Places to visit in Seoul

Museums

Like most of Seoul, this area is teaming with historically valuable and just downright quirky museums, including a chicken museum, an owl museum, a world jewellery museum and an embroidery museum. Museums usually charge a modest fee for entry, anywhere between 1,000 to 10,000 won for an adult. The Bukchon Museum Freedom Pass costs 10,000 won and grants unlimited access to the Gahoe Museum, Hansangsu Embroidery Museum, Dong-Lim Museum, Museum of Korean Buddhist Art, and Seoul Museum of Chicken Art. It can be purchased at any one of those museums.

Public Facilities

Seoul Metropolitan Government has bought and renovated many traditional 'hanok' houses, which it leases to artists, artisans, and tea and guest house operators to help preserve the area's cultural atmosphere. Many are open to the public and are excellent 'drop in' points along your walk. This season, we introduce one of our favourite places - Jeongdok Library.

The photos above show the panoramic view from the front library steps, with Namsan Tower and other Seoul landmarks in the distancel

Galleries

Bukchon has more galleries than would be useful to list on this site, especially given that they change their exhibitions every few weeks. The best approach is to choose a walking tour and just drop into the galleries that take your fancy along the way. Galleries are usually free of charge to enter, unless the exhibition is of an internationally renowned artist. Sometimes they charge 100 won just to keep out people seeking a free feed on opening nights.

Shopping

This area has a wonderful array of shops offering unique clothes, shoes, accessories, and gorgeous arty things to adorn your walls and shelves. And of couse there are antiques galore (but check you are getting Korean, there are a lot of Chinese antiques around, not that there's anything wrong with that - you should just know what you are getting).