Seoul Habitat Guide

Divided by the Han River and surrounded by spectacular pine-covered mountains, Seoul is graced with one of Asia’s most stunning natural settings. Modern Seoul is city identified by its many neighbourhoods full of skyscrapers, shopping malls and hotels. The city has no distinct boundaries – the urban sprawl opens out onto the surrounding hills and greeen rice fields. Seoul’s commercial and financial heart lies in the downtown sector around the City Hall. Efforts to ease the crowdedness and to spruce up the city foe the 1988 Seoul Olympics led to the creation of a modern new city south of the Han River’s north bank in the areas of Youido, Kangnam and Chamshil. Youido has the stock exchange, banks and several corporate head offices of Korea’s chaebols – the big business conglomerates. Kangnam, is the home of the new Westernized middle class and most of the expat population. Chamshil was the venue of the 1988 Olympic Games. The Northeast is an older section known for its stately old homes, universities and Buddhist temples. It’s also the sector with the best feng shui.  It’aewon, Namsan and Hannam-dong in the south, and Ehwa, Sinchon and Hongik in the west are the favourite hangouts of the expat crowds, the young and the upwardly mobile who thong its nightclubs, bars and cafes.