weiling-notes

Free Museums in Seoul (0 Won): The National Museum, MMCA's Free Evenings, the City-Run Galleries and Every Closed Day to Dodge

weiling-notes — Sat, 12 Sep 2026 14:05:16 +0900

Hey, everyone! Still at the desk in KL, still not on a beach. Last post was the transit one, so this is the other thing I promised: the free museums in Seoul, the ones I kept walking straight past on two trips. And here's the thing nobody told me before my first trip: most of the big museums in this city cost nothing to walk into. Not "cheap." Zero. The permanent halls at the national museums, the city-run galleries, the history museums, all 0 won, and one of them is free until nine at night twice a week.

I'm a freelancer, so I count every ringgit, and I'd somehow filed museums under "money" without ever checking. Wrong. So this is the honest list: which museums and exhibitions in Seoul are actually free, the free evenings that beat the paid daytime, the Wednesday that unlocks the rest, and the closed days that will waste your trip if you don't know them. Plus the one I walked past twice like an idiot.

The Big One: The National Museum of Korea (Free, and Maybe Not Forever)

Start with the biggest. The National Museum of Korea, down by Ichon on line 4, and the permanent exhibition halls are free. So is the children's museum. The only thing you pay for is a ticketed special exhibition, and you can skip those and still lose a whole afternoon in the permanent floors.

Hours, because this is where people get caught. When I checked the official page it opens at 9:30 and closes at 5:30 most days, but on Wednesdays and Saturdays it stays open until 9pm, and last entry is 30 minutes before closing. It is NOT closed on Mondays, which surprised me, because nearly every other museum in this post is. It does close on New Year's Day, Lunar New Year and Chuseok, and Chuseok this year lands on 25 September, so if your trip is late September, check. There's also a maintenance day on the first Monday of March, June, September and December.

Now the asterisk. Fun fact I only learned this year: there's been talk of the National Museum charging admission again, after being free since 2008. When it hit the news in spring the museum said nothing had been decided and any change would be late 2027 at the earliest. So it's free right now, and I'm not putting a number on something that hasn't happened. But if "free" was the reason you were going, go on the next trip, not the one after.

MMCA Seoul: The One I Walked Past Twice

Right, the confession. MMCA Seoul, the modern and contemporary art museum, sits on the Samcheong-dong side right next to Gyeongbokgung, and on trip two I walked past its front twice on the way up to Bukchon. Didn't go in. I'd decided it was paid and therefore not for me. Like whose smart idea was this?! (Mine.)

Here's what I should have known. Tickets vary by exhibition, and when three or more paid shows are running there's a combined ticket at 10,000 won. Fine. But on Wednesday and Saturday evenings, 6pm to 9pm, admission is free. Free, the same shows, the same rooms, three hours, and I was in the neighbourhood on a Saturday. FYI if you're under 24 you get in free any day with ID, which I am two years too old for, and that stings a little.

It's open 10 to 6 most days, 10 to 9 on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and it closes on New Year's Day, Lunar New Year and Chuseok. It's also free on Culture Day, which I'll get to, because that one has changed this year.

My tip? Do Bukchon in the last of the daylight, then walk down the hill and into MMCA at six for nothing. That's the exact evening I had twice and wasted twice.

The City-Run Ones: A Gallery, Two History Museums and a Craft Museum

The city of Seoul runs its own set, and they're all free except the occasional special show.

Seoul Museum of Art, the Seosomun main branch, is the one on the stone-wall road behind Deoksugung, a couple of minutes from City Hall station. Admission is free except for special exhibitions. Tuesday to Thursday it's 10 to 8, Fridays run to 9, and weekends are 10 to 7 in the warm months and 10 to 6 in winter. Last entry is a full hour before closing, which is stricter than the others, so don't turn up at 7:30 on a Wednesday. Closed every Monday and on New Year's Day.

Seoul Museum of History, on Saemunan-ro near Gwanghwamun, is free too. It's 9 to 6 with last entry at 5:30, it runs late on Fridays, and it's closed Mondays and New Year's Day. If you like old maps and models of the city, that's the one, and I've stood in front of a scale model of a city for far longer than is normal.

Cheonggyecheon Museum is free as well, 9 to 6, closed Mondays and New Year's Day, out by Yongdu station on line 2, a 10-minute walk from exit 5. It sits right on the quiet eastern stretch of the stream, the half beyond Dongdaemun I walked last month, so it's an easy add if you're doing that walk anyway.

And one more for the Anguk crowd: the Seoul Museum of Craft Art, a minute from Anguk station exit 1, free, 10 to 6 with Fridays to 9 and closed Mondays when I checked. It's a group of old school buildings turned into galleries, and the courtyard alone is worth the detour with a camera.

The Wednesday That Changed, and the Rules That Cost Nothing

Culture Day. I wrote about it in the free-things post for the palaces, but it matters for museums too. For years it was the last Wednesday of every month. From April this year it widened to every Wednesday, with the big national and public museums doing late openings, discounts and free entry on the day.

Two honest notes. First, the permanent halls I've listed are free every day anyway, so Culture Day mostly matters for the paid stuff, the special exhibitions and MMCA's ticketed shows. Second, MMCA's own page still says "last Wednesday of every month," so check which Wednesday they honour before you plan around it. A rule that changed in April can be applied unevenly, and I'd rather you didn't stand at a ticket desk on my word.

The rules that actually saved me money, or would have:

Mondays are the museum closed day in Seoul, with the National Museum the big exception. Plan your museum day for any other day.
Last entry is real. Thirty minutes before closing at most of them, a full hour at Seoul Museum of Art.
"Free" means the permanent halls. If the poster out front is a special exhibition, ask before you assume.
Wednesday and Saturday nights are the free window at MMCA. Wednesday and Saturday are also the late nights at the National Museum. Same two days. Build the week around them.
Big bags go in the lockers, and the lockers are usually free too. Bring a coin just in case.

A 0-Won Museum Day, If You Want the Template

Here's how the pieces fit, for a day that costs the subway and nothing else:

Morning: Seoul Museum of History or the craft museum, both open early and both free
Midday: the stream, the stone-wall road, or Bukchon on foot, no tap at all, the way I laid out in the getting-around post
Afternoon: Seoul Museum of Art, in by 6 at the latest
Evening, if it's Wednesday or Saturday: MMCA from six, free, or the National Museum until nine

Make it a Wednesday or a Saturday and every single stop on that list is 0 won. Make it a Monday and four of them are locked, which is the version of this day I was heading for before I sat down and checked.

Love this post? Send it to whoever thinks museums are the expensive part of a trip. And tell me which free exhibition I should actually go inside this time in the comments, I'm building the November list and MMCA is now at the top of it(:

Next time: the what-to-pack list for November, because the flights are the next thing to sort and the museums, it turns out, were never the problem.

Getting Around Seoul on a Budget: The Free Transfer Trick, When a Transit Pass Is Worth It, and the Walks That Replace a Ride (0 Won Between Taps)

weiling-notes — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 20:31:29 +0900

Hey, everyone! Still at the desk in KL, still not on a beach. Last post I promised you one of two things next, and getting around Seoul on a budget beat the free exhibitions to it, because this is the one I get asked about most. And here's the thing nobody told me before my first trip: moving around this city cheaply is less about a clever pass and more about one free trick and a lot of walking.

I'm a freelancer, so I count every ringgit, every won. Across two trips I moved on a T-money card and my own two feet and barely thought about money doing it. So this is the honest version: what a ride actually costs, the transfer trick that made half my rides free, when a pass is worth buying and when it quietly isn't, and the walks that mean you never tap in at all.

The Card, and What a Ride Actually Costs

Start with the card. T-money, rechargeable, and you buy it at any convenience store or the machines inside a station. The card itself runs around 3,000 won and you top it up with cash. Tap on, tap off, done, and it shaves roughly 100 won off every ride compared with paying cash, which is nothing on one ride and quietly adds up over a week.

A basic subway ride is 1,400 won on the card, and it's been that since a fare rise back in 2023. A regular city bus is about 1,500, the little green village buses are cheaper, and the red long-distance ones cost more, so I just don't take those. FYI you tap off on the bus too, not only the subway, and forgetting that is exactly how you lose the free transfer I'm about to rave about. Check the current fare before you bank on my number, because Seoul nudges it upward every couple of years.

