Seoul, Day 4 (2025): Day Trip to Suwon
We decided to take a day trip to the city of Suwon, which for us was about an hour on the local train line. At dinner the previous night, our chef Jinkoo apparently asked Nick what we were doing today, and when Nick told him that we were going to Suwon, his response was ‘why?’ Nick told him that we wanted to see the fortress and palace there, and Jinkoo said that we could see the ones in Seoul (which we had already done). So yeah, based on his reaction, we take it that Suwon isn’t a huge tourist destination, which is actually more appealing because that means fewer people will be there.
Once we arrived at Suwon station, our first stop was to go inside the nearby Starfield mall to see another Starfield library:
We actually got a little lost trying to find it though because unlike the library in Seoul, which is located on the main floor, this one spans three floors starting on the fifth floor.
The general esthetic is similar to Seoul’s, but here, the design incorporates right angles in the shelves, and planets hanging above it all. Also, there isn’t much in the way of Christmas decor, which actually makes standing in the center feel much more grandiose. And with fewer people here taking photos, you can actually take the time to appreciate the space.
From the mall, it was a 20-30 minute walk to Hwaseong Fortress, the main attraction for our visit to Suwon. It was built in the late 18th century by the then king, King Yeongjo, to pay tribute to his father, who was executed by being buried alive in a chest. He also wanted to move the capital from Seoul to Suwon; that move never happened.
We approached one of the gates and guard towers surrounding the inner city:
The doors to some of the structures are short, and comically short for Nick.
One of the cool things about Hwaseong Fortress is that you can walk the fortress walls from one gate to another. We didn’t want to walk the entire wall because that would be a very long walk, so we decided to walk to the next gate that we could see. During the walk, we stopped to see some more defense structures and also enjoying the view of the inner city from above:
Soon we were at what I believe is the main gate into the fortress, mainly because the gate and the area around it were much bigger than the first gate we saw. What was not larger, however, were the doors:
It was cool to walk around this gate and get a sense of how the archers would defend the fortress by shooting through the small holes in the front wall. I’m sure their view back then didn’t involve cars and traffic lights, and definitely not the sound of two cars hitting each other, which happened while we were walking through the gate. It was a fairly low speed accident, so no one was injured, but there was a lot of honking due to the traffic disruption it caused.
We decided to escape the chaos outside the walls and walk further into the fortress. A block further in was an area with replica buildings from the era when the fortress was originally built:
Unsurprisingly, there are also much more modern buildings in the area, making the juxtaposition of imperial design with newer construction a little jarring.
It was starting to be a little later in the afternoon, and we were getting hungry, so we decided to get some lunch. On the way to the restaurant, we took a short stroll through a small mural village:
The murals weren’t large, and the area itself was quite small, but for being a short detour to lunch, we thought it was worth the walk to see them.
A block away was one of the few restaurants open for lunch at the time we were looking for food, Hoeja. They didn’t have an English menu, so we relied on Google Translate, but the items were fairly straightforward—meat over rice bowls. I think there were only like six bowl options, so Nick got the pork belly and I got the