It was another eventful past two weeks in Seoul, consisting of my first trip of the semester and, of course, some more exploration of Seoul.
Hong Kong!
I took my first trip outside of Korea to Hong Kong in mid-April (right in the middle of midterm season actually, oops). This was one of the most and fun memorable experiences of my entire semester actually. Despite the initial feeling of heavy mugginess in the air as soon as I stepped off the plane, the weather for the rest of the weekend was not too bad.
Being adopted from China, I’ve always placed a huge value on reconnecting with my Chinese culture. I really loved getting the opportunity to do by visiting Hong Kong, even if it was just for a short while. It felt there was so much depth and history to the city and the opportunity to practice my Chinese skills was refreshing. We stayed in Tsim Sha Tsui (TST), known as the shopping and nightlife district of Hong Kong. The best part by FAR was all of the yummy food there. Some of my favorites were One Dimsum (Minho from SHINee visited here within a week of me!), Yat Lok Restaurant’s roast duck, wonton mein from the Michelin guide, lemon aiyu jelly drink from Silk, choy sum with oyster sauce, and soup-filled pan-fried dumplings from Cheung Hing Kee in TST. I absolutely love Chinese food, and going to Hong Kong made me wish I chose to study abroad here just so I could eat food like this every day.
Relative to most other places in Asia, Hong Kong is quite expensive. Many things are priced similarly to America. I remember paying about 140 HKD, including service fee, for a drink at a bar. That’s equivalent to about 20 USD! However, the best egg tart I’ve ever had in my life was only a dollar! So I guess it balanced out a little. Hong Kong is also probably one of the most English-speaking friendly places in Asia, as English is actually an official language there. Unlike China, you don’t need a visa for short-term stays.
On our second night, we went out to LKF (Lan Kwai Fong), an area in the Central district popular for dining and clubbing. I noticed that compared to Korea, the clubs were a lot cleaner. They had bathroom attendants (the bathrooms were very nice) and there was no indoor smoking, unlike in Hongdae.
We also visited Victoria Peak, Hong Kong University (I bought a shirt as a souvenir!), Ladies’ Market in Mong Kok, Central Market, Monster Building and took the ferry across Victoria Harbor.
Other things to note (especially coming from Korea):
Hong Kong has a different outlet type from both Korea and the U.S. so you may need to get an adapter
They use Google maps but the location tracker is not very accurate (especially compared to Naver maps). I fully relied on my friends to navigate :)
They are heavily cash-based. I barely used my credit card while I was there and kept having to withdraw cash from ATMs. Even “newer” looking restaurants don’t accept card so just be aware of that.
The weather can get pretty muggy and humid. I went in mid-April and was still sweating like crazy with all the humidity. It also rained pretty hard on my last day there.
Overall, my trip to Hong Kong stands out as one of the highlights of my semester abroad and I really hope to go back one day. There are so many foods there I didn’t get the chance to try and many sights we didn’t have the time to see.
Seongsu outing
Seongsu is a neighborhood commonly known as “the Brooklyn of Seoul”, filled with art spaces, cool cafes, and trendy boutiques. They are also well known for hosting a variety of popups every month. Recently, they had a BTS popup and my friends and I decided to go and check it out. We got there around 1 pm and put our names on the waitlist, only to find out that the wait time was approximately NINE HOURS(!!!). We decided to check out some other shops in the area while we waited.
First stop was the fwee store, a makeup brand popular for their “blurry pudding pots” for lips and cheek. I bought one and it came with a free mirror and keychain. Then we headed over to rom&nd, another makeup brand known for lip products. The popup had some fun games and activities along with a lot of freebies. I bought three different lip products (cheaper than Olive Young, and with more variety!) and it came with a free mirror and two mini lip glosses. Afterwards, we went to the Jinro popup. Jinro is the soju brand with the frog mascot. The popup was super colorful and had a carnival theme and tons of photo ops. They also had free shots of soju for completing activities but it was super busy so we just took photos and left. We also saw porojin (from Tiktok) and Daisy (former member of Momoland). We stopped for a snack of some famous salt bread that was deliciously warm and buttery, then headed over to the Toridden popup. (At this point we had essentially given up on getting into the BTS popup before it got dark and resolved to just come back another day.) Toridden is a skincare brand and the popup theme was based on positivity and sustainability. I bought a moisturizer and serum set from here.
I highly recommend visiting Seongsu if you can. The neighborhood is super walkable and there also good places to eat in the area so you can spend the whole day there just exploring.
Seoul Forest Park biking, Bas Burger, board game cafe
This week I went biking with some friends at Seoul Forest Park. The park was actually smaller than I expected. The tulips there had mostly wilted around the time we went so I was pretty sad about that but the rest of the park was very lush and green.
After the park, we went to a place called Bas Burger for dinner. They had free unlimited house-made potato chips and I ordered a mushroom burger. I don’t know if I was just super hungry after biking but in the moment I truly felt like it was the best burger I had ever eaten in my life. I also just love mushrooms. Highly recommend checking this place out.
As you may know, Korea is well known for its cafe culture. One type of cafe I enjoyed going to with friends were board game cafes. We frequented a chain called Red Button, where you just buy a drink and can play whatever games they have available on the shelves. Then afterwards you pay for the time you stayed.
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