Tuesday, September 12, 2017

N Seoul Tower N서울타워

Standing at 237m tall, N Seoul Tower (also known as Namsan Tower) is the highest point in Seoul and offers a bird's eye view of the city. From a transmission tower, Namsan Tower has undergone various renovation and remodelling to become an iconic landmark of Seoul. It was also renamed from Seoul Tower to N Seoul Tower, where "N" stands for new, namsan and nature. The tower is often featured on K-dramas as the defacto meeting or dating place for all couples, who will then leave a love lock as a pledge of their everlasting love. 
There are various ways of getting to N Seoul Tower, but we opted for the cable car since we were staying at a guesthouse nearby. It takes 10 min on foot to reach the cable car station but we took twice the time as we were busy taking pictures and exploring the surrounding areas since this was our virgin trip to Korea so we were intrigued by every single thing that we came across. 
We finally reached Namsan cable car entrance after scaling a steep slope and several flights of stairs. The cable car runs from the base of the mountain up to N.Seoul Tower. Besides walking, there are several ways to get to the cable car station.
Shuttle Bus
You can board the free shuttle bus at Exit 1 of Myeongdong Station and at the Seoul Square bus stop at Seoul Station. The shuttle bus operates every 30 minutes, starting from 12PM till 8.30PM. 
On Foot
From Exit 3 of Myeongdong Station, walk through the alley and stay to your right, passing the 7-11 store and continue about 7-8 minutes between Pacific Hotel and GS25. Namsan cable car is at the top of the hill near the Chinese Consulate.
By Ohreumi/Incline Elevator
From Exit 4 of Myeongdong Station, head towards the Hoehyeon intersection (towards Shinsegae Department Store) and turn left at the intersection. Walk about 5 minutes to reach Namsam cable car Ohreumi/Incline Elevator.
We headed to the ticketing office on the 1st floor to purchase our tickets for the ride. An adult single trip costs KRW$6,000 while a round trip costs KRW$8,500. Hence, it made more sense (for us at least) to purchase the round trip tickets. After purchasing the tickets, you will be ushered into the queue.  
Check out the crowd! It was recommended to reach before noon for a quieter experience but hey, looked like everyone had the same thought! I even planned this visit on a weekday so we get to avoid the crowd but this looked like my plan failed miserably. 
Well, I shouldn't let the crowd dampen our holiday mood :) 
By riding the cable car, you will see the whole of Namsan right in front of you. 
With a capacity of 48 people per car, I have to say the waiting time is still bearable. The cable cars is equipped with glasses on all four sides, which give riders a view of the surrounding city-view as we made our way through to the top. The ride was relatively smooth and before we knew it, we have arrived.
Our first picture here, displaying the Korean-heart. Saranghae 
It was indeed a sunny day, but surprising the cool wind kept me cold and I had to put on a light jacket.
I immediately recognize this pavilion - this was featured in Running Man, whereby they had to gather people for a rope jumping/picture mission. In fact, a lot of other K-variety and K-drama shows feature N Seoul Tower which makes it a must visit on my first trip to Korea. 
There was an event for visitors to dress up in hanbok and take pictures with the royal guards for memento.
If given a chance, I would love to visit again at night. With the latest LED technology lighting which constantly changes colours and patterns, N Seoul Tower has become a "light art" providing various media art together with an unusual cultural art experience. 
This place is so crowded that it is difficult to get a picture without anyone walking into your frame. We managed to get one decent pic, all thanks to the group of strangers who helped to stop "traffic".
The main agenda of our visit was to ...... you guessed it - that is, to leave a love lock to pledge our everlasting love! Actually, we came here to have a meal at N.Grill but since we were already there so might as well right?
This place is home to thousands of love locks, where the padlocks covered every inch of the railing and fences. Each of the padlock symbolize the hope of everlasting love that the couple shared.
We bought these from the gift shop, went to find a quiet bench and proceeded to write on the locks and ended up with
.
.
.
.
Our declaration of love, is that evidence of our "telepathy"? At least I'm faithful to only 2 (at the point) while someone had a whole truckload of girls that he liked.
Well, at least we had our less important "love declaration" on the other side :) We then proceeded to find a lucky spot for our locks.
You can chose to deposit your keys into the bin thereby sealing your love forever, but we decided to bring the keys home as memento of our virgin Korea trip. 
Tadah, our padlocks of love at N Seoul Tower. Another mission checked. 
Before we left, look who I bumped into? Leecher termed it as my "highlight" of the day, to take picture with a Kim Soo Hyun cardboard. Well, that certainly light up my day!
N Seoul Tower
105, Namsangongwon-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 용산구 남산공원길 105 (용산동2가)

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