ENROUTE TV   ENROUTE FM   MEDIA KIT   AIR CANADA   LINKS   WRITERS'   GUIDELINES	SEOUL SEARCHING The Korean capital is set to become a global hub for youth culture. Not bad for a place once known as the "Hermit Kingdom". Text: TIMOTHY TAYLOR I'M UP PAST MY BEDTIME AT THE DONGDAEMUN MARKET near the old East Gate of Seoul and despite the hour – my watch reads 2:00 a.m. – the crowd is endless, unstoppable. Kids mostly, 15 to 25. They’re jamming the sidewalk in front of a stage where a rap group is performing under the six-storey-high neon sign of the Migliore fashion mall. "Give it up!" Boom ssshick. Boom ssshick. They’re flowing out of the side streets, grazing at stalls selling noo-dles, green-onion pancakes and bulgogi. But Dongdaemun night market crowds, I’ve been learning, are here primarily for the clothes. The selection: every fashion product known to man. Thirty thousand retail outlets and over 50,000 manufacturers work Dongdaemun. You name it, somebody probably has it. Or will have it soon. Merchants here cycle a concept – a customer request, a retailer idea – into a first cash sale in precisely one week. And this kaleidoscopic product line is moving as kids – Korean, Japanese and a growing number of young international travellers – converge in the crammed streets and choked pedestrian underpasses of what amounts to a global shopping rave. The commercial hyperactivity here is all the more staggering considering that it is happening in the capital of what was formerly known as the "Hermit Kingdom". The city was once so formally insular that the bell of the Bosingak Belfry in the centre of twn was rung 33 times to open the city gates in the morning and 22 times at night to signal their closing. But Seoul has clearly mastered the art of reinvention. A pile of rubble at the end of the Korean War, the city was catapulted into modernity in the seventies, into democracy in the early nineties, survived a near-death experience with the recent Asian flu and came storming back. "Korea was staring at bankruptcy in 1997," Michael Breen explains to me, talking over the band at JR Blues, a Yankee-style bar in the nightlife zone of Itaewon. Breen is the author of The Koreans, managing director with the consulting firm Merit/Burson-Marsteller in Seoul and a go-to guy on all things Korean. The chaebols [Korean conglomerates] were rocked to the core by the crisis and it is now no longer the dream of every graduate to work for one. With this has come the first real bubbling up of individualism. "It is something like the sixties in North America," says John Burton, a friend of Breen's, who has been a Financial Times correspondent in Seoul for over 10 years. "And the rest of the world is just discovering it." Indeed, growing numbers of visitors are finding that the Hermit Kingdom has become decidedly extroverted. Always a social town business might grind to a halt without the lubricating post-work shot of soju liquor - Seoul now has an enormous and international range of clubs, bars and restaurants. Itaewon has long been home to ex-pat pubs and cowboy saloons designed for American GIs, but now you also find French bistros, funky dance clubs and Seoul’s first street of gay bars. And in the areas around Hongik and Yonsei Universities, the student bars are packed with singing locals and ESL teachers from Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and Canada. More recently, techno clubs too, where in the forest of glowsticks, you learn about upcoming raves. At the emphatically named New New Garden Restaurant, I talk with Scott Burgeson over noodles. He’s been travelling in Asia since 1994 and wrote a book of essays, Maximum Korea, on the country’s contemporary culture. He seems to thrive in this hothouse of change. "A generation in the West is about 20 years," he tells me wryly. "Here it’s three. I’m just over 30 and I’m an old man." All this change might be a little unhinging if Seoul didn’t balance its explosion outward against a stable, inward sense of self. Just as Korea’s flag is an emblem of symmetry anchored around the yin-yang symbol, so too is a balance struck between Seoul’s post-modern gleam – the condo towers of Apgujeong, the bustling markets, the pandemonium of the nightlife – and the deep patina of history that covers the traditional parts of the city. I’m sipping cool pear tea with my translator Myung Min Ju in the Yetchajip tea house in Insadong. Very old Seoul. Overhead, birds flit from rafter to rafter. Turtles doze in the terrarium under our glass-topped table. Decoration runs to ramshackle with copious graffiti, words of discovery offered by visitors from the Netherlands, France, Canada and the U.S., China, Greenland. Miho Ogato from Japan writes only: "I Love Seoul!!" Ninth-century trance music trickles in, all is serene. And yet I also feel the unstoppable energy of the city around us. A comfortable jumble of old and new. "This tea shop," Min Ju says thoughtfully, when I mention it, "is really in great disorder. But it’s so relaxing." This same feeling lingers in other old neighbourhoods of Seoul. The low-rise cities of Osaka and Tokyo may have been buried under the high-rises. But poke around Cheongjindong, Insadong and other areas, and you still find the chaotic tangle of narrow streets and low buildings, the old way of life spilling out into the alleys. Outside the restaurants, fish are grilling on barbecues; men are sitting