Most writing about Seoul comes from people passing through for four days. This is the other thing — notes from someone who lives here.

I walk these streets on ordinary Tuesdays. I know what Yeouido looks like at 7 a.m. in February, which lunch counters have a queue by 11:50, and where the light falls on the Han River in late October. That is what this site is for.

Twenty years on Yeouido

Yeouido, where I first came looking for work after university, was impressive and strange at the same time. A financial district that also happens to house the National Assembly — Korea’s parliament. One island carrying both the country’s money and its politics.

I still remember the day I first stepped off the train at Yeouido Station. Every man was in a suit; every woman in neat office dress. At lunchtime people poured out of the buildings all at once, and an hour later the streets went quiet as if someone had flipped a switch. On weekends it felt like a city nobody actually lived in.

It has changed a great deal. Almost nobody wears a suit now — people dress for comfort. And Yeouido has people on it all the time, weekday or weekend.

While the city was changing, so was I. I started here as a new graduate, and I now lead a department of more than twenty people. Financial IT is my work. I got married while working on Yeouido, and my child was born here. My twenties and thirties have taken place entirely on this island.

Before I married I lived in Gangnam, and in Jamsil. Both are good places to live. And still, in the end, I settled on Yeouido. It took living elsewhere to understand that this was the place that suited me best.

That was more than twenty years ago now. And with each passing year Yeouido has looked more beautiful to me. It is a hidden kind of treasure. You will not see it passing through; a great deal of it only reveals itself once you stay.

Yeouido will change much more. But right now, apartment blocks over forty years old stand next to brand-new towers. Seoul’s past and Seoul’s future in a single frame — a lively, beautiful city.

There was a time when I was simply too busy. I left home before sunrise and came back long after dark, and in those years I never properly saw the cherry blossoms flowering right beside me. I regret those seasons.

Yeouido has been good to me. Honestly, part of me wants to keep it to myself — the best places are best when they are quiet. But slightly stronger than that is the wish that more people come to see how beautiful this island is. That is why I started writing it down.

Someday, when Yeouido has grown into something far finer than it is now, perhaps what I am recording today will stand as a trace of the road it travelled. That is the spirit in which I write.

If you come to Korea, I hope you will make time for Yeouido. It is a treasure hiding in plain sight in Seoul.

What you will find here

Yeouido — Seoul’s financial island. The lunch places office workers actually queue for, the 3 km loop around the park, the river at every hour of the day.
Seoul by season — cherry blossoms, the Han River in summer, autumn light, winter. What each month actually feels like, not what the brochure says.
Beyond Seoul — where I go when I leave the city: day trips around Korea, and sometimes further out.
Food — places I go back to. Real prices, honest notes, and a map for every one.
Festivals and events — reported from the ground: road closures, where to stand, when to arrive, how to get home afterwards.

How this site works

Everything here is visited in person. No AI-written guides, no rewritten press releases.
All photographs are mine. No stock images.
Prices and opening hours carry the date I checked them. Seoul changes fast.
If something is wrong, I fix it and say so.

Languages

This site is written in English, 한국어, 日本語 and 繁體中文. Not every post exists in every language — the guides that visitors need most are translated first.

Questions, corrections, or collaboration: get in touch.