The Free Transfer Trick (The Part That Saved Me Most)

This is the one. The biggest lever there is. On a T-money card you get up to four free transfers, bus to subway, subway to bus, bus to bus, as long as you tap off and tap back on within 30 minutes, an hour if it's late at night between nine and seven, and within about 10 km of where you got off. Free. Not discounted, not a few hundred won. The second leg is 0 won.

What that meant in practice: a bus down to the river, an hour on foot along it, then a couple of subway stops back toward the guesthouse, all on one fare if I kept inside the window. Like whose smart idea was this?! A good one, for once, and it's theirs, not mine. The catch is always the tap-off. Miss it and the machine reads your next ride as a brand-new fare. I got stung early on, tapped through the subway gate fine but never tapped off the bus, paid twice, and sulked about 1,500 won like the true freelancer I am.

My tip? Plan the walk to fit inside the 30 minutes if you want the chain to stay free. And if you're going to wander longer than that, which I always do, just accept the next tap is a fresh fare and stop fighting the clock.

When a Transit Pass Is Actually Worth It

Let's do the maths, shall we, because this is where I talked myself out of the thing the whole internet told me to buy. The Climate Card is Seoul's unlimited pass: 62,000 won a month for subway and bus, 65,000 if you want the city bikes included. When I looked it up there were short versions too, roughly a 1-day at 5,000, a 2-day at 8,000, a 3-day around 10,000, a 5-day near 15,000. Foreigners can buy it, the physical card is another 3,000 or it lives in an app if you're on Android, and the short ones count from the day you charge them, not your first ride.

Here's the bit nobody says out loud. A single ride is 1,400 won. So a 1-day pass at 5,000 only starts winning once you're taking four rides in one day. On a heavy, all-over-the-city day, easy. But I'm a walker, two rides maybe three, long stretches on foot in between, and on days like that plain T-money with the free transfers came out cheaper than any pass I could buy. I ran the sum twice to be sure, because everyone had told me the card was a no-brainer.

So the honest rule I'd give my past self: count your rides first. Four or more most days, get the pass and stop thinking about it. Two or three with walking between them, skip it and tap as you go. And check the short-pass prices yourself before the trip, because these numbers move and mine are from the desk, not the gate.

The Walks That Replace a Ride

Here's the part that actually kept my spending down, and it isn't a card at all: the cheapest way to get around Seoul is to not take the ride. Stretches I assumed needed a train turned out to be a perfectly nice walk with far more to look at.

The stream through the middle of town is a free walking corridor end to end, and I used it as transit as much as a sight, dropping in at one bridge and climbing out near wherever I was headed. The river parks link up on foot too, and the budget version of a whole evening down there is in the Han River picnic post. Half the neighbourhoods I love sit one stop apart, which is ten minutes above ground and a lot more worth seeing than a tunnel. And the hills I keep going on about, the free viewpoints, are all walk-ups anyway, so they cost a pair of legs and nothing else. Those are gathered in the free viewpoints post if you want the list.

A day built on walking, with a couple of rides to bookend it, is the cheapest way to see this city and somehow the nicest too.

A Cheap-Movement Day, If You Want the Template

Here's how the pieces fit, for a day that costs a couple of fares and not much else:

Morning: one ride out to wherever you're starting, and tap off properly
Mid-morning: walk the neighbourhood, then a free transfer onto a bus if the next spot's inside the window
Midday: the stream, or a lane on foot, no tap at all
Afternoon: a hill or the riverbank, walk up, walk down
Evening: one ride home, or walk to a nearer line if the night's good for it

Two trips of days like this and I don't think I ever spent more than a few thousand won just getting around. The card does the heavy lifting, sure. But the walking is what does the actual saving.

Love this post? Send it to whoever's about to buy a transit pass they won't come close to using. And tell me your own cheapest route across the city in the comments, I'm still mapping walks for November(:

Next time: either the free exhibitions I keep walking straight past, or a proper what-to-pack list, depending on whether those November flights actually get booked.

Free Things to Do in Seoul (0 Won): The Free Observation Decks, the Culture Day Palaces and a Zero-Budget Day

weiling-notes — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 18:33:17 +0900

Hey, everyone! Still at the desk in KL, still not on a beach. Last post I sorted two trips of photos; this one is the money post I kept meaning to write, because here's the thing nobody told me before my first trip: you can fill most of a Seoul day for 0 won. Not "cheap." Zero.

I'm a freelancer, so I count every ringgit, and across two trips the free things to do in Seoul turned out to be the good ones, the views and the palaces and the walks. The paid stuff was mostly my mistakes. So this is the honest list: the free stuff that actually filled my days, the free observation decks I wish I'd found on trip one, and the thing I paid for and really shouldn't have.

The Palace Mistake, and the Free Day I Missed

Let's start with the confession, shall we? Every wrap-up I've written calls the palaces "the one paid entry worth making." I stand by worth it. But paid? That part was on me.

Fun fact I only learned properly this year: Korea runs a Culture Day, and on it the four grand palaces (Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung and Deoksugung), plus Jongmyo Shrine and the royal tombs, open free. For years it landed on the last Wednesday of every month. From April 2026 they widened it, and it's been running on Wednesdays under a new nickname that translates to something like "culture weekday." National museums and galleries get in on it too, with late openings and free or cut-price entry.

So if your trip has a Wednesday in it, that's your palace day, sorted, for 0 won. I'd still check the current schedule before you bank on it, because a rule that changed this year can change again and some sites keep their own calendar. But paying full price at the gate every single time across two trips? Like whose smart idea was this?! (Mine. It was mine.)

Two other palace notes while we're here. Anyone in rented hanbok walks into the palaces free, any day, which is why the courtyards are full of it, so if you were going to rent the outfit for photos anyway, the entry comes with it. And the guard-changing ceremony out the front of Gyeongbokgung is free whenever it runs, ticket or no ticket. On trip one I stood at the barrier and shot the whole thing for nothing before I'd even gone inside.

The Free Observation Decks (The Part I Never Told You)

Right, the views. I've written a whole post about the free outdoor viewpoints, the hills nobody queues for, and I'll link it below so I don't repeat myself. But there's a second category I completely missed until late: free indoor observation decks. Window, bench, heating in winter, a skyline, and no ticket and no booking.

The one I actually used is Jeongdong Observatory. It sits on the 13th floor of a City Hall building right by Deoksugung, it's been free since around 2013, and it looks straight down onto the palace and the stone-wall road. There's a little cafe up there if you want a coffee, but nobody makes you buy anything to stand at the glass. FYI the Deoksugung tree line from up there is meant to be unreal in autumn, reds and yellows over the palace roofs, which is now firmly on my November list.

A practical note on Jeongdong, since the point of this post is not wasting a trip: when I checked, it was open on weekdays into the evening and shorter hours at the weekend, so it's an easy add-on to a City Hall or Deoksugung morning rather than a special trip. Check the day's hours before you climb, because a free spot can close early without much fuss.

Two more, same idea, same price. The National Museum of Korean Contemporary History over in Gwanghwamun is free to walk into, and its 8th-floor rooftop garden looks out over Gyeongbokgung, Bugaksan and the whole Gwanghwamun stretch. People call it the observatory nobody knows about. And the newest one: Seoul City Hall opened a Sky Observatory up on its top floors in July, free, no reservation, weekday daytimes only when I looked it up. It opened right as I was packing to fly home, so I haven't stood in it yet, but it faces Gwanghwamun on one side and Deoksugung on the other, and it's first on the list for next time. Zero won, a bench, a view. My kind of spot.

One honest asterisk, because "free" has limits. The big-name decks, the tower up on Namsan and the tall one across the river, are not free, and the tickets aren't small. I skip both. You get a wider, higher view for money, sure, but for a photo of this city at dusk I'd take a hill or a window I didn't pay for, every time.

The Free Outdoors (Short, Because I've Said It)

You already know I'm a river-and-hill person, so I'll keep this bit tight.

