Seoul subway stations and what each one is known for

Seoul's subway stations are named after places, and a lot of those places are the reason you are on the train. This is a short guide to the stations people ask about most, one picture and a few lines each. Where the station already has its own exit guide, the guide has the exit numbers.

Seoul Station

The main rail hub has two lives. The 1925 station building is now Culture Station Seoul 284, an arts space, and the 1970 highway overpass in front of it reopened in 2017 as Seoullo 7017, an elevated garden walkway. It is also the city end of the Airport Railroad, which makes its exit guide handy for airport trips.

City Hall

The station sits under Seoul Plaza, where hundreds of thousands gathered to cheer on the national team during the 2002 World Cup. Next to it is Deoksugung Palace, where the royal guard changes at 11:00, 14:00 and 15:30 except on Mondays, and the Seoul Metropolitan Library, which opened in 2012 in the building that used to be city hall. The exit guide has the exits.

Gwanghwamun

Line 5's stop for Gwanghwamun Square, where an admiral stands and a king sits. Both have their own history, told in the Gwanghwamun Station guide, including the 12 ships that gave a fountain its name.

Myeongdong

The shopping district is lined with cosmetics shops and fashion stores, and Myeongdong Cathedral, completed in 1898, stands a short walk from exits 8 and 9. The Myeongdong exit guide also has the walk to the Namsan Cable Car.

Anguk

Anguk is the station between the palaces, with Bukchon Hanok Village's traditional houses to the north and Insadong's craft shops to the south. Ssamziegil in Insadong is built around a spiraling ramp that leads past shops and galleries on every floor. See the Anguk exit guide.

Hongik University

Hongdae is where the Airport Railroad, Line 2 and the Gyeongui-Jungang Line meet. The Gyeongui Line Forest Park runs along the route of the old railway after it was moved underground, with the section near Hongdae lined with cafes and shops. The exit guide points to exit 9 for the streets and exit 6 for the Book Street.

Itaewon

Itaewon is the international neighbourhood. The Seoul Central Mosque, completed in 1976, was Korea's first mosque, and the street around it adds Middle Eastern and African restaurants to Itaewon's multicultural character. Details in the Itaewon exit guide.

Dongdaemun History & Culture Park

The station lies directly under Dongdaemun Design Plaza, which opened on March 21, 2014. Three lines meet here, and the name takes 26 keystrokes in Hangul, the longest in the game. The exit guide says which exit is closest to the Design Lab.

Seongsu

Seongsu was Korea's shoe-factory district and is now the place for cafes in converted factories, flagship stores and pop-ups. The full story is in the Seongsu Station guide.

Konkuk University

Star City, a large residential and commercial complex, connects directly to the station, and its lower-floor mall has a cinema and shops popular with young people. Ilgam Lake at the center of the university campus looks different with each season.

Jamsil

Lotte World is certified by Guinness as the world's largest indoor theme park, with rides and an ice rink under a glass dome. Lotte World Tower, 555 metres tall, is 29 metres from exit 2. The Jamsil exit guide has the rest.

Express Bus Terminal

Express Bus Terminal is where Lines 3, 7 and 9 meet beneath South Korea's largest express bus terminal building, which opened in 1976. Next to it, the Central City complex combines a bus terminal, department store, concert hall and shopping mall. The underground Goto Mall and the flower market have their own section in our Seoul subway tips.

Gangnam

The Gangnam in Psy's song is Gangnam District, whose name means south of the Han River, and the Gangnam-daero area around the station is shared between Gangnam District and Seocho District. The song came out on July 15, 2012. Its title is a neologism for a lifestyle associated with the district, which Time described as a lavish way of living, and Psy said the title was a joke aimed at people who pose as something they are not. On December 21, 2012 it became the first YouTube video to reach a billion views.

The video itself is more spread out than the title suggests. It uses a playground, a horse stable, a parking garage, a sauna, a carousel and a subway station among its locations, and only two scenes were shot in Gangnam proper. Wikipedia's list does not say which subway station appears. If you step out of Gangnam Station you are in the place the song teases, although most of the video was filmed elsewhere. Gangnam Square, between exits 11 and 12, has a K-pop media wall and a stage, as the Gangnam exit guide explains.

Sinsa

Sinsa is Garosu-gil, a street of ginkgo trees, boutiques and cafes that is the trend-setting commercial heart of Sinsa-dong.

Yeouido

IFC Mall is a large mall connected underground beneath three office towers, popular with Yeouido's office workers for its cinema and range of restaurants. In other words, a lunch break you do not have to leave the building for.

Noryangjin

Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market opened in 1927 as Korea's leading seafood market and moved into its present building in 2016. It has an auction floor and sashimi restaurants, and the fresh seafood from around the country keeps the market lively at all hours.

Jongno 5-ga

Gwangjang Market, Korea's first permanent market, opened in 1905 and is known for foods like bindae-tteok, mung bean pancakes, and mayak gimbap.

Garak Market

South Korea's largest wholesale market for agricultural and marine products and Seoul's central food distribution hub, known for its pre-dawn auctions and a logistics network that reaches the whole country.

Yongsan

Korea's largest cluster of electronics and IT retail arcades, a wholesale and retail hub for computers and gadgets that has thrived since the 1980s.

That is nineteen stops out of several hundred. The rest of the city is on the lines page, and each one is a station you can type in the game.