk, and spend some time together. Sometimes, though, the plan changes. When There Is a Mo...

There is a line outside a pharmacy in Namdaemun. Not a famous restaurant. Not a bakery. Not a popular coffee shop. A pharmacy. People are standing outside, waiting to go in. Seoul has pharmacies everywhere. You can find them near subway stations, hospitals, apartment neighborhoods, and busy shopping streets. So why would anyone travel across the city just to buy something from a pharmacy? One answer is price. But that is only part of the story. In Namdaemun and Jongno 5-ga, pharmacies have become destinations in their own right. People go there not only because they are sick, but because they want to take care of their health — sometimes for themselves, and often for their families. The Line at Wangsol Pharmacy Wangsol Pharmacy is in the Namdaemun area, close to the busy market streets. What is hard to miss is the line. People wait outside before going in, especially when the pharmacy is busy. For someone seeing the scene for the first time, it can be a little surprising. Why wait for ...

If you take the subway in Seoul, you will notice something before the train even arrives. There is a glass wall between you and the tracks. The doors open when the train arrives. They close when it leaves. For someone visiting Seoul for the first time, it may seem like a very ordinary part of the subway. But it wasn't always there. And once you start looking at the screen doors, you may notice that people in Seoul do much more than simply stand behind them. Seoul Didn't Always Have Screen Doors Platform screen doors are now such a familiar part of the Seoul subway that it is easy to forget they are relatively new. The first platform screen doors in Seoul were installed at Sadang Station in 2005. From 2006 to 2009, they were installed throughout Lines 1 through 8. By 2025, screen doors had been installed at 345 stations, including Line 9 and the Ui-Sinseol Line. The main reason was simple: Safety. The doors create a physical barrier between passengers and the tracks. And they ma...

Walk through Changdong Market in northern Seoul, and you might come across a small toast shop. It is not a place that looks particularly unusual at first. There is a griddle, some bread, eggs, vegetables, and a woman standing behind the counter, making toast for customers. But look at the name. It is still called “Grandma’s Toast.” There is just one problem with that name. Grandma is no longer there. So why is this Seoul toast shop still called Grandma’s Toast? It Started With a Grandmother The story begins with the late Park Yi-soon, who ran the toast shop in Changdong. In 2019, KBS introduced her and her Vietnamese daughter-in-law, Jung Soo-yeon, who was helping her make toast. The two women stood together behind the griddle, preparing the kind of inexpensive, filling toast that has long been part of everyday life in Seoul. The toast was simple. Bread was toasted on the griddle. An egg mixture filled with vegetables was cooked alongside it. The vegetables made the egg filling thick a...

Ask a Korean when autumn has arrived, and the answer might not be a date. It might be a flower. In late September and October, cosmos begins appearing across Korea—in parks, along rivers, beside roads, and in large flower fields. Its thin stems move in the wind, usually carrying pink, white, or reddish flowers. The scene is so familiar that it can feel as though cosmos has always belonged to the Korean autumn. But it hasn't. A Flower That Came From Somewhere Else The cosmos most commonly seen in Korea, Cosmos bipinnatus , is native to Mexico and parts of the southwestern United States. It is an annual flower that can bloom from summer into fall. In Korea, however, it became remarkably familiar. The Korea Biodiversity Information System describes cosmos as a flower that makes people feel that autumn has arrived. It also notes that although the flower feels like an old Korean flower, it was actually introduced to Korea after the opening of the country and became established surprisin...