Why Korea is awesome: Namsan Tower

Hey everyone~

Here's another travel post for you :D

These days, even though I'm really busy with preparing for my move to Taiwan, I still seem to have enough time to get anxious and worried a lot about leaving home. So I try my best to distract myself, and look forward to my journey abroad. And the best way to do that is to look back to my past travels.

Now, who of you heard of Namsan Tower before?
Many, I bet.

But did you know its name is not actually Namsan tower?
It is actually called N Seoul Tower ( N서울타워 )
The reason why many people call it Namsan tower, is its location.
N Seoul tower is located on top of the mountain Namsan, which is why people call it Namsan tower.

To get there from within the city Seoul, it takes quite some time, and there are a few options for you.

1) Take a taxi. This is the most expensive option , and it may take a while to find a taxi driver that is willing to drive up the mountain, and you still have to walk quite a bit at the end too.

2) The cable car.
It's not as expensive as taking a cab, and it most certainly offers the greatest view.

lights of Seoul in the rain while taking the cable car up to Namsan tower.

However to do that, you must find the cable car station first.

You can either try to go there by subway and walking (a guide is available on the Seoul tourism website ) or take a cab to the cable car station.

There you can purchase the ticket, it's either one-way or round-trip.

One-Way tickets cost 4,800 Won,

and Round-trip costs 6,300. 

(the prices may differ now, these are the prices listed on the seoul tourism website)

You could also take the cable car one-way up the mountain and then walk back down again. It's cheap, and you'll see more of Namsan too.

3) Take the bus.

For this you want to take the subway to Chungmuro station (subway line 3 or 4) and then take the yellow bus up the mountain.

It's cheap and the buses run very often, more often than the cable car.

However

unless you're tight on budget and time, I would not recommend doing this,

The bus can get very crowded, and the ride takes a while.

You don't want to be stuck in a full bus, on a summer day, with ahjusshis pushing past you to scan their T-money cards on the machine all the time...for about 15 minutes.

It's uncomfortable, and you'll most certainly won't be able to appreciate the beautiful mountain and view when you're squeezed between people like sardines in a tin.

Option 4) would be

hiking up the mountain

I haven't done that (because i'm lazy), so I can't explain how to get up the mountain or how long it takes. But~ I did walk back down the mountain once.

And it took us a good 40 minutes at least.

There are stairs, but even though we just walked down, not up, we were sweating (it was in June) and really exhausted when we finally found back to the subway station.

Yes the scenery was pretty....but for me it wasn't worth it.

If you like hiking and nature and sports, this might be the best way to get up to Namsan tower for you.

It wasn't for me, so I'd recommend taking the cable car.

Now back to the tower itself.

This is the view that greets you if you go there after sunset. I went twice, once in the evening and once in the afternoon. 

While the lights may look pretty, I have to admit i preferred going in the afternoon. It was difficult to take good photos of the locks in the evening, and it was raining too.

Speaking of locks

There are so many of them, and all of them are adorable.

Thinking about how each lock represents a couple, or a single visitor to this place just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :D

I took such a long time walking around, looking at all those lovely locks..

there were so many cute and unique ones.

I bought a lock too, even though I had no one to share it with.

But even though it is not a couple lock, it's still nice to know that my lock is hanging there at Namsan tower.

Can you find it? Hint: It's yellow

Other than locks, there's another thing couple's like to place at Namsan tower:

Photobooth Stickers:

Like on this lamp, for example.

They also have a big heart figure at Namsan tower, and obviously, it's filled with locks of love too.

They also have those lover's benches.

For couples that are too shy to sit next to each other. The bench is bent in the middle, leading to the people sitting on it automatically sliding closer.

I just can't figure out if that drawing on it is supposed to help the couples with getting closer...or the opposite of it.

Another reason to go up to Namsan tower is the view over the city that you'll get.
Even if you don't pay the extra fee to go up the tower, the view is still amazing.

And~ filled with locks, of course.