Seochon Back Lanes
Royal altars, an old inn and a hanok library on the hill
≈2.4 km · ≈35 min walking · Hilly · Jongno-gu · Start: Gyeongbokgung station · End: Gyeongbokgung station
The village west of Gyeongbokgung, where painters and poets once lived. Start at the Joseon state altar, pass a wartime inn turned art space and climb the lanes to a hanok library under the mountain.
Stops
- Sajik Park (사직공원(서울))
Home of Sajikdan, the altar where Joseon kings made offerings to the gods of land and grain from 1395. - Boan1942 (보안1942)
An inn opened in 1942 next to the palace wall, kept largely as found and run as an art space with a bookshop and café, and a new guesthouse behind. - Sangchonjae (상촌재)
A small hanok in the lanes, restored by the district as a free culture house where you can step inside a traditional home. - Tongin Market (통인시장)
A covered neighbourhood market since 1941. Buy brass coins at the café in the middle, fill a lunch tray from the stalls (the oil tteokbokki is the local favourite) and eat upstairs. - Cheongun Literature Library (청운문학도서관)
Seoul's first public hanok library (2017), with a reading pavilion over a small pond on the slope of Inwangsan.
Best time: Afternoon, Tuesday to Sunday. Finish at the library for the late light on Inwangsan.
Tips
- The last leg is uphill. A taxi back down to Gyeongbokgung Station takes about five minutes.
- Tongin Market, a few lanes north of Boan1942, is a good stop for lunch.
- Tongin Market's lunchbox coin café closes by late afternoon; go around noon.
Access
The lanes are mostly level but uneven and narrow, with no separate pavement. Sajik Park and the Inwangsan side slope uphill.