Taking Seoullo all the way to Namdaemun

Why didn’t I just go back to see Cheonggyecheon the same night after I visited it in the daytime?

Well, because I had another destination that I wanted to see by both day and night: Seoullo.

I had never even heard of Seoullo before, and most articles I read when researching Seoul did not mention it either. (Frankly, a lot of “updated” guides, that say they were updated in the current year, are probably not…I suspect their title gets automatically updated to the current year.) I forgot where I first saw Seoullo being mentioned, but I immediately wanted to visit it.

Seoullo 7017, to call it by its official name (it seems), is an elevated park converted from a disused overpass. You can read more about it on Wikipedia. “70” signifies the year the flyover was created (or opened?), and “17” signifies the year the park was opened, in 2017.

The whole overpass is about 1km long. I entered it from Seoul Station, which is somewhere in the middle.

in the background is the same building that you see in my first post of Seoul

First question: How do we get up there? :P

ah, there are stairs going up that pillar...

I was starting to think that I might get vertigo while climbing up, and that I had better stick close to the pillar... but luckily (and kinda predictably), there was a lift.

you can see the point where this entrance is

on Seoullo!

that little round building is an observation desk. Had to take the stairs up this time :P

on the right is Seoul Station

same view, from back down

Seoul Station

At some places, the glass panes on the sides of the overpass had horizontal slits without glass in the middle. I expect it is for taking photos; I saw people with DSLR cameras resting their camera lens on those slits for photos. I could have taken some photos through the slits as well, but I didn’t dare, because…what if my phone slipped out of my fingers? I wouldn’t be just losing a camera and my photos; I would be losing a key resource as well!

one of the better photos without too much reflection from the glass pane

I headed east first, and when I reached the Magnolia Pavilion and saw that there were no flowers, I decided that the flowers were just names for the pavilions. But there were actual roses at the Rose Pavilion…so unfortunately I missed them in the daytime. I didn’t see them until I returned at night.

there was a little trampoline playground

again, I just can't decide which photo is better :P

there were escalators to go down near a shopping mall

a little room with a piano!

it was inside this observation deck

reaching the ground level

the path continues for a bit on ground level. See the Seoullo sign on the left?

this is what it looks like!

I actually like this logo a lot; the two Ls drawn as two legs are very appropriate for a pedestrian path. :D

further down

And then I went to check out Namdaemun market.

the sign on the right shows that it is gate 5

the map showing where we are

a small map of the area

Sungnyemun Gate (I saw it kinda by accident while walking around :P )

some food stalls

There were actually not many food stalls. I tried some snacks, and that ruled out a sit-down dinner for me. I tried to find some more snacks, but unfortunately could not find much nice ones, so a few things that I tried in the end were not very good. Anyway, I will not share the food pics in this post.

After it got darker, I went back to Seoullo.

a sign I didn't see earlier

I like that we can see the moon in this photo

see the green light? It says "CAFE"

the light has turned purple here

view of Seoul Station again...and we can see the reflection of "CAFE" (and other Seoullo lights)

Then there is this interesting thing that I ignored in the daytime.

we can look into the holes

The images were moving, so I captured videos.

The background is actually the city seen through the little tower, with the flowers and butterflies added in.

there was even a busker on Seoullo

there are paintings on the...what do we call those? :P

And then we reach the Rose Pavilion.

another little building

it's a rose stage!

Then let's take a look at the roses!

if you take notice, you can see the building at the back changing colours/designs from this photo to the next two

besides all the pretty roses, do you see that the building has changed to orange?

and now it's like the screen is showing a performer

I'm actually not sure whether the building was actually playing some sort of video...

one of the shops(?) that we can access from Seoullo (it was closed, probably because it was night)

Then I made my way back...through Seoul Station I suppose? I can't remember. :P

How do you like the views of Seoul so far? The next day I took a tour out of Seoul...one of the most famous destinations in South Korea. So stay tuned!