on upturned buckets sipping the milky rice liquor makkeolli and snacking on crispy dried anchovies. The air carries the smell of bulgogi and kimchi, noodles and tteokppokki rice cakes. When Min Ju takes me to explore the endless food alleys of the Namdaemun market at the South Gate of the old city, I wonder if another secret to Seoul’s appeal might be the parallel casualness, the pleasing messiness of its food. Min Ju has just introduced me to jwipo, a sweet dried fish cake barbecued on stones and sold off street carts, and we’re examining what seems like a solid mile of kimchi stalls. Bright reds and greens, the pungent pickled cabbage stacked in bowls, piquant to all the senses. "Japanese food is tidy," Min Ju tells me. "Kimchi is not like that." My last night in Seoul, I go on a tour of the Sinchon nightlife with two Canadian ESL teachers. From Hasarang, where they serve traditional mountain berry wines, we work our way up through the drinking halls of Hongik all the way to Mul Gol Gwan, a tech-no club where the beat is pounding and the dance floor is full. Bothmy companions are heading back to the West within the year. Law and business school respectively. But as they leave, others will arrive. There is every indication the world will be seeing more and more of the Hermit Kingdom. During World Cup 2002, Korea will be on television screens all over the world. Watch also for the spread of Seoul style. A Japanese version of Dongdaemun Market has now opened in Shibuya, a hip neighbourhood in Tokyo, with a one-week turn-around on new product and haggling over prices. In New York, a number of bars are replicating the Seoul bar scene: Johnny Walker Red bottles on the tables and open very, very late. Stand by for more healthy and hearty Seoul food, bibimbap and barbecue. Ten varieties of high-end soju at a nightclub near you. On the evening’s final cab ride through the pre-dawn blue, I return to my hotel. It’s nearly silent in the streets but I know the city is still open, stretching away around me, teeming. Sinchon and Itaewon are jumping. Travellers and students drinking J&B in Woodstock. Ex-pat journalists playing darts in Geckos. Trannys at the Q Bar lip-synching My Heart Belongs to Daddy while kids spin glowsticks like nun-chuks in the basement techno clubs of Hongik. And the night market at the city’s old East Gate is open too. Dongdaemun packed again with kids, a rap anthem pulsing in the night. No bell tolls from the ancient Bosingak Belfry. No 22 strokes to close the city gates, just as there are no 33 bells in the morning to signal their reopening. Seoul preserves the bell, an emblem of the past, but it no longer rings because Seoul is now permanently open. Alive, robust and earthy. Inextinguishable. ----- SEOUL INFO The streets aren't reliably marked and numbering isn't always sequential, so getting around Seoul can be a challenge. Residents give directions by landmarks – like the nearest intersection or subway stop. WHERE TO STAY Weston Chosun Excellent service and business amenities. O’Kim’s Irish Pub & Sports Bar is on the lower level, also a Western-style deli. 87 Sogong-dong, Jung-gu 771-0500 Lotte Hotel Old hotel in city centre. Many restaurants and bars. High-end Lotte Department Store on-site. 1 Sogong-dong, Jung-gu 771-1000 Grand Hyatt Hotel Great setting on the hill above Itaewon. Amazing Sunday brunch; health club a favourite of ex-pats. 747-7 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu 797-1234 WHERE TO EAT Go Gung Great bibimbap, the ubiquitous Korean dish made with rice, vegetables, ground beef and egg. Northeast of the yeongdong stop (#4 line). Chungmuro St. 776-3211 Le Saint Ex Probably the only French bistro in Seoul. Three blocks west of the Itaewon stop (#6 line), and a block north of the main street. 795-2465 Sajo Chamchi Restaurant Technically, it is Japanese food. Try chamchi jeongsik, a "set" of tuna dishes including a spicy salad and sashimi. In Myeongdong on the north side of Chungmuro St., west of the elevated road Cheonggye. Sanchon Traditional vegetarian Buddhist dining and dance per-formances are featured at this well-loved Insadong eatery. In an alley off the main street, Insadongno (there is a sign at the corner). 735-0312 Yetchjip Famous Insadong teahouse in the same alley as Sanchon. The full range of hot and cold teas is served in a quirky, relaxing atmosphere. 722-5019 WHAT TO DO Changdeokgung A spectacular Chosun Dynasty palace in the city centre. Walk through ginkgo and pine forest to find the peaceful Secret Garden. At the other palace, Gyeongbokgung, Queen Min was assassinated by Japanese soldiers in 1895. Jogyesa Buddhist Temple The main Buddhist temple in Seoul. On nearby Ujeonggungno St., Buddhist outfitters sell robes, Yeomju prayer beads, plus T-shirts and Sanskrit Buddha squeeze toys. In the city centre, south of the Anguk stop (#3 line). 732-2115. Myeongdong Stylish neighbourhood for brand-name shopping in the city centre. Wander the area north of the Myeongdong stop (#4 line). Insadong Many stores here sell antiques and traditional Korean prints and ceramics. The neighbourhood is centred on Insadongno Street, running north-west from Tapgol Park at Jongno and Samillo. INFORMATION Korea National Tourism Organization 1-800-868-7567 www.visitkorea.or.kr HOW TO GET THERE Air Canada offers daily flights between Vancouver and Seoul.
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