The Han River parks are free, every one of them, open late, and a mat plus a convenience-store dinner turns one into a whole evening. The full budget version of that is in the Han River picnic post. Cheonggyecheon, the stream through the middle of town, is free to walk end to end. The hanok lanes of Bukchon, and the quieter ones over in Seochon, cost nothing to wander, so long as you go early and behave, because people actually live there. And every hill I love, Naksan, Haneul Park, the little one by the river, is in the free viewpoints post, all 0 won.

My tip? Don't build a day around one paid attraction. Build it around a free walk and let the paid thing, if there even is one, be the detour.

Other 0-Won Things That Filled Time

A few more, quick-fire, all things I did rather than read about:

Window-shopping the makeup and stationery floors. Free entertainment, lethal for the wallet, but looking costs nothing.
Sitting in the big public reading rooms. The Seoul Metropolitan Library by City Hall, in its old curved building, is a photo in itself and you just walk in.
The markets, to wander and look and smell, not to buy. Gwangjang only costs food money if you eat, and honestly the manners matter more than the camera there.
Golden hour, anywhere. The best light in this whole city is free and it turns up every evening whether you bought a ticket that day or not.

A 0-Won Day, If You Want the Template

Here's how the pieces fit, for a day that costs nothing but the subway and a snack:

Morning: a palace, free if it's a Wednesday, or the hanok lanes if it isn't
Late morning: up to a free deck, Jeongdong or the museum rooftop, for the city from a window
Afternoon: a stream or river walk, or the library and the shop floors if it's raining
Golden hour: a hill, or the riverbank with a mat
After dark: the neon backstreets, camera only, no entry fee anywhere

Two trips of days like this, and my biggest regret is the money I handed over at palace gates before I knew any better.

Love this post? Send it to whoever's convinced Seoul is expensive, because most of the good part isn't. And tell me your own 0-won find in the comments, I'm building a list for November already(:

Next time: either the cheapest way to actually get around the city, or the free exhibitions I keep walking straight past, depending on which one I finish reading up on first.

Organise Travel Photos After a Trip: The Three-Pass Cull, the Folder System and the Free Tools I Used on Two Seoul Trips (0 Won)

weiling-notes — Tue, 8 Sep 2026 08:54:08 +0900

Hey, everyone! Back home in KL, and the first thing I did after unpacking was NOT sleep. It was to tip two SD cards and a very full laptop onto my desk and finally deal with the question I've been dodging since last year: how do you organise travel photos after a trip when the trip was fifteen posts long and the one before it was 800 files you never sorted?

So this is the post from the desk, not the street. The three-pass cull, the folder system, the backup I should have had a year ago, and the free tools I used to do all of it. 0 won on tools. Well, 0 ringgit now, I suppose LOL.

What I Was Actually Dealing With

Let's be honest about the pile first.

Trip one was about 800 files and I sorted none of them. Trip two was fewer presses of the shutter, because I finally had a rule for every spot, but every press was a five-frame burst (the handheld method is in the night photography post), so the cards held more files than trip one anyway. Put both trips together and you're in the low thousands. I stopped counting once pass one started deleting.

And they're raw files. FYI a raw file from a typical 24-megapixel camera runs somewhere around 25 to 35 MB, against roughly 5 to 12 MB for the same shot as a JPEG, so the raws are about two and a half to four times bigger. That number matters later, when we get to the cloud.

The Three-Pass Cull

Pass one, the same night. This is the only bit I actually did during trip two, and it's the reason the pile wasn't worse. Every evening the cards came out and I did one thing: open each five-frame burst, keep the sharpest, delete the other four. No editing, no judging the composition, just sharpness. It takes twenty minutes and it removes most of the files before they ever become a problem. Trip one I didn't do this and that's why 800 sat there for a year.

Pass two, by spot. At the desk. This is where the folders come in (next section). I moved everything into one folder per place and per date, then went through each folder asking a boring question: is this frame telling me anything the one before it isn't? Same railing, same bridge, same light, three frames apart? Two of them go. I was brutal on the sunset series in particular. The sky does not need to be documented every forty seconds.

Pass three, used or not used. Every spot got its own post, which turned out to be the best culling tool I own. For each folder I made two subfolders: the frames that went into a post, and the frames that didn't. The "didn't" folder is not deleted. It's just out of the way. If a frame wasn't good enough for a blog post I wrote myself, with my own low standards, it is not going to become good later.

After three passes: a few hundred files across both trips. Twelve of them are going to the print shop, more on that at the end.

The Folder System (Boring on Purpose)

Fun fact: I'm a graphic designer and my client folders are immaculate, and my own photos were in a folder called "korea" and another called "korea 2." Like whose smart idea was this?!

Here's what it looks like now. One top folder per trip. Inside, one folder per shooting day and place, named with the date first so the computer sorts them for me:

2026-08-xx_hapjeong-cafes
2026-09-xx_cheonggyecheon-east
2026-09-xx_yeouido-sunset

Date first, in year-month-day, with dashes. Place second, lowercase, no spaces. That's the whole convention and it's a common one, nothing I invented. The point is you can find "the Yeouido evening" without opening a single thumbnail, and if you go back to the same spot on a third trip the new folder lands right next to the old one.

Inside each place folder, the two subfolders from pass three: posted and unposted. Nothing else. No "edits," no "final," no "final2." The edited versions live in the editing app and get exported into posted with the same filename. One place, one date, one look.

The Backup, and the Day I Lost

Okay, the embarrassing part. Somewhere in the middle of trip two I pulled a card, meant to copy it to the laptop, got distracted, and the next morning I formatted it in the camera because it looked empty in my head. It wasn't. One afternoon in Seochon, gone. Not the best photos of the trip, but a whole walk.

So I finally looked up how people who do this properly do it, and the answer everyone gives is the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of your files, on two different kinds of storage, with one of those copies somewhere else. It's the baseline everyone from the backup companies to government security agencies points to. Here's my version, done this week:

The laptop. Copy one, the working copy.
An external hard drive. Copy two, different device, sits in the drawer.
The cloud. Copy three, off-site.

And the new rule that would have saved Seochon: a card is never formatted until it shows up in two of the three places. Ever. I wrote it on a sticky note and stuck it on the camera. Very professional.

The Free Tools, and What "Free" Actually Covers in 2026

Let's discuss, shall we? Because I went in assuming "free" meant free and it's more like "free, with an asterisk."

Google Photos. The cloud copy. Google gives you 15 GB at no charge, shared across Photos, Gmail and Drive, so a year of email attachments is eating into the same bucket as your photos. And here's the 2026 catch I nearly missed: since May, new Google accounts get 5 GB by default and only go up to 15 GB after you link a phone number. My account is old so I have the 15. If yours is new, check before you rely on it.

Now the maths. 15 GB divided by 30 MB is about 500 raw files. That is not both trips. So the cloud copy is the few hundred keepers exported as JPEGs, not the raws. The raws only exist on the laptop and the drive, and I'm okay with that, because the keepers are the part I'd cry about.

Snapseed. Google's editing app, and this one is properly free: no subscription, no ads, no in-app purchases, and it opens raw files. The May 2026 update (version 4.0) added batch editing, which for a set from one evening is exactly what I wanted, because my night edits used to look like they came from four different people. Most of the posted folders were finished here.

Lightroom mobile, the free tier. Capture, organising and sharing are free, and the basic editing is too: exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows, the tone curve, crop, straightening, and the free presets. The premium subscription is what unlocks the healing brush, masking, the geometry tools, batch editing and cloud sync. On whether raw editing sits in the free tier, the two guides I read said opposite things and Adobe's own FAQ wouldn't load for me, so check that page yourself before you plan around it. I used the free tier for the tone curve on the blue-hour frames and Snapseed for everything else.

The file manager. Finder, Explorer, whatever you have. The folder system is just folders. No app, no account, and it'll still work when both apps have changed their pricing twice.

Total spent on tools: 0.

