Korean Job Discussion Forums

[gtse]

Where to live in Seoul? What's the scoop on Seoul..geographically speaking? Are there any "must not" live in areas? Thanks!

[lastat06513]

Thats depands....

Do you want to live around other foreigners or do you want to live among the locals.

If you want to live around foreigners, you might want to look into living in the YongSan district, namely Itaewon, Hannam, Bogwangdong and Haebangchon. Also you can move into the Hongdae or Shinchon district. These are mostly areas foreigners like to live.

Also, in Itaewon and Haebangchon in particular, the housing price is relatively cheaper.

The good thing about living in Itaewon is that it has a subway station and it is in between 2 other stations (hangangjin and noksapyong) and you can also take buses to the 2 major transfer points for both the northern and southern part of the city.

I personally lived in Itaewon for 5 years and loved it. Not for the nightclubs (I didn't go to the nightclubs much after moving there), but because of the convenience of living around other foreigners.

[SPINOZA]

Avoid Nowon-Gu in the northeast. It's very far from downtown Seoul and absolutely everything of note in the entire city.

[Harpeau]

Hongdae is awesome! Lot's of art & culture. I'm not at the clubs much, but if you like that then you'll enjoy that aspect of it. The coffee shops are great!

I would second the above opinion on Nowon-gu~ especially around Hwarang-dae.

[own_king]

Personally, I prefer Kangnam. It's one of the nicer areas of Seoul and still somewhat central. It's about a 10 minute taxi ride from Itaewon and a five minute subway ride from Co-ex. It's about the best area for checking out girls, as well.

[lastat06513]

But the rental price (Weol-sae) in the Kangnam area is somewhere on average of 500,000/ 5~10 million for a small room. Especially around Yeoksam and Yangjae.

In Hongdae, the price is alittle lower because of the high student population there (average 350,000~500,000/ 3,000,000~5,000,000)

But if you look around and go to as many realtors (Bu-dong-san) as possible, it is possible to find a good place.

I used to live in a 2-bedroom apartment right behind McDonalds in Itaewon, it was 16-pyong (quite large) and all I paid was 500,000/ 3,000,000
I lived there for almost 4 years, the best place I ever had in Korea....

[gtse]

Thanks for all the advice! Since I am not in Korea yet, this all seems foreign to me but I will keep all these places in mind when school offers and recruiters start introducing places to me! Thanks again!

PS: I will be traveling with my fiance and we don't reallie go clubbing all that much, we're pretty much "home" people. But we would like to shop and walk abround malls, movies, etc... Does that change any of the places you've mentioned?

[lastat06513]

Oh, first of all, you just mentioned that you are not in Korea yet and the school will provide housing- this changes everything.

As another poster mentioned, go to Kangnam!
It has everything you need in several square kilometers and yeah, they have the COEX mall and the underground market at the Kangnam Express Bus Terminal plus the so-called "posh" stores in Apkujeong and Sungneung.

But I think once you are there in Korea, you can decide whether to continue with school housing or try to find a place on your own. Hey! Some schools offer housing allowance if you want to go that route.

[gtse]

Nice! How far is Kangnam away from the the center of seoul??

[lastat06513]

If you take the subway- it takes about 45 to 50 minutes and about 2 or 3 or possibly 4 transfers, depending on where you are going downtown (remember, Jungno and the area around City Hall is considered downtown).

If you take the bus- 25 to 30 minutes and only 2 transfers.

Most people don't know how to take the bus because the signs are written entirely in Korean- except for the Itaewon buses. But if you learn what bus to take (or learn how to read Korean), you'll learn that the buses tend to be as convenient as the subway in regards to getting around.

[Son Deureo!]

I live in Shinchon and love it, but if you're coming over for the first time, you really should worry more about the job conditions than the neighborhood you'll be living in. You'll be much happier if you have a great job and apartment in nowhere-dong than if you're working at a hellwon in a hovel that just happens to be where the action is.

[eamo]

[Wangja]

[ajgeddes]

I just want to correct the above post. A bus from Gangnam to City Hall takes about 25 minutes and has no transfers. They go directly there. I lived in Bundang last year and it was great, and there were lots of buses into Seoul about every 2-4 minutes. I live near COEX now and it is really convenient for what I do.

[own_king]