Neighborhoods
4 Must-Visit Old Towns in Seoul (2020 update)
4 Biggest and Most-Visited Old Towns
When you take a quick look of Seoul, the city may seem to put a lot of emphasis on its urban and modern looks, but there are handful of significant old towns from place to place. Seoul was never the size of this back in the time, as we have entered to the modern era, more and more people settled in Seoul, thereby making the size it is now. Since the old Seoul was a lot smaller, the old town stands near to each other and clustering around palace area.
Remaining 4 old-town neighborhoods are:
Bukchon(북촌), Seochon(서촌), Inksundong(익선동) and Insadong(인사동)
which are to be introduced in this post. In some, like Bukchon and Seochon, people still do live there, while other places became stores, cafes and galleries, which most of them became viral due to recent blowing retro craze. The towns soon became one of the trending spots in Seoul.
Bukchon Hanok village
‘Buk’ in Korean means the north and ‘chon’ means the village, combining the two makes it ‘the north village’, locating at the north of Gyeongbok palace. This place is renowned for having the well-preserved Hanoks, the Korean traditional house architectures, with a grand scale, since back in the days only royal palace bureaucrats could live in the town. Now, people still do live there but most of them are renovated into cafes or shops.
What you can do here are simply walking around, go to cafes, restaurants or galleries, besides these you can also rent Hanboks, the Korean traditional clothes, and take some pictures. As for the renting, it’s not so difficult to find the renting shops, since along with the roads there are plenty of shops displaying Hanboks.
One thing as a reminder, Bukchon is very near to Cheongwadae, the Korean White House, and foreign embassies, thereby if you happen to end up walking into random street, which also happens to be nearby Cheonwadae, the police may ask for your ID.
Location:
Seoul, Jongno-gu, Gahoe-dong, Gye-dong-gil 37 / 서울특별시 종로구 가회동 계동길 37
From metro line 3 Anguk Station, take exit 2 and walk straight.
Seochon
Like Bukchon, Seochon means west village, as it locates at the west side Gyeongbokgung palace. Followed by the Bukchon area, Seochon also has a lot of Hanoks, however they are less about the scales, rather they are more about the sentiments and atmosphere.
The neighborhood is thriving as old fashioned stores and shops around the area went all viral. Some of the stores here are ages old, the signs and interiors are showing the age, something very rare these days.
One main feature about this place is that they have traditional market, Tongin Market(통인시장). There you can get a lunch box and start filling the plate with traditional or fusion foods served in the market. You buy some coins(엽전), which resemble Korean money back in the days, and you trade foods with those coins. Tongin Market is popular among all features of Seochon Village.
Also, there’s a nearby town called Hyoja-dong, where you can easily find modern-traditional cafes and restaurant. Simply by strolling around the area, you will fall back into the times without even noticing.
Location:
28–1 Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul/ 서울특별시 종로구 통의동 28–1
From Gyeongbokgung Station take exit 2 and walk straight.
Tongin Market (통인시장):
18 Jahamun-ro 15-gil, Tongin-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul / 서울특별시 종로구 통인동 자하문로15길 18
* lunch box event is held from 11am~3pm on weekdays & 11am~4pm on weekends.
Ikseon-dong Hanok Village
Another mainstream Hanok village locating near the center of Seoul is Ikseon-dong.The town is next to the Changdeokgung palace and the Jongmyo Shrine.
Unlike Bukchon and Seochon where once you arrive, you can literally feel the vibe of the old town, for Ikseon-dong, you can’t tell whether it’s there on the outside. You have to find your way in.
The streets are narrower and smaller, you may feel like you are in a miniature town. Hanoks are not large in size, small-regular sized ones standing each side of the streets. They are mainly being used as shops and restaurants, non of them are for living use. The place is bit more touristic than the former ones. However, it has the mood and vibe along with the instagram trending restaurants and cafes. As the new-tro (new kind of retro) wave has blown all over Korea, Ikseon-dong became one of the hottest place, collaborating old and newness of Korea.
Tips
People would normally search on instagram or Naver to find which cafe or restaurant to visit, but for foreigners this may not be the case, so here are some hashtags you could use; #익선동(Ikseon-dong), #익선동카페(Ikseon-dong cafe) or #익선동맛집(Ikseon-dong good restaurants).
Since the area is quite small and compacted, you can expect that wherever you go will likely be waiting.
Location:
Ikseon-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul / 서울특별시 종로구 익선동
From metro line 1,3 Jongno-3ga Station, take exit 4 and walk straight.
Insa-dong
Insa-dong is the tourists’ all-time favorite town, last but not the least to be introduced. All the signs are only written in Korean. Shops are mainly have to do with Korean traditional accessories, dolls and sometimes clothes, which will be a good experience to enjoy the beauty of Hangul(Korean alphabets). This come as exoticness to tourists, filling up the Korean vibe in short time.
In Insa-dong, there’s a building about 4 stories high called ‘Ssamji-gil’(쌈지길), it’s a shopping mall where you can buy wide range of original Korean products from food to cultural materials. The shops there are all small sized and mainly have to do with handcrafted goods, which makes the place even more artsy. If you visit ‘Ssamziegil’, you are more than halfway done seeing the area.
Location:
Insadong-gil, Jongro-gu, Seoul / 서울 종로구 인사동길
From metro line 3 Anguk Station, take exit 6, walk straight and go left at the firs three-way intersection.
Seoul back in Chosun dynasty was not a big city, this explains why all the main Hanok towns are located at ‘Gangbuk’ side and more modernized newly built neighbors are located at ‘Gangnam’. Where each neighbors are makes more sense if you look into how the city has been developing. So here’s some tip, if you are more into traditional or retro stuff, center your interest to ‘Gangbuk’ area, if you are otherwise, then focus your interests in ‘Gangnam’ area.
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