that houses a special theater just for Nanta, a leading Korean performance group (Nanta has four specialized theaters around Seoul). The famous punk brand Bratson also calls Hongdae home, although its main store is across town in the Hannam-dong neighborhood. Bratson is a major staple of YG Entertainment’s stars, so if you want to buy some of the wild things G-Dragon or Sandara wear in their videos, this is the place to check. There are also several huge new high-rise apartments that many K-pop stars call home, although don’t expect to walk in and say “Hi.” Security is tight. Besides, they are probably all out working hard somewhere.
Another great part of Seoul, located north of the Han River just to the east of the old Gyeongbokgung Palace, is a winding, old-style area in the center of town called Samcheong-dong. When the Korean capital moved to Seoul 600 years ago, this was one of the first neighborhoods to grow up around the old palace. Over the past decade, more and more interesting shops and restaurants have moved into Samcheong-dong, making this old community one of the hippest in Seoul and a common locale for many a TV drama. Samcheongdong, along with the nearby Anguk-dong and Insa-dong areas, is home to many little art galleries and artsy shops, as well as funky tea houses, restaurants, Buddhist temples and a lively street culture. Samcheong-dong is also an area rich in traditional Korean houses, or hanok, many of them converted into art galleries and other cafés. And if that’s not enough, it is also the neighborhood where Lee Young-ae, one of Korea’s top actresses, has opened a small boutique, Lya Nature, to sell organic and chemical-free children’s clothes and other items.
Geunjeongjeon was the throne room for the Korean kings long ago.
The peaceful coffee shops of Samcheong-dong have some of the prettiest views of old Korean hanok homes.
SM Entertainment’s headquarters in Cheongdam-dong is getting a giant facelift.
South of the mighty Han River is where Seoul gets much more posh. Thanks to Psy, everyone now has heard of Gangnam. Gangnam may just literally mean “south of the river,” but for Koreans it conjures up all sorts of ideas of modern living and luxury. A brief scene from The Bourne Legacy was even filmed on a back street here. But the area around Gangnam subway station is much more businesslike these days. It is the home of Samsung’s massive headquarters and is a major hub for financial and tech companies.
Garosu-gil has become one of the most popular places in Seoul to rest and relax.
It’s also full of shopping.
For fashion, style and coolness, you need to travel closer to the Han River, to the uber trendy Apgujeong or, to be more specific, the neighborhoods of Sinsa, Apgujeong and Cheongdam. One of the coolest strips in today’s Korea is Garosu-gil, literally “tree-lined street,” a narrow kilometer-long road that cuts through Sinsa, which is full of art galleries, shops, huge coffee houses and restaurants. It’s a relatively quiet street for such a popular place in such a big city.
This is also home to one of Se7en’s spicy chicken stew restaurants, Yeolbong Jjimdak, featuring plenty of pictures of the singer and his friends. Yeolbong Jjimdak is located on the south side of Garosu-gil, just off the main road.
Further up the road is the flagship location of Helianthus, one of Korea’s most luxurious handbag brands. And if fancy handbags are your thing, you can check out the Simone Handbag Museum while in Garosu-gil, a ten-story building that’s built in the shape of a handbag.
Just down the street from Garosu-gil, in the heart of the Apgujeong area, is Dosan Park, home to some of the fanciest shops in Korea. How fancy is it? Well, there’s a huge Maison Hermes here, just the fourth in the world, a gorgeous glass-walled building that seriously impresses. It’s also the home of actor Bae Yong-joon’s Gorilla in the Kitchen restaurant, a healthy themed restaurant that uses no oil or creams. There’s also an extremely funky Ann Demeulemeester shop that’s completely covered in greenery; the building was designed by Mass Studies, one of Korea’s most creative architecture firms. The luxury lifestyle brand Man Made WooYoungMi is also located in Apgujeong, along with many other super fancy shops.
After Apgujeong comes the Cheongdam-dong district, which is even posher. This area is the home to many music labels, including SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and Cube Entertainment.
The Galleria department store in Apgujeong has long been one of the fanciest places to shop in Seoul.
Across the street from SM Entertainment is Korea’s very own 10 Corso Como, and in the alley behind SM is Jung Saem Mool, one of Korea’s best beauty salons. Jung Saem Mool is very pricey, but its hair and makeup artists regularly work with many of Korea’s top stars. For a more artsy shopping experience, you can try Daily Projects, which features plenty of books on design and art in a great space.
The sidewalks outside of all three major music labels are popular places for fans to camp out, hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars, but the area around JYP Entertainment is especially popular. Located in a small alley off the main road, with Cube Entertainment just a few meters away (and, best of all, a donut shop across the street, to help you kill time), this unassuming strip can get especially full in good weather.
Incidentally, if you are looking to pick up the latest K-pop gear, Cube has a Cube café full of shirts, CDs and other goods, while across town at the famous Lotte Department Store, SM Entertainment has been opening a temporary “pop-up” shop during the big tourism seasons in January and the summer where you can pick up goods by your favorite bands.
For all my talk of fancy shops and upscale brands, even the poshest parts of Seoul can be surprisingly mixed, broken up by old Internet cafés or donut shops. That’s always been a defining part of Korea, the mix—combining new and old, fancy and simple, loud and quiet, cutting edge and retro. Koreans call it jjamppong, “all mixed up.” Usually used to refer to a spicy seafood soup, jjamppong has long seemed like the most Korean of words to me.
Despite Korea’s unceasing push toward the future, there are still hints and tastes of its cool past that linger. A palace here. An old neighborhood there. Korea and Seoul have reinvented themselves so many times already over the past few decades, and those reinventions lay beside each other, overlapping and layering, creating the country it is today. It’s hard to imagine, but for most of Seoul’s history it existed only on the north side of the Han River. Today, it sprawls in all directions, forever growing higher, faster, flashier. And it is that mix of elements that has also created K-pop.
The Wonder Girls’ biggest hit, “Nobody,” featured a retro 1960s style.
If Korean music fans’ biggest question was when would K-pop break out in the West, in the West the biggest question has probably been “So what is K-pop anyway?” K-pop literally means “Korean pop,” as in pop music, but of course
