Getting to Bukchon

First you will need to get to Korea of course. Looking for a cheap plane ticket or ways to arrive by boat? Search here.

Once you're in Korea, Bukchon is right in the centre of Seoul and so is very easy to get to from anywhere. This map covers the whole area from the Secret Garden and Gyeong-buk Palace (east to west) and Samcheong Tunnel and Anguk Station (north to south). Throughout this site more detailed maps cover different areas in more detail.

Is Bukchon a suburb? Not exactly. It is the collective name for nine tiny suburbs - Samcheong-dong, Wonseo-dong, Gye-dong, Gahoi-dong, Je-dong, Anguk-dong, Hwa-dong, Sagan-dong and Sogyeok-dong.

By subway

Anguk and Gyeong-buk-gung stations on Line 3 are the two closest stations to the area. Take exits 1, 2 or 3 from Anguk station (depending on where you are heading) or the number 5 exit from Gyeong-guk. From these exits you can either catch a taxi, a village bus (ma-eul bus) or walk. Ma-eul bus1, 2 and 3 routes are on this map.

By taxi

Most taxi drivers know Sam-cheong-dong (sam-chong-dong) and Gahoi-dong (ka-whey-dong) as well as several major landmarks in the area, including

• Anguk station (an-guk yok)
• the Constitutional Court (hon-pob jay-pan-saw)
• Jeongdok Library (jong-dok tore-saw-gwan)
• Sam-cheong Park (sam-chong kong-won) and
• the Board of Audit and Inspection (kam-sa-won).

I have marked these on the map above so you can see where they all are and choose the one nearest to where you want to go.

By bus

Seoul City Government has a useful transport guide to help you select the right bus from whereever you are coming. Once you are in the area, hop on and off the 'village mini buses' (maeul bos-sir) 1 or 2 to travel around the area.

By car

Personally, I think most of this area should be kept free of private cars. On the weekends, many of the roads are now becoming choked with cars parked on the footpaths and blocking the street, which seriously detracts from the pleasures of walking around the area.

This is primarily because there is very little parking available in the area (although we understand there are plans afoot to create some). So we recommend leaving your car at home and coming by bus, subway or taxi.

One recent change made in mid-2009, is that cars can now officially park in the 'no parking' marked streets between Samcheong Park and the Board of Audit and Inspection/Vietnamese Embassy without getting booked - but on the weekends only.

There is free parking for those visiting Jeongdok Library (you must take your ticket to the library to get it stamped), and there are a few public pay parking spaces available just outside Samcheong Park on the street, which is free for diplomatic cars (although sometimes the parking attendant may try to make diplomatic cars pay too) and costs 300 won per 10 minutes (or 100,000 won per month). Pay parking times are 9am-7pm Mon-Fridays and 9am-3pm Saturdays. These parking spaces may be used for free on Sundays.

Some galleries and restaurants also offer limited parking, which we will indicate on those pages over time.

There is at least one moderately sized pay car park we know of between Anguk Station and the north entrance to Insadong, from which you could walk (see map).