🎧 Yul's Korea Audio Guide
Myeongdong & Myeongdong Cathedral
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 from KVIBE IDOLS. Welcome to Myeongdong, where the air smells like sweet egg bread, there's a cosmetics shop on every corner, and by some estimates around two million people pass through every day. But wait, let me tell you a secret.
Myeongdong means bright town. In the Joseon dynasty, this area was called Myeongnyebang, and it was not rich at all. The powerful nobles lived up north, in Bukchon. Down here lived poor scholars and struggling noble families. So the fanciest shopping street in Korea started as a neighborhood of broke students.
Now look up the hill. That red-brick church is Myeongdong Cathedral. And here's the twist. In 1785, some of Korea's very first Catholics secretly gathered at the home of a man named Kim Beom-u, close to this spot. Back then, the new faith was forbidden, and many believers were later persecuted. More than a hundred years later, a French priest, Father Coste, designed this cathedral, and it was finished in 1898. It's known as the first Gothic building in Korea, and relics of martyrs still rest in its crypt.
Then, in 1987, students fighting for democracy took shelter here, and people called the cathedral a sanctuary. Shopping outside, history inside. Daebak!
Yul's tip! The street food stalls usually open in the late afternoon, so come hungry in the evening. Try gyeran-ppang, the egg bread, and tornado potatoes. Please be respectful, because Mass is still held here.
Next, let's go to the neighborhood where Korean indie music was born. Kaja!
