🎧 Yul's Korea Audio Guide
Ikseon-dong Hanok Alleys
Narrated in English with Korean phrases by YUL of KVIBE IDOLS.
🎵 Background music: Still in That Spring (그 봄에 머물러) — KVIBE IDOLS · Listen to the full song →
Full transcript
Annyeong, yeoreobun! It's Yul. Shh, follow me into this narrow alley... Surprise! A whole tiny world of hanok, traditional Korean houses, now filled with cafes, bakeries and little shops. Welcome to Ikseon-dong!
In the 1920s and 30s, Korea was under Japanese colonial rule, and Japanese influence was spreading fast in central Seoul. A Korean businessman named Jeong Se-kwon had a plan. His real estate company bought big plots of land here split them up, and built small, affordable hanok, so ordinary Korean families could buy homes in the city center.
Why? His daughter remembered him saying: we must stop the Japanese from taking over Jongno, and one way is to have more Koreans living here. Real estate as resistance! Daebak.
He also supported efforts to keep the Korean language alive. He was imprisoned in 1942, and his land was taken away in 1943.
Today, about 118 hanok built before the 1930s still stand here, most of them small and packed tightly together. That's why the alleys feel like a maze. And the plot twist? This quiet old neighborhood became one of Seoul's trendiest spots, as young creators moved into the old houses.
Yul's tip! Come on a weekday morning or late afternoon to avoid the biggest crowds. Try a cafe with a hanok courtyard, and since the alleys are narrow, keep voices low and let others pass.
Next, let's climb a hill shaped like a camel, where a six-hundred-year-old wall glows at night. Kaja!