The Order, If You Want to Copy It

Same night, on the trip: open each burst, keep the sharpest, delete the rest
Home: copy every card to the laptop AND the drive before touching anything else
Only then format the cards
Rename into YYYY-MM-DD_place folders, one per day and spot
Pass two: one frame per moment, delete the near-duplicates
Pass three: posted / unposted subfolders, nothing deleted, just sorted
Edit the posted folder in one sitting per spot so the set matches
Export the keepers as JPEGs to the cloud copy; raws stay local
Pick the prints

The Twelve

The last step, and the only one that costs money, is the print shop. Twelve frames across two trips, roughly one per spot, picked but not printed yet, so that's this week's errand and a few ringgit rather than won. The full list of where those twelve came from is the wrap-up post if you want to see which spots survived the cull.

Two trips, low thousands of files in, a few hundred out, twelve on the wall. Honestly, the desk part was harder than the street part. Nobody tells you that.

Love this post? Send it to the friend whose phone says "storage almost full" every single day. And tell me your folder naming in the comments, I'm collecting those now too(:

Next time: the November question. Either I've booked the flights for the first week of November and it's a what-I'm-packing post, or the flights are silly money and it's the autumn shot list in detail, spot by spot, so it's ready when I do go.

Seoul Photography Wrap-Up: Two Trips, Every Spot I Shot, and the Autumn List (0 Won Mostly)

weiling-notes — Mon, 7 Sep 2026 08:54:20 +0900

Hey, everyone! It's time for the post I've been putting off: the wrap-up. This is my last full week in Seoul this visit, and between the trip last year and this one I've now written fifteen posts about where to point a camera in this city. Fifteen!

So this is the master list. Every Seoul photography spot I actually shot across two trips, sorted by the time of day it works, one line each, free ones marked. And at the bottom, the autumn list, because spoiler alert: I still haven't seen the real autumn colours here, and I finally looked up when I'd need to come back.

First, How I Sorted This

Not by neighbourhood. By light.

After two trips, the location matters far less than the hour. The same street is a dud at 1pm and lovely at 5pm. So the list below is in four blocks: morning, the middle of the day, sunset, and after dark. Pick a block, pick a spot, go. Each one got its own post already, and I'm only linking two of them here (the rest you can find by name on the blog, they're all titled after the place).

Cost key: 0 means I paid nothing. A drink from the convenience store doesn't count, obviously LOL.

Morning (Before 10am)

Bukchon Hanok Village. 0 won. The residential alleys have a 10-to-5 tourist limit now, so the whole point is being there before 10. Empty lanes, soft light, and nobody in your frame. Go once, early, then leave the residents alone.

Cheonggyecheon, the central stretch. 0 won. Gwanghwamun plaza to Dongdaemun, about an hour at photo pace. The walls shade the stream, so morning is when the light gets down to the water. Polarizer on for the reflections.

Seochon. 0 won. My answer to Bukchon crowds. Flatter, quieter, no designated photo spots, so you have to find your own frame. That's the fun part.

The palaces, at opening. Ticketed, and the one paid entry I'd tell anyone to make. The first hour is the only time you get the big courtyards without a queue of hanbok in every shot. Shoot the details and the people, not the postcard.

Middle of the Day (10am to 4pm)

Honestly? This is the block I'd spend indoors. The August light was brutal and even in September it's flat. But three spots survived it:

Gwangjang Market. Food money only. It's covered, so the harsh sun doesn't matter, and the light off the stalls is the picture. The manners half of that post matters more than the camera half. Ask first.

Cafes around Hapjeong and Mangwon. Coffee money. This became the whole itinerary in August when it was too hot to walk. Window seats, long stays where allowed.

Euljiro, for a first look. 0 won. Daytime is for scouting the alleys and the print shops. The actual shooting is at night, see below.

Sunset (Arrive 40 Minutes Early)

Yeouido Hangang Park. 0 won. The one I've shot the most, and the one I got wrong first (turned up at listed sunset, sun already gone). The railing towards Mapo Bridge, the grass facing Bamseom, skip the plaza. Everything I know about it is in the Yeouido sunset post.

Naksan Park and the fortress wall. 0 won. Five minutes from Hyehwa station, open all hours, and the wall gives you a leading line straight into the sunset over the city. Went three times.

Eungbongsan. 0 won. The small hill by the river with the pavilion on top. Short climb, big view of the bridges, and a fraction of the people. Went twice.

Haneul Park. 0 won, but a long walk up (or a small fare for the little electric car). I only saw it in August so the famous silver grass wasn't out yet, which is an autumn note, see below. The three hills are all in the free viewpoints post.

Ikseondong. 0 won. Golden hour only. At midday the lanes are a shadow pit; the hour before sunset the light comes in sideways and the tiled roofs glow. Trip one taught me this the hard way.

Cheonggyecheon beyond Dongdaemun. 0 won. The half nobody walks. Set off at 5pm, and by the reeds and the old stone bridge the sky is doing the work for you. About two hours, no shade, no crowd.

After Dark

Euljiro. 0 won. Camera, not phone. The neon, the workshops, the wet-look tarmac after rain. My handheld floor is 1/30 and ISO 3200, braced on whatever's nearby, five-shot burst, keep the sharpest.

Yeouido, the blue hour. 0 won. The twenty minutes after sunset when the bridge lights come on and everyone else has gone home. I usually swap from phone to camera for exactly this.

Namsan, the lower terraces. 0 won if you skip the tower, which I have on both trips. The steps and the terraces below it give you the same city lights without the ticket. FYI the tower itself is not a cheap ticket.

Han River at night, generally. 0 won. Bring something to sit on, stay till late. On trip one I was there till 11pm.

The Ones I Didn't Go Back To

Namsan tower deck, the front of Bukchon at midday, and the queue-for-a-photo spots I named in the overrated post. My tip? When there's a line of people waiting to stand in one square metre, the photo is already on someone else's feed. Walk on. Two trips in, that rule has never once been wrong.

The Autumn List (Trip Three, Apparently)

Here's the honest bit. I've now done Seoul in summer and early September. Twice. And every single palace and hill on this list is famous for autumn, which I have never seen. So I looked up when I'd actually have to come.

Normal years: downtown Seoul peaks late October into early November. Ginkgo (the yellow wave) turns first, maple (the red wave) a bit after. That's what the official Seoul sources have said for years and it matches what I wrote in the foliage post.

2026 specifically: the only forecast out so far when I checked (7 September) is from a private Korean weather company, published 5 September. Not a government number, so hold it loosely. It says first colour reaches the central region between 10 and 27 October, and peak in the central region lands around 31 October to 5 November. It also says the late September and October temperatures are expected to run warmer than usual, so peak should arrive later than average. Later, not earlier. If you're booking flights, aim for the first week of November rather than the last week of October, and check social media for the spot names the week before you fly, sorted by recent.

Where I'd go, in order:

Changgyeonggung. Every list I read says the first week of November is the one, with yellow and red on at the same time. It's the quieter palace and I've only shot it in green.
Deoksugung stone wall road. Starts turning from late October. The wall plus the ginkgo is the shot everyone has and I'm fine with that, I want it too.
Haneul Park. The silver grass I missed in August. The festival is October and it's free.
Naksan at sunset, again. Same wall, different colours behind it.
Namsan, the lower paths. Later than downtown, so it's the backup if I arrive after the palaces have dropped.
Cheonggyecheon beyond Dongdaemun. Reeds, big sky, and a two-hour walk in cool air instead of August heat.

Three Things I'd Do Differently

Let's discuss, shall we?

1. Come in autumn, not summer. I said this after the first trip and then booked August again because the flights were cheap. Never again. The light was flat, the walks were sweaty, and half my posts are about avoiding the heat. Early November, next time, and I'll book once the real forecast is out.

2. Bring a proper tripod, or at least a better small one. I've been handheld for two trips and I'm proud of the method, but the blue hour at Yeouido and the reeds at dusk deserve a longer exposure than 1/30. Nobody has ever stopped me for a pocket tripod anywhere on this list. I just need one that isn't wobbly.

3. Budget the convenience store properly. Fun fact: I planned 0 won for almost every spot and then spent a small fortune in coins on cold drinks, ramyeon from the machine and something to sit on. Still cheap. But the title says "mostly" for a reason.

