Walking tour of delicious, beautiful and interesting places in Seoul. Starting from Gwanghwamun Subway Station (not far from the royal palace Gyeongbokgung); Tour ends at Dongdaemun Market.

The route is about 6 km.

The tour starts from the very compositional center of the Korean capital - the intersection of the two major streets - King Sejong the Great Avenue and Chong-ro streets. Monument to Admiral Yi Sun-sin and the king, who gave the name to the avenue - Sejong help us get acquainted with Confucian ideas which still to a great extent form the view of life of many Koreans.

A shor walk, - and we are standing right in front of the royal palace of Gyeongbokgung. In the palace, we will have a talk about the history of foundation and construction of the Seoul, the palace architecture and landscape design. In the "backyard" of the palace, right behind the back gate of it, we will see the residence of the head of the modern Korean state - the presidential palace; we will have a look at it from outside and move forward through a picturesque Bukchon Hanok Village - a small, but vivid, disctrict with lots of old-style tiled houses, - all the way to Insadong.

Insadong is a kind of boutique area where the old Korean houses alternate with trendy galleries and boutiques and souvenir shops. A walk throght Insadong brings us to the 'Bell' street - this is how Chong-ro is translated from Korean.

Taste, sight and smell will require us to enjoy the richness of colors, smells of the Korean food market and taste local specialties: Korean "pizza" and liver sausages, oysters and live squid, wriggling in your plate; hearty soups and stuffed squid; And of course - traditional Korean makgeolli brewed beer or a glass of soju - a stronger (appr. 20%) Korean traditional drink. After a hearty lunch, we walk along the shore of the man-made stream Cheonggyecheon, actually a narrow 5-kilometer-long park, which only was first constructed at the beginning of the 21st century.

The tour ends at one of the largest Seoul Dongdaemun markets, positioning itself in recent years as the center of Korean design. The unusual structure, resembling a flying saucer, is located in the heart of the area; this flying saucer - Dongdaemun Design Plaza by renouned British archetect Zaha Hadid - is our final destination.

Five tastes of Seoul (walking)