Old article from December 2003, previous blog at http://www.santoki.ch/html/
How do you get from one point to another one in Seoul?
There are several ways of moving around.
1. Subway
That’s the best and quickest way to get around. There are several lines and the signs at the stations are all in Korean and English. Even the announcements on the subway trains are held in English and Korean. The subway in Seoul is cheap compared to other cities in the world. And the stations are usually very clean unless there is a construction site there. Don’t use the subway during rush hour, especially when you don’t like being pushed or squeezed into the subway car. There are many passengers riding the subway every day and it’s very common to see sleeping people which I’ve never seen in New York, London or Paris. In the early 90s it was still common that sitting passengers would take your bag or rucksack. But that hasn’t lasted into the next century. These days it is also not that common to get up for children, pregnant women or elderly people. It’s sad to see those traditions go but that seems to be the way the westernization is going…
2. Taxi
There are different taxis available. The usual one is the one with 개인 written on top of the taxi. It’s the cheapest and the basic fare is usually 1600 Won for the first 3 km. After that the taxometer starts to tick. You can hail a taxi everywhere but at certain times it is really difficult to find one. Especially in the early morning it is sometimes frustrating to find a taxi. The taxi drivers don’t have to take you. So you just yell your destination at the taxi driver and either he nods and you can get in or he just speeds up and passes you. When you take a more expensive one (모범, black and yellow) they take you anywhere you’d like to but cost a lot more than the regular ones. There are call taxis, too. Usually they are almost the same as the regular ones but they add a small amount to the basic fare.
One thing you should never do is getting on or off a taxi from the left side. Always get into/off the taxi from the right side. Some taxi drivers really get angry when you try to get on from the “wrong” side. This probably has to do with the security since usually the traffic is passing on the left side.
3. Renting a car
You could rent a car. But you need an international driver’s licence. Since I don’t have any experience with that I can’t tell too much about it.
4. Bus
There are many buslines in Seoul. Sometimes it is really confusing since there are sometimes buses with the same number but they are colorcoded. So one with a 59 but a blue sign may have a different route than the 59 with a red background color… Buses are not really that cheap. There are express buses, too. They have a higher price and sometimes they drive further away. You can take a bus from the Incheon airport for example.
Traffic card:
If you change from one bus to another or to the subway and you have a traffic card then you can hold it against the device at the exit of the bus and it beeps. This will give you a reduction of some Won. I recommend anyone to buy such a traffic card since you don’t have to worry about a ticket. You just hold the card at the device at the entries or exits of the subways or the buses and when it beeps it deducts the amount automatically from the card. You even get a certain reduction when using this card. If you have a Korean credit card you might use that one, too.