Two Trips, One Paragraph

Trip one was 800 photos and a lot of standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Trip two was fewer photos, better hours, a polarizer, and a rule for every spot. If you take one thing from fifteen posts: Seoul rewards timing more than location, and almost all of the timing is free.

Love this post? Send it to whoever's planning their first Seoul trip and save the autumn list for yourself, I'll be using it too.

Next time: I'm flying home this week, so the next post will probably be from my desk in KL, sorting two trips of files and what I actually kept. Unless I've already booked November. Watch this space(:

Yeouido Hangang Park Sunset Photography: Where to Stand, When the Light Turns, and the Two Bridges (0 Won)

weiling-notes — Sun, 6 Sep 2026 08:54:06 +0900

Hey, everyone! Back with another 0-won photo post, and this one I've been sitting on since my first trip. Yeouido Hangang Park at sunset. I've shot it more times than any other spot in Seoul across two visits, and I still got it wrong the first time (arrived after the sun had gone, LOL, more on that below).

So this is the post I wish I'd read before trip one: where to stand, when to get there, and what that island in the middle of the river actually is.

Getting There (and the Cost: 0 Won)

Yeouinaru Station on line 5. Come out and the park is right there. That's it. No entry fee, no ticket, no queue. The only money I've ever spent here is a convenience store drink, which I'll count as optional.

If you're coming from the east side of the city like I usually am, give yourself a full hour on the subway. I underestimated it once and you'll read about that in a second.

What Is Bamseom?

Let's discuss the island first, because it's in half your photos whether you want it or not.

Bamseom is the low, green, tree-covered island sitting in the river between Yeouido and Mapo. It has no buildings, no lights, no people. It's a protected wetland: designated a conservation area in 1999 and registered as a Ramsar wetland in 2012, which is a big deal for a patch of land in the middle of a capital city. It's actually two islands, an upper and a lower one, and Seogang Bridge crosses right over the lower one. Birds use it as a stopover, which is why you'll see people with very long lenses on the railing in the colder months.

For sunset purposes: Bamseom is your dark foreground. The sky goes orange, the water goes orange, and the island stays a black line between them. That contrast is what makes the Yeouido sunset look the way it does in photos.

The Three Spots I Use

I've narrowed it to three after a lot of walking up and down.

1. The railing towards Mapo Bridge. Walk east along the water from the station until Mapo Bridge fills your frame. Shoot the bridge in silhouette with the sun behind or beside it. This is the classic shot and the reason people come. Get here first.

2. The grass facing Bamseom. Walk west instead, past the busy bit, until the crowd thins and the island is straight across from you. Sit on the grass. The water is calmer here and the reflection is cleaner. This is where I use my polarizer to cut the glare on the river, same trick as the Cheonggyecheon walk, and it works even better on a wide river.

3. The one I avoid. The plaza area right by the station exit. Everyone stops there, it's the busiest, and you'll have twenty phones in the bottom of every frame. It's fine for a first look. Then walk.

When to Arrive (the mistake I made)

FYI, sunset in September gets earlier every single day. I'm not going to print a time here because it'll be wrong by the time you read it. Check the sunset time on your phone that morning and work backwards.

My rule now: be at the railing 40 minutes before the listed sunset. That gives you the warm light on the buildings across the river, the actual sunset, and the twenty minutes after, when the sky goes from orange to pink to deep blue and the bridge lights come on. That last twenty minutes (blue hour) is honestly my favourite part and most people have left.

The first time, on trip one, I got out of the station at exactly the listed sunset time. The sun was already behind the buildings. I got a nice blue-hour shot and a lesson. Forty minutes early. Every time since.

Phone vs Camera

Same rule I wrote about in the night photography post: the Han River is a phone spot for me, Euljiro is a camera spot. Reasons:

The scene is huge and bright until the sun drops, so a phone handles it well
Wide is the look here, and phones are wide
I don't want to carry the camera bag on the grass with a drink

Where the camera wins: the blue hour, when the phone starts to smear the bridge lights. If I bring it, it's for that last twenty minutes only, handheld, using the same shutter and ISO floor I set last time (1/30 and 3200, braced on the railing).

What to Bring (Budget: Still 0)

Something to sit on. The grass is fine but it gets damp in September evenings
A convenience store drink from the shop near the station (the one optional cost)
Lens cloth. River air, phone screen, fingerprints
A layer. The wind comes off the water after sunset and it's noticeably cooler than the street
The polarizer if you have one, for spot two

No tripod needed. I've never been stopped for a pocket one here either, but you don't need it for this scene.

Phone Settings I Actually Use Here

Since this is a phone spot for me, the three things I change before the sun drops:

Exposure: tap the sky, not the water. If the sky is right the water follows; if you tap the water the sky blows out to white.
Grid on. The horizon line across the Han is long and any tilt shows immediately.
Turn off the automatic HDR-style flattening if your phone has the option. The whole point of this scene is the contrast between the dark island and the bright sky, and some phones try to "fix" that.

After sunset, switch to the night mode only when the bridge lights are on. Before that it just adds noise.

Pros and Cons, Honestly

Let's discuss, shall we?

Pros: 0 won, direct from the station, a genuine wide-open sky in the middle of Seoul, a bridge silhouette, a dark island for contrast, and a blue hour that almost nobody stays for.

Cons: crowds at the station end on weekends, wind after sunset, and that stretch of the ride home when you're cold and damp and the train is full. Also if it's hazy the sun just fades into grey rather than setting, and there's nothing you can do about it except come back.

Weekday over weekend. Clear day over hazy. Forty minutes early over on time.

The Quick List

Yeouinaru Station, line 5, park is right outside
Spot 1: railing towards Mapo Bridge. Spot 2: grass facing Bamseom. Skip the plaza
Arrive 40 minutes before your phone's sunset time, stay 20 minutes after
Phone for sunset, camera for blue hour if you brought it
Polarizer on the water, layer for the wind, something to sit on
Bamseom is a Ramsar wetland: no lights, no people, perfect dark foreground
Money needed: 0 (one drink optional)

Love this post? Send it to whoever keeps telling you the Han River is "just a river." And if you want to make an evening of it, the picnic post is the same park, same sunset, with food(:

Next time: this is my last full week in Seoul this visit, so the next post is probably a wrap-up of everything I shot across two trips and what I'd do differently in autumn. Still haven't seen the real autumn colours. One day.

Cheonggyecheon Beyond Dongdaemun: The Quiet Half Nobody Walks, From the Fish Shops to the Old Stone Bridge (0 Won)

weiling-notes — Sat, 5 Sep 2026 08:54:03 +0900

Hey, it's Wei Ling! Remember at the end of the Cheonggyecheon post I asked if anyone had walked the bit past Dongdaemun towards the Han? Nobody had LOL. So on my last week here I just went and did it myself, camera and all, and honestly it's a completely different stream from the one everyone photographs.

Spoiler: no crowds, no shade, one very old bridge, and the best sky I've had in Seoul. Also zero ringgit spent, which is the theme of this blog at this point.

First, What's Actually Down There

I looked this up after walking it, because I had no idea while I was doing it. The whole Cheonggyecheon is about 10.84km long. The famous bit – Gwanghwamun plaza to Dongdaemun – is barely the first third. After Dongdaemun the stream keeps going east, past the Dongmyo area, out through the older neighbourhoods, and eventually meets a bigger river called the Jungnangcheon near an old stone bridge called Salgotji. From there it's the Jungnangcheon that carries everything down to the Han.

So technically I didn't walk "Cheonggyecheon to the Han". I walked Cheonggyecheon until it stopped being Cheonggyecheon. That's the honest version and it's still a great walk!

The Fish Shop Stretch: Dongdaemun to Dongmyo

Straight after Dongdaemun the stream is still in the city, but the city changes. The first stretch is known as a street of tropical fish shops – aquarium shops, basically, one after another along the road above the stream. I didn't know that going in and kinda loved it. Tanks glowing in the shop windows, that blue aquarium light spilling out onto the pavement.

Photo-wise, this bit is the transition. You still have the walls and bridges from the central section, but the crowds are gone – like, gone. I passed maybe six people in fifteen minutes. If you want the stone-wall-and-bridge shots from the last post without a stranger in every frame, this is where to get them.

