From wikipedia, “N Seoul Tower is a communication and observation tower located in Namsan Mountain, central Seoul, South Korea. Built in 1969, and opened to the public in 1980, the tower has been a symbol of Seoul and measures 236.7 m (777 ft) in height (from the base) and tops out at 479.7 m (1,574 ft) above sea level. It has also been known as the Namsan Tower or Seoul Tower.”
This was actually one of my first stops when I got into Seoul. Me and my Korean friend took the cable car up after sharing a delicious meal. There are many meals in Korea that you cannot eat alone, they are simply meant to be served to two or more individuals.
It was a mix of potatoes, chicken, noodles and a “soya sauce” based sauce. Quite delicious but for one reason or another I didn’t take any pictures of it. I’ll be having it again so I’ll make sure to grab some next time. We walked to the base of the “N seoul tower/Namsan park” mountains north side which has a cable car that you can ride up. The cost for a round trip was 7,500 won per person. If you don’t mind walking up a nice path with stairs then you can hike up to the base of the tower for free. While we were waiting in line for the cable car I snapped one picture from the base:
Shortly afterwards we were on our way up. Here we have a few pictures from the cable car as it climed up the side of Namsan mountain:
Having ridden the gondola up the top of the mountain and to the base of the N seoul tower you are greeted by various shops, restaurants and several small park areas where you could sit and relax. They were actually very relaxing and well situated.
At the base of the N seoul tower is one of the very famous attractions for Korean lovers (and tourist). I’m not certain if there is an official name for the site but I refer to it as to the “love fence”. It’s a fence which lovers have placed various types of locks to express their undying love. Some of them contain messages such as “let’s get wrinkled together” (let’s grow old together).
The area with the “love locks” on them is quite large and it’s always sweet to see new couples adding locks to the fence together. On the top of the tower itself there’s a restaurant on one of the floors and various shops selling everything from souvenirs to ice cream. Basically everything you would expect from a tourist spot. Here we have some pictures from the observation deck:
Of particular interest in the above pictures is one with a “sign post” if you can call it that pointing towards Vancouver; only 7174 Km away… Different windows had different cities based on which direction they were facing. The other interesting picture is the one facing down to the small antenna which gives you a sense of high up you are. Finally you’ll also notice the smog in the pictures of the city landscape. Once again I would of called this an “average” smog day for Seoul. I’ve seen much worse, it seems to depend on which way the winds are be blowing (if they are). On certain days there is no smog at all yet on others you can feel your eyes burning after a few hours. The cost of going up to the observation deck is 7000 won a person (7 dollars Canadian). I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to get a good view of Seoul, but make certain that it’s a clear day!
i love this plc.