Weekend before last, I did a nice walk along a good bit of the next stretch of the Seoul City Wall. Maybe too much: I did the Heunginjimun Gate Section and most of the Namsan(Mongmyeoksan) Mountain Trail, including right up to the top of Namsan Mountain. (On the map to the right, I went from the 1st arrow at top-right to the second at bottom-middle.)
I started at Dongdaemun Gate (left), where I’d ended up on my last City Wall walk (with a walk back home, which limits how far you’re going to go). From there, it’s flat city walking for a little while, right through the Dongdaemun fashion district with the fantastic Dongdaemun Design Plaza (I also took a video of the Design Plaza, at http://youtu.be/ q7lzbQ0qxd0).
Then, through the small Gwanghuimun Gate (which was hard to find) & a very short section of wall before the route switches to streets for a bit. From there to the bottom of Namsan Mountain is a proper wall again. The climb up the mountain was a bit further than I thought, and my recently-sprained ankle had had enough when we got to the plaza at the foot of Seoul Tower.
So just a walk around there for the views(I didn’t go up the Tower), and then I took the cablecar & the funicular down to Namdaemun Market for a bite of lunch. And finally a taxi home.
Funny thing is… I realize now that I didn’t take any pictures of Seoul Tower! So here’s one from the Internet (credit https://www.flickr.com/photos/tokism/6909376149/ ). Next time I’m up there, maybe I’ll take one and update this posting.
- Route map
- Dongdaemun Gate
- So early the stalls aren’t open!
- Feeling very 21st Century!
- or is it 22nd? Dongdaemun Design Plaza.
- Gwanghuimun Gate
- Fortress trail is well sign-posted.
- And the trail takes to the streets.
- … the streets.
- Back to the wall again!
- This was a lovely walk.
- Even nicer when I was atop the wall.
- Approaching Namsan Mountain.
- For future reference…
- Bus routes up Namsan Mountain
- Seoul tower would have been in the background of their picture.
- Seoul Tower plaza
- Locks! In other cities, a problem…
- …In Korea, a feature.
- With rules!
- Viewing platform (plus more space for locks!)
- The objects in the background are medieval warning fires.
- Map of the walk up Namsan
- Cable car back down.
[…] over to Dongdaemun Gate and then on to the “DDM”, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza. (See here for my earlier posting on the […]