Light: it's still shaded here by buildings, so morning or late afternoon, same as the central section. Polarizer off. Nothing to cut.

The Open Stretch: Where the Sky Shows Up

Then the buildings pull back and the stream widens, and suddenly there's sky. This is the part I came for.

The path drops down alongside the water and the banks turn into reeds – tall ones, taller than me in places, going gold at the tips in early September. There are benches. There are people fishing, or pretending to. There are a lot of cyclists, so keep left and don't stand in the middle of the path for a shot (I did, once, and got a very polite bell).

Photo-wise:

No shade at all. This is the opposite of the central section. Midday is flat and harsh. I did it starting around five and the light went warm and sideways through the reeds by six.
Polarizer back on. There's a lot of water surface and a lot of sky, and it deepens both. This is the section the filter was made for.
Get low. Reeds at eye level are a wall. Reeds from knee height with the path curving away are a photo.
Wide is better. My 24mm equivalent finally earned its place here. The central section is tight; this section wants width.

Budget note: bring water. There are convenience stores near the bridges at the start but once you're in the reeds there's nothing for a while, and it's an exposed walk in September heat.

The Old Stone Bridge

Near the end there's a long, low stone bridge across the water – the Salgotji bridge, which I found out later is old old, like Joseon-era old. It's flat, made of big grey stone slabs on stubby stone piers, and it looks nothing like the modern bridges upstream. You can walk across it. I did, three times, because the light kept changing.

The shot I'd tell you to get: stand on the bank downstream of it in the last hour of light, so the bridge is a dark line against bright water. Silhouette, bottom third water, same rule as the Dongdaemun dusk shot from the last post. Then walk onto it and shoot straight down the slabs with the reeds either side. The stone has a texture that goes crazy in raking light.

There were two other people with cameras here and nobody anywhere else on the whole walk. That tells you something!

Where It Meets the Bigger River

Just past the bridge the stream widens into the Jungnangcheon and the whole thing opens up – a proper river now, a big bridge across it in the distance, the sky doing sunset over everything. This is where I stopped. The path continues along the Jungnangcheon towards the Han, and I'll do that one on the next trip when I'm not leaving in four days.

Last shot of the day: the two streams joining, from the bank, with the far bridge as a silhouette. 1/30, railing, burst of five, the usual. It's the widest frame I've taken in Seoul.

What to Bring, and Two Things to Watch

This is a longer, emptier walk than the central section, so the packing list changes a bit:

Water and a snack. Nothing to buy once the reeds start. I had one bar and wanted three.
A hat. No shade for the whole middle stretch. In September that matters.
A charged phone. I used maps to find a station at the end and my battery was at nineteen percent after two hours of shooting. Bring the power bank you already carry for the night shots.
The polarizer. On for the reeds and the merge, off for the fish shops. Same filter, different halves.
Comfortable shoes. It's flat but it's long, and the path surface changes from paving to packed dirt in places.

Two things to watch. First, the bikes – this section is properly used by cyclists and they're fast, so stay left, look before you step back for a wider frame, and don't set up in the middle of the path. Second, the reed stretch has very little lighting after dark. I timed it so I reached the bridge at dusk and then walked out towards the river and the station while there was still some light. If you start later than five, you'll be walking the reeds in the dark, and there's nothing to shoot there once the sky goes.

How Long, and When

I didn't time it properly – I never do – but from Dongdaemun to the stone bridge was about two hours at photo pace, which for me means stopping every fifty metres. A normal person walking would do it in well under that. Starting at five worked: fish shops in shade, reeds in warm light, bridge at dusk. Dawn would work too and I bet it's empty. Midday, don't.

Getting back: there are subway stations not far from the bridge area on the other side of the river – I used the map and it was a short walk. Or just retrace, it's flat the whole way.

Checklist

Dongmyo stretch: aquarium shop windows, empty bridges, shade, polarizer off
Reed stretch: no shade, polarizer on, get low, go wide, keep left for bikes
Bring water before the reeds start
Stone bridge: silhouette from downstream in the last hour, then straight down the slabs
The merge: widest frame you'll take, 1/30 on the railing after dark
Start 5pm or dawn. Not midday
Money needed: 0

Love this post? Send it to someone who thinks Cheonggyecheon is just the bit with the fountain. And if you've walked the Jungnangcheon all the way to the Han, tell me in the comments how long it actually takes, because next time I'm doing it – ties in nicely with the Han River picnic if I time it right(:

Cheonggyecheon Photography Walk: Where the Light Is, Section by Section (Gwanghwamun to Dongdaemun, 0 Won)

weiling-notes — Fri, 4 Sep 2026 08:53:56 +0900

Hey! A different kind of post this week. No river picnic, no rooftop, no night mode - a walk. Someone asked in the comments whether Cheonggyecheon is "actually worth it or just a ditch with lights", and I laughed because on my first trip that was basically my verdict. I went down at the plaza, took the waterfall photo everyone takes, climbed back up. Done in ten minutes, one photo, meh.

This trip I did the whole thing properly, twice, and I'm here to say I was wrong. For cheonggyecheon photography the trick is not the plaza at all. It's knowing which section has the light at which hour, and walking it in the right direction. Cost: 0 won. Time: about an hour if you don't stop, which you will.

Cheonggyecheon Basics: Free, Open All Day, Starts at Gwanghwamun

Quick facts so you can plan, because I had to look most of this up myself.

The stream is 10.84km long in total according to the Seoul city site, but the part you actually walk as a tourist is the restored downtown stretch. It starts at Cheonggye Plaza, right by Gwanghwamun - Line 5, Gwanghwamun Station, Exit 5 and you're basically there - and runs east under 22 bridges past Euljiro, Gwangjang Market and Dongdaemun towards DDP. Plaza to DDP is roughly an hour on foot. After that the stream keeps going out towards the Han, but the crowds thin, the lights thin, and honestly so did my interest.

It's free and it's open 24 hours. No gate, no ticket, no closing time. You walk down a ramp or stairs from street level and you're a floor below the traffic, next to running water, with the city going about its business overhead. That's the whole appeal, and for a budget traveller it's kinda unbeatable.

One thing to note: the stream is below the road, so it's sheltered from wind but also from light. The light comes down in slices between the buildings and the bridges. That's why the hour matters so much more here than at, say, the river.

Section One: Cheonggye Plaza in the Afternoon (Backlight)

The plaza end is where everyone starts and where everyone takes the same photo - the waterfall, the coloured lights, the big shell sculpture up top. Fine. Take it. Then look the other way.

Mid-afternoon the sun is behind you if you face east, which means the water is a flat mirror and the first hundred metres are flat and boring. Turn around. Face west, back towards the waterfall, and now the sun is BEHIND the water. Backlight. The spray from the fall catches it, the ripples turn into little bright lines, and people walking towards you become clean silhouettes against the glare. That's the plaza shot. Not the waterfall itself, the backlit water in front of it.

Expose for the highlights so the sparkle doesn't blow out, let the walls go dark. On the phone, tap the brightest bit of water and drag the exposure down. It'll look too dark on the screen. It isn't.

This is also where I finally understood my polarizer, the one I bought for this trip and wrote about in the early autumn post. In backlight the polarizer kills the glare on the water surface and you suddenly see the stones on the bottom of the stream. Rotate it and watch the water go from mirror to glass. I stood there turning the ring like an idiot for five minutes and a Korean uncle came over to look at what I was looking at LOL

Section Two: Under the Bridges, Mid-Walk (Shade and Slices)

Somewhere past the plaza the stream settles into its rhythm - a bridge every few hundred metres, a stretch of open stream between them, stepping stones where you can cross. This middle stretch, roughly the Euljiro area, is the section I'd tell a photographer to slow down in.

Under each bridge it's shade. Deep, cool, blue-ish shade with the traffic rumbling above you. Then you step out from under the bridge and there's a hard slice of afternoon light on the water. That edge, the line where shade meets sun, is the frame. Stand in the shade, shoot out towards the light, and put a person right on the line.

