Namsan 남산
Namsan is located pretty close to Myeongdong so you can actually plan your day by pairing these two locations up because I believe Namsan will take just half a day, depending on how long you stay in that location. Also, it really depends if you prefer day-view or night-view but I honestly wouldn't spend a whole day in Namsan just to enjoy both of the views.
In order to reach to the top of Namsan, you must first get to the cable car. If you want to reach by foot, you've got to walk 10 minutes from Myeongdong Stn. Exit 3 up to the hill. We did that and honestly, it didn't felt like it was just 10 minutes because of how steep it was.
Here's a proper way to get there: "From exit 3 of Myeongdong Station, walk through the alley and stay to your right, passing the 7-Eleven (convenience store), and continue about 7-8 minutes between the Pacific Hotel and the GS25 (convenience store). Namsan Cable Car is at the top of the hill near the Chinese Consulate." This was mentioned in the Namsan Cable Car website.
If walking is not your forte, you can also use the free shuttle bus available at Exit 1 of Myeongdong Station. Another option is the Seoul Square bus stop at Seoul Station. The shuttle bus operates about every 30 minutes. They start from 12pm until 8pm with an hour break between 2-3pm and 5-6pm. You can find the time table on the website too.
Honestly, the walk wasn't as pleasant as I had thought. Although the streets were clean and there were shades while we were walking through, the steepness was enough to kill our leg muscles but there were some pretty flowers around, so I just keep myself distracted.
남산케이블카
Namsan Cable Car
83, Sopa-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul (Hoehyeondong 1-ga)
Daily 10am to 11pm | Website
Closing hours may extend on busy weekends and PH
Anyway, I was feeling cute that day so there will be quite some selfies~
By the way, the pricing is a little bit more expensive than the cable car going up to Genting Highlands. The duration and distance are also shorter (Genting at 2.8km; Namsan at 605m). Below is the price list for Namsan Cable Car's fare.
Adult: One-way KRW 7000 | Round-trip KRW 9500
Child: One-way KRW4000 | Round-trip KRW 6500
Here's what the round-trip ticket looks like, back and forth.
If you've watched Boys Over Flower, you might recognize this cable car because that was where they filmed the scene when Gu Jun Pyo and Geum Jan Di got stuck uphill for an entire night. Of course, I tried to find Jun Pyo's evidence of vandalism but it wasn't there... or at least it's not this cable car. Anyway:
*Cue Boys Over Flower ost "Lucky" by Ashily*
They will put as many people into the cable car but at the same time, there weren't any seats. So expect to stand the whole way there with a bunch of people squeezing around. I'd also feel bad for you if someone decided to shout across the cable car to discuss something because that was what happened to me.
Cable Car View
Here are the pictures from the beginning of the trail, slowly ascending upwards to the hill. You can tell by the distance from the ground to where I'm standing.
Reaching the hill.
Once you've reached Namsan, you will first see a flight of staircase. Not a great sight if you walked quite a distance before reaching the cable car station but hey, you're closer to the tower already!
Namsan Locks of Love [pt. 1]
(Padlocks of Love // Lover's Locks)
The first place that my travel buddy and I visited was the area filled with padlocks attached by couples and friends from all over the world. The concept in this is to symbolize true love, the importance of love and harmony. Legends said that if you come here with your lover to put up a padlock together, you can secure your relationship for an eternity.
My view in this is that, if you are really sure about your partner and you come here together to put up a padlock, it gives reassurance to your partner about your level of commitment and a declaration of eternal love with him/her. In that case, I suppose this is definitely not for those with commitment issues.
Funny thing tho, you'd think that you would only find padlocks here but you will find out that some people would even put phone covers and condoms as well.
There was so much love here, it kinda reminded me of HYUKOH's latest album: How to find love and happiness. In this album, there was also one song called LOVE YA which kind of just filled my heart up with the feeling of love, especially after watching the music video.
If you are curious about where to get the padlocks, well don't fret. Just walk to the nearest store and you will find a seller. Of course, all the prices here would be more expensive but if you planned to come here and you know you will want to put up a padlock, you can always buy one from somewhere else. Just make sure that it's wide enough to write on and that you also have a marker pen.
We didn't get ours from this particular store as we went closer to Namsan Park and bought it there. We also hanged ours at a different spot, which is almost like an open balcony right next to the Namsan Tower.
남산공원
Namsan Park
Going a little further into the Namsan Park, you may find yourself in the middle of traditional performance. If I am not mistaken, they were demonstrating how they alert another troop base about an attack.
If you're tired, you can also chill at a nearby resting area. It's a very cooling place with a nice shade. You can also see the Namsan Tower better as you walk closer.
We were also nearby another seating area. The trees were so pretty though! It had gradient coordination too!
Of course, I gotta take some selfies with them~
Namsan Seoul Tower (남산서울타워)
105, Namsangongwon-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
Sunday - Friday : 10am - 11pm | Friday 10am - 12pm
We didn't go into Namsan tower but we hanged around nearby. You can find more stores here and there were also padlock trees nearby. You can try to put your padlock here but it could be more difficult.
By the way, almost everywhere in Korea has a photo booth. We saw one and we immediately went in. It was 5000 krw for one session that comes with 2 prints. First, you gotta pick whether you want a colour print or grey print. We picked the colour print. Then, you gotta pick a background. We picked a Namsan Park background.
Then, you gotta take 6 photos with randomized background.
After that, you've got to pick 4 photos and press next to print.
You can get the photos on the outer side of the machine. The quality is quite bad by the way. The green screen was really terrible but we had fun.
Then we went to a nearby store to get the Cherry Blossom lock because cherry blossom was the trend. I think it was 13000 krw for a padlock and a Sakura-shaped keychain along with a marker pen.
We went to the wall right next to the store to write our notes.
On the wall, we also put our notes on the wall. You can find mine here! :D
We walked outside to the open area and tried to find a suitable location for our padlocks because we didn't want ours to be over-drowned by other people's.
I mean, look at how crowded it is. It was literally hard to find a spot that has significantly lesser locks. Almost impossible to be honest.
Before locking them, here are how our locks look like:
Of course, I'm not showing you what we wrote behind the Sakura keychain but here's my face :3 My face cute enough :3
Ooooh, not forgetting another shot with the Namsan Tower.
Okay, okay. Just a last look before we actually lock it in.
We found somewhere that's good enough to lock our padlock:
It's located here. If you can find it, you're a winner and you get to read what we wrote :D Good luck if you're really up for this challenge HAHAH
One last look of the Namsan tower before we leave (and I end this blog post)
When you're done hanging around Namsan, just walk back to where you came from and ride the Cable Car down to the station.
Just remember that the queue is not on the same side!
Also, make sure you still have the ticket tho 🤭
We managed to get to the front but a family decided to hog the entire area 🙄 Never mind, I'll just enjoy the side view to pass the time.
When we had reached the station, there will be staffs to guide us out. Then you've got to walk down the staircase and walk back to Myeongdong to continue the rest of your day.
That's all for this post!
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