ソウル特別市

Do

Enjoy hiking in the mountains around the city. Up to 800m (3,000 ft) is accessible by public transport, with courses ranging from easy to difficult. There are Bukhansan Mountain, Gwanaksan Mountain, Samseongsan Mountain, Inwangsan Mountain, etc. (Mostly [Seoul/North]). If you don't like mountains, walk along Cheonggyecheon Stream.

Watch baseball, a national sport, at Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, the home of the Kiwoom Heroes, or Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Songpa-gu, the home of the LG Twins and Doosan Bears.

Watch local soccer teams (FC Seoul based at Mapo-gu World Cup Stadium and Seoul E-Land FC based at Songpa-gu Olympic Main Stadium).

In South Korea, indoor sports are practiced until dawn. Golf and baseball on indoor screens, beer and bowling under upbeat music and lights.

Order jjajangmyeon and tangsuyuk for delivery and play pool. Nerd activities in Seoul

Buy

thumb|Hanbok, traditional Korean dresses at Dongdaemun market

Eat

Much of Korean social life revolves around food and the city is packed with restaurants, so you would have to be determined to starve to death in Seoul. This fate may still befall you if you insist on English menus and meals consisting only of easily identifiable, familiar ingredients, so see South Korea#Eat for a quick Korean menu reader. An alternative is to just point and eat, your hosts generally will accommodate. If you look in the right places, a good meal (lunch or dinner) including side dishes can cost ₩5,000 or less (try basements of large department stores).

thumb|Vendors selling Korean fast food in Gangnam

In addition to Korean food, Japanese restaurants in Seoul tend to be excellent, featuring excellent sushi and sashimi. Chinese restaurants exist, but are typically adapted to suit local preferences. There are a few Italian restaurants; these are generally excellent, with chefs trained in Italy, although flavors tend to be more or less Koreanized, with sugar in the garlic bread and meatballs.

Bakeries are found throughout, including some of the common big chains.

Seoul has plenty of budget places to eat. Everything from convenience store junk food and noodles to street stall food and lots of 24 hr Korean fast food restaurants. The 24-hour restaurants are great because they've usually got a wide variety of foods, including: mandu, odeng, ddeokbokki, naengmyeon, udong and ramyeon. Prices do vary from about ₩2,000-9,000 at these restaurants. Also open late into t…

Drink

Seoul features a mind-bogglingly large array of nightspots catering to every taste and budget. Hongdae and Sinchon in Seodaemun-Mapo are Seoul's most active nightlife districts. Itaewon in Yongsan is Seoul's international district, with a wide variety of Western-styled venues to eat and drink. Since many foreigners congregate there, Itaewon remains somewhat of a niche nightlife area for Koreans interested in a more international scene. Itaewon is also home to the highest concentration of gay bars in Seoul, in an alleyway known as "Homo Hill". Much nightlife in Seoul revolves around soju. Soju is a traditional Korean spirit that comes in many varieties, including original and many kinds of fruit-flavored soju.

Sleep

Seoul has two unofficial backpacker districts, Jongno (Anguk/Sinseol-dong) to the northeast of the city and Hongdae-Sinchon out to the west. Within walking distance to Dongdaemun Market, Jongno is better located for sightseeing and can be reached directly from Incheon Airport on limousine buses or city bus 6002 to Sinseol-dong stop (₩9,000, 90 min).

There are many budget accommodation places across Seoul. Hongdae, Itaewon, Myeongdong and Jongno (Hanok area) are traditional hot spots for Foreign Individual Travelers (FIT). Furthermore, Gangnam is emerging thanks to the huge success of the eponymous song. Hongdae, Sinchon area is in university area. Yonsei Univ., Ehwa woman's Univ., Hongik Univ. and Sogang Univ. are around this area. so there are many restaurants, bar, club and shopping center and easy to be reached from Incheon Airport by limousine bus and Arex (Airport express train) in 1 hour.

Gangnam has a wide range of luxury with the Imperial Palace Hotel, the Park Hyatt Seoul and the Ritz-Carlton Seoul.

Most points of interest are along subway lines 1, 2, 3, and 4. So it's best to reside somewhere near a station on one or two of those lines.

Connect

Internet cafes known as PC bang (PC 방) (pr: pee-shee-bang) are ubiquitous in Seoul, and usually cost anywhere from ₩800–2,000/hr.

thumb|A Korean keyboard using a Korean OS can type in English or Hangul.

Most have printers at the front desk. These places cater chiefly to gamers, which translates into fairly fast computers, loud sound systems and large screens. Most PC Bangs have smoking sections. Typically, the computers run a Korean version of Windows 7 or 10 and use Internet Explorer and Chrome. That said, there is a variety of Wi-Fi networks available, and there is free access to the internet almost everywhere.

Console gaming (Xbox 360, PS3) is widely available, and for those with proficiency in Korean language, you might also be able to enjoy a round of online gaming; the fantasy MMORPG Lineage was created in Korea, and a slew of MMORPG titles not available anywhere else can be found here.

Post offices are basically everywhere in Seoul, although many are hidden on smaller roads and alleys. If you cannot spot any post office nearby, it is good idea to visit a university (most universities have post offices). The Korean postal insignia is orange and white. It can be spotted on post office signs. Most post offices sell boxes and packing materials. Even the smaller offices typically have at least one English-speaking member of staff.

Useful contact numbers are as follows:

Stay safe

Seoul is a remarkably safe city despite its size, comparable in safety to Hong Kong or Tokyo. Pickpocketing is not very common and violent crime is very rare. There are very few places where CCTV cameras are absent.

Smoking is allowed only in designated areas. Walking while smoking can incur a fine.

If you happen to be a non-Korean man walking hand-in-hand with a Korean woman, drunk older Korean men might give you a tongue lashing or occasionally worse. This is far less of a problem than it used to be.

If you do end up in a fight and the attacker gets hurt, the fact that you didn't start the fight may not give you legal protection.

Do not try to use drones to take pictures in Seoul, because most of the city (especially north of Han river) is a restricted flight area.

Unfortunately, crimes by American soldiers against Koreans do happen, and when they do they often receive a huge amount of national attention. If you are a Westerner then you should exercise some extra care when such a case hits the media, although it is still highly unlikely you would be in any danger.

thumb|250px|Protesters gathered in city hall plaza

Protesting: Large-scale demonstrations against the government happen from time to time. Often they can result in violence where there are pitched battles between protesters and combat police. People do get seriously hurt, so try to avoid getting too close to the action.

Fake monks have been known to operate in Seoul, notably around the Jogyesa temple. The…