The stepping stones deserve their own paragraph. Each set of stones is a natural leading line across the water, and the water between them goes still enough to reflect the buildings above. Get low. Like, crouch-on-the-bottom-step low. Put the first stone big in the foreground at 24mm and let the line pull the eye across. Then wait. Someone will cross. Someone always crosses, and the moment their foot is between two stones is the picture. My hit rate was maybe one in six, but you're not paying for film(:

Two etiquette things. One, the stones are a crossing, not a set. If someone is coming from the other side, let them cross, don't stand in the middle composing. Two, same rule as my market post - strangers as shapes and silhouettes, not faces. The people down here are on their lunch break, not in your portfolio.

Section Three: The Dongdaemun End at Dusk

Here's the direction tip, and it's the whole reason to plan this walk instead of just wandering: walk west to east and time it so you reach the Dongdaemun end as the sun goes down.

By the time you've done the plaza in afternoon backlight and dawdled through the bridges, it's early evening. Around Gwangjang Market the stream gets busier, the bridges get more ornate, and then towards Dongdaemun the buildings open up a bit and the sky comes back. The under-stream lights switch on, the water picks up the blue of the sky and the orange of the shop signs at the same time, and for about twenty minutes you get both colours in one frame.

The frame here is the bridge silhouette. Stand upstream of a bridge, put it dead centre so its arch is a black shape against the sky, and let the lit water fill the bottom third. On the first walk I got there too late and the sky had already gone black - just a lit bridge on dark water, which is fine but it's an Instagram photo, not a photograph. Second walk I left the plaza at 4.30 and it worked. Early September sunset is around 7ish, so back-calculate from there. And if you stay past dark, everything from my handheld night post applies - lean on a railing, burst of five, 1/30 minimum. The railings down here are perfect for it.

Then climb up, and you're at Dongdaemun with DDP glowing on your right and the shopping buildings on your left, and if you're like me you go find tteokbokki because you've walked an hour for free and deserve a treat that costs money.

Trip One vs Trip Two

Honestly the difference between "ditch with lights" and "one of my favourite walks in Seoul" was just distance and time. Trip one: plaza, ten minutes, 2pm, harsh light, one photo. Trip two: plaza at 4.30, an hour of walking, dusk at Dongdaemun, forty keepers. Same stream. It's the only place this trip where the polarizer, the wide lens and the handheld night method all got used on one walk, so if you've read the other posts, this is where they all come together.

Not that I'm bitter about trip one. Okay, a little bitter.

Budget

Subway to Gwanghwamun: whatever your fare is
The stream: 0
Entry: 0
Closing time: none
Tteokbokki at the end: a few thousand won, optional, not optional

Compare that with the river picnic from last week, which I was already calling the cheapest evening in Seoul at under 10,000 won. This one undercuts it. You literally cannot spend money down there unless you climb the stairs to do it.

Cheonggyecheon Photography Checklist

Start at Cheonggye Plaza (Gwanghwamun Station, Line 5, Exit 5), walk EAST
Leave the plaza about 2.5 hours before sunset
Plaza: face west, shoot the backlit water, not the waterfall
Polarizer on for the plaza, off for the shade sections
Bridges: stand in shade, shoot the light edge, get low on the stepping stones
Don't block the stones, keep strangers as silhouettes
Reach Dongdaemun at dusk for the bridge silhouette, bottom third lit water
Railing, burst, 1/30 after dark
Money needed: 0

Love this post? Send it to someone who thinks Seoul photo spots all cost money. And tell me in the comments if you've walked the bit beyond Dongdaemun towards the Han - I keep meaning to and keep getting distracted by snacks(:

Han River Picnic on a Budget: The Convenience Store, the Ramyeon Machine and a Sunset for Under 10,000 Won

weiling-notes — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 19:02:13 +0900

Hey! Comments again, and this one made me smile: "you keep ending your posts at the Han River, but how do you actually DO the Han River picnic thing? Is it expensive?"

Okay so first, guilty. I do keep ending up there. And second: it might be the single cheapest good evening in Seoul. The whole ritual - convenience store, ramyeon machine, mat, grass, sunset, bridge - came to under 10,000 won both times I did it properly this trip, which is about RM31, which is less than one nice cafe drink and cake back home in KL. Here's the full how-to, in order, with the photo notes at the end because you know I can't help myself LOL

Where: Yeouido, the Classic One

There are Hangang parks all along the river and locals will each defend their own, but for a first han river picnic just do Yeouido. It's the famous one for a reason - a huge stretch of grass sloping down to the water, the skyline across the river, convenience stores right in the park, and it's easy to reach by subway with the park entrance close to the station. You surface, walk a few minutes, and the city just... opens.

I've done my picnics near the main convenience store area, because the whole point of this particular evening is that everything you need is within a hundred metres of your patch of grass. This is not a wilderness experience. There are hundreds of people doing exactly what you're doing, and that's the charm - couples, families, office workers with their ties loosened, everyone on mats eating noodles as the sun goes down.

Step One: The Convenience Store Run

The park convenience stores are the supply base and they know exactly what they are. Snack walls, drink fridges, and stacks of instant ramyeon by the door. My standard haul:

One cup ramyeon (the star, see next section)
One kimbap triangle or two (about a thousand won each)
One bag of snacks - I go honey butter chips, no regrets
One drink. Banana milk if I'm being cute, a canned coffee if the sunset shoot is going long

That's maybe 5,000 to 6,000 won if you skip the machine, a bit more with it. The stores get BUSY at golden hour, like checkout-queue-out-the-door busy on nice weekends, so if you're aiming for sunset, do your shopping half an hour earlier than feels necessary.

Also grab napkins and a spare plastic bag at the counter. The napkins because ramyeon, obviously, and the bag becomes your rubbish bag later. Trust me, trying to carry an empty soup cup, chopsticks, two wrappers and a milk bottle across a field in your bare hands at 9pm is a comedy nobody needs to see twice LOL

The Ramyeon Machine, Explained

This is the bit everyone's seen on TikTok and honestly? Worth it once. The riverside stores have these countertop ramyeon cooking machines. You buy the special cup at the counter, scan the barcode on the container at the machine, press start, and it does the water and the timing itself - no kettle, no guessing, it just beeps at you when your noodles are ready.

Now the budget-blogger truth: the machine experience costs around 4,500 won, and roughly the same cup of noodles is more like 1,500 at a regular convenience store in the city. So you're paying about three times the noodle price for the ritual. First time: pay it. Eating machine-cooked ramyeon on the grass while the sky goes orange is a genuinely great Seoul moment and the cup is part of the photo. Second time onwards, I bring the cheap cup from the store near my accommodation and just use the hot water like a normal stingy person LOL

One practical thing: carry the finished cup to a bin when you're done. The park is remarkably clean for how many people use it, and it stays that way because people actually clean up. Don't be the exception.

Mats: Rent, Buy or Improvise

You need a mat. The grass is grass - lovely, slightly damp by evening.

There are rental setups around the park in the warm months where you can get a mat, and fancier packages with little low tables if you're doing a whole event of it. From what I saw and read, a basic mat rental runs a few thousand won and the proper picnic sets go up from around ten thousand. If it's a one-off evening and you're travelling carry-on only, renting makes sense.

I bought mine instead - a cheap foldable one from a convenience store on trip one, the kind that packs down to the size of a magazine. It has now done two trips and lives in my luggage as permanent kit. If you'll do the river more than once, buying the cheap one wins the math immediately. This is the kind of decision that thrills me and bores my friends(:

The Chicken Thing (A Passing Mention)

Yes, the famous move is ordering fried chicken delivered directly to the river - it's a whole system, delivery riders pull up at the park entrances calling out order names. I haven't done it. You need to communicate a pickup spot, my Korean is still K-drama-vocabulary-only, and the one time I considered it the app defeated me at the address step. The people next to me had a box, it smelled incredible, I ate my kimbap with dignity. One day. If you've cracked the chicken delivery as a tourist, teach me in the comments, seriously.

The Photo Part (You Knew This Was Coming)

The river at sunset is the easiest good photo in Seoul, and I say that as someone who makes you climb hills for skylines in my free viewpoints post. Here the shot comes to you.

Timing first: arrive a good hour before sunset, claim grass facing the water, do your store run, and then just wait. The sequence is golden light on the grass, then the sun dropping behind the bridges, then the twenty blue-hour minutes when the bridge lights come on and the water holds the colour. That last window is the picture.

What I shoot: the wide at 24mm, low to the ground so the mat and the noodle cup sit in the foreground and the bridge silhouette floats in the back. Expose for the sky, let the foreground go a bit dark, lift it later. The phone handles this scene fine too - night mode on, tap the sky, drag the exposure down a touch. And shoot the small stuff: chopsticks over the cup, the steam against the low sun, everyone else's silhouettes. The etiquette rules are the same as I wrote in my market photography post - people are picnicking, not performing, so keep strangers as silhouettes and shapes, not faces.

The Damage: My Actual Budget

Cup ramyeon with the machine: ~4,500 won
Kimbap triangle: ~1,200 won
Chips: ~1,700 won
Banana milk: ~1,500 won
Mat: 0 (bought trip one, amortised into legend)
The view, the grass, the sunset, three hours: 0

Total: just under 9,000 won, call it RM28. For the best evening of the week. The tower observatory is 29,000 won and you can't eat noodles up there~

Love this post? Send it to the friend who thinks Seoul is expensive. And tell me your Hangang order in the comments - I need to know what I'm missing besides the chicken(:

Free Seoul Viewpoints for Photos: Naksan, Haneul Park and the Hills Nobody Queues For

weiling-notes — Sun, 30 Aug 2026 08:54:21 +0900

Hey! Another one from the comments, and this one's a money question, which I like.

Someone asked where the free Seoul viewpoints are for skyline photos, because the tower observatory is 29,000 won a head and they're on a student budget. Same, honestly. Two trips and I've still never paid to go up the tower, and I haven't missed a skyline. Three hills did it for me: Naksan, Haneul Park, and a tiny one called Eungbongsan that nobody I've met has heard of. All three are free, all three are open late enough for blue hour, and at none of them did I queue for anything. So here's the list, with when to go and what I shot with.

Gear, once: my usual camera with the 24mm-equivalent wide, the phone for the rest, no tripod, same handheld habits as my Seoul night photography post.

Why Not Just Pay for the Tower

I nearly did last year. The official price is 29,000 won for an adult, 23,000 for a kid, about RM90 a person for me. That's two days of food. And the thing about being up the tower is the tower isn't in your photo, and the tower is the one thing in the Seoul skyline you actually want in your photo LOL. From the hills you get the tower, the mountains behind it, the city in front, for a subway fare. The terraces under the tower are free anyway, and I did that this trip. For a skyline picture the hills are better. Not "almost as good". Better.

Naksan Park and the Fortress Wall

This is the one I'd send a first-timer to. Naksan is the lowest of the four mountains that ring the old city, 124 metres, and the Seoul City Wall runs right over it. The Naksan section goes from Hyehwamun Gate to Heunginjimun Gate, about 3.2km, an hour if you don't stop, which you will, constantly.

Getting there: Line 4 to Hyehwa Station, Exit 1, and the official trail page says five minutes on foot to the trail start. Free, open 24 hours, no gate, no ticket, no anyone.

The picture is the wall itself. This long grey stone thing curving along the ridge with the whole city dropping away behind it, and at blue hour the wall stays pale while the city lights come up. Stand where the path bends so the wall leads into the corner of the shot and the tower sits on the horizon. 24mm is right for this, wall big in the foreground, skyline small and far. I went three times and every time the best fifteen minutes were the same fifteen minutes, so timing matters more than which bit of wall you pick.

Haneul Park and the Silver Grass

Haneul means sky, and it's the highest of the parks in the World Cup Park complex out west, built on an old landfill, which is a weird thing to know while you're standing in a field of grass. Line 6 to World Cup Stadium Station, Exit 1, then a walk, the Seoul tourism page says 1.6km, and then the hill.

The hill is the famous bit. Every guide says 291 steps, I did not count, but it felt like about that. There's also a little electric cart, 2,000 won one way, 3,000 return. I walked up and rode down because my knees had opinions.

Now, the honest part. The silver grass everyone comes for peaks in October, and the city holds a free Silver Grass Festival there every year in the third week of the month, with the park open late until 10pm for it. I have not seen it. My trips have been August and early September, and in August the grass is green and tall, pretty in low sun, but not the golden sea in the photos. So this one's partly from reading, and I'm going back in October to check.

What I can tell you is the sunset side. The park faces the river, the sun drops behind the bridges, and with the grass in front of it at 24mm you get that backlit blade thing without trying. Which brings me to hours, because this park is the catch on my list: it closes. The time changes by month, the city site lists 8:30pm for August and 8pm for September and October, shorter in winter, so check the month before you go. On my August visit the sun went down around seven and I had a good half hour of blue before the announcements started.

Eungbongsan, the Small One

My favourite, and the one nobody's heard of. It's not really a mountain, it's a hill by the river in Seongdong-gu with an octagonal pavilion on top, and from the pavilion you get the Han River, a whole row of lit bridges, and the tower off to the side. Free, open 24 hours, on the city's official night-view list and still nearly empty when I went.

Gyeongui-Jungang Line to Eungbong Station, Exit 1, and the tourism page puts the pavilion at 886 metres from the exit. One steep staircase through a neighbourhood and you're there, ten or fifteen minutes. Both times I went it was residents walking dogs and two old men with proper tripods who nodded and went back to their timers.

The frame here is the blue bridge. One of the river bridges lights up blue directly below you, and at blue hour the sky and the bridge go the same colour for about ten minutes. 24mm from the pavilion railing gets river, bridge and skyline in one. FYI the pavilion railing is the tripod, exactly the right height, and everyone up there is using it.

Blue Hour, and the Settings

Same rules every hill, so here they are once.

Sunset is not the time. Sunset is the warm-up. The photo is the twenty to thirty minutes after the sun's gone, when the sky's deep blue and the lights are on but the sky's still brighter than the buildings. In late August that was roughly 7:15 to 7:45pm. In October it'll be an hour or more earlier, so look it up the morning you go.

Arrive an hour before sunset. Not to shoot, to find your spot. Every useless photo from last year was me arriving in the dark and guessing.

Handheld: 1/30 floor, ISO up to 3200, burst of five, brace. The whole method from the night post. At 24mm 1/30 is fine if your elbows are on a railing, and every hill on this list has one.

White balance manual, daylight-ish. Auto sees the sodium streetlights and turns the sky green. Set it once and leave it.

Phone people: night mode on, tap the sky, drag the exposure down a touch, hold still. Better than I expected at Eungbongsan, worse at Naksan, where the wall confused it.

What I'd Skip

The Namsan terraces at sunset on a weekend. Free, but that's where everyone goes and it's a queue for the railing.

And don't do all three in one evening. There's one blue hour a day. Pick one. I paired Naksan with the Gwangjang Market post from last time, since they're a short walk apart, market first, wall after, and that was the best evening of the trip.

The Checklist

Savable, for the notes app:

Tower observatory is 29,000 won. The hills are 0
Naksan: Line 4 Hyehwa, Exit 1, five minutes to the wall trail. Free, 24 hours. Wall as a lead-in, tower on the horizon
Haneul Park: Line 6 World Cup Stadium, Exit 1, 1.6km walk then 291 steps or a 2,000 won cart. Free, but it closes, check the month's hours. Silver grass peaks in October, I haven't seen it yet
Eungbongsan: Gyeongui-Jungang Eungbong, Exit 1, under a kilometre and one staircase. Free, 24 hours, nearly empty. Blue bridge from the pavilion railing
Arrive an hour before sunset, shoot 20 to 30 minutes after it
24mm, WB manual, 1/30 floor, ISO to 3200, burst of five, elbows on the railing, raw
Phone: night mode, expose on the sky, drag down
One hill per evening

Still haven't paid to go up that tower, and after three hills I'm pretty sure I never will. Got a free viewpoint I've missed? Comments, please, I've got one more trip's worth of evenings to fill~

Love this post? Send it to the friend who's about to spend 29,000 won on a window. And if you make it to the silver grass before me, I want to see it(: