Conde Nast Traveler Concierge.com

The New Seoul Of Asia

by Norimitsu Onishi | Published October 2006 | See more Condé Nast Traveler articles

Twenty-five years ago, Seoul was a grim industrial town in a country ruled by martial law. What a difference a generation makes. Today, South Korea's capital is one of the most vibrant, wired, and innovative cities in Asia, with an edgy new art scene and energy to burn. Norimitsu Onishi gets pumped in Asia's next hot spot

Map: Click here to download our massive guide to Asia's unrivaled pleasures, plus every nonstop flight from the United States. Viewing requires a copy of the freely available Adobe PDF reader.

All anyone could talk about in Seoul was baseball. It was the World Baseball Classic, and the South Koreans, not known as a baseball powerhouse, had made it to the semifinals, beating the United States, Japan, Mexico, Chinese Taipei, and China along the way, and compiling the only undefeated record in the series. It promised to be a big game, so on a chilly Sunday morning in March, I took the subway north to City Hall in downtown Seoul to see for myself.

The circular, grassy public square that fronts City Hall is the nation's most famous—the epicenter of the capital's massive celebrations, protests, and rallies, as well as an enormous collective outdoor living room. By the time I arrived, it was busy with thousands of people—families, young couples on dates, churchgoers still in their Sunday best—all of them assembled to watch the game being broadcast live from San Diego on a giant TV screen. The crowd was united in its ebullience and optimism. It roared with each hit and groaned with each out, dozens of moments of collective tension and joy.

By the seventh inning, though, it had become clear that South Korea wasn't going to make it to the finals, and people began to leave. But as disappointing as it was, even the team's loss couldn't dissipate the sense of pride, of an accomplishment made more extraordinary by its very unexpectedness. The loss didn't matter, said several people I talked to. It was a miracle that South Korea had come so far.

As I followed the crush out of the square and up the city's most historic thoroughfare, Sejongno, in the direction of the fourteenth-century Gyeongbok Palace, I found myself thinking that that comment—it was a miracle that South Korea had come so far—summed up the country itself. Nine years ago, South Korea was mired in a crippling financial crisis, one so devastating that it triggered a wave of suicides. But that year, South Korea began reinventing itself, shaking off its old severities—the six-day workweek, the ghosts of its nearly three-decades-long military government—to find for itself a place in the new Asia. It would have been difficult to imagine the morning's gathering just two decades ago, when the streets were better known as battlegrounds for the ferocious clashes between pro-democracy students and the government. And yet here, in front of City Hall, were the citizens of the new South Korea, residents of the new Seoul—buoyant at long last.

I hadn't walked far—in the distance, I could make out the statue of Yi Sun Shin, the admiral who had repelled Japanese invaders in the late sixteenth century and is considered Korea's savior—before I encountered a physical manifestation of both the new Seoul and its ability to correct the mistakes of the past: Cheonggyecheon, or Cheonggye Stream, a popular gathering place for many Seoulites. Six hundred years ago, the stream wound through the heart of Seoul, dividing it into the northern half, where the nobility and government officials lived, and the southern, where the commoners lived. Over the centuries, major roads were built around Cheonggyecheon, and in the 1960s, in the country's rush to industrialize, the stream was buried beneath an expressway.

next
1 of 8 | 1 2 3 4 5 ... 8

If You Liked This Article...

Related Topics

More by This Author

Truth In Travel

Condé Nast Traveler is committed to reporting on travel fairly and impartially. We travel anonymously and pay our own way.
more information

E-mail the Editors

Send us your questions or comments about Condé Nast Traveler articles, contests, and features.
e-mail now

Special Offer! Subscribe toCondé Nast Traveler for less than $1 an issue!

Subscribe for one year (12 issues) for only $10..that's a savings of 81% off the newsstand price!*plus applicable sales tax
Full Name
E-mail Address
Address 1
Address 2
City
State
Zip Code
Published in June 2008. Prices and other information were accurate at press time, but are subject to change. Please confirm details with individual establishments before planning your trip.
Traveler Magazine

My Concierge

My Concierge.com

Planning a trip? Start here
  • Save the information you find while researching your next vacation
  • Create a Trip Plan with your favorite hotels, restaurants, and more
  • Upload and share photos with fellow travelers
Join Now Learn More ›

Already a member? Sign In

Advertisement

Advertisement

Mobile Alerts: Save our travel info to your cell
Submit
Concierge Mobile: Save our travel info to your mobile

Get the latest destinations picks, hot hotel lists, travel deals and blog posts automatically added to your newsreader or your personalized homepage.

Special Advertisement

Contests & Sweepstakes