I was recently back in Seoul after publishing Phoenix Rising: A Journey Through South Korea and like all authors after publishing a book, I wanted to find out if what I had discovered and written about almost a year ago still held true.
Was This Really Seoul?
I stayed in a 4-star hotel in Myeongdong, near the Cathedral where all the riots and protests against the military government took place in the 1980’s but also very close to the largely middle class shopping district.
The middle-class atmosphere of the shopping avenues hadn’t changed much, except perhaps the district looked even more like an upscale shopping quarter in any country of the world: designer shops, boutiques, Starbucks, international labels, department stores. What seemed to be missing was the feel of the traditional, rather eccentric, do-it-yourself Seoul I knew when I first lived there – and on many subsequent visits.
Was This Really Seoul?
I stayed in a 4-star hotel in Myeongdong, near the Cathedral where all the riots and protests against the military government took place in the 1980’s but also very close to the largely middle class shopping district.
The middle-class atmosphere of the shopping avenues hadn’t changed much, except perhaps the district looked even more like an upscale shopping quarter in any country of the world: designer shops, boutiques, Starbucks, international labels, department stores. What seemed to be missing was the feel of the traditional, rather eccentric, do-it-yourself Seoul I knew when I first lived there – and on many subsequent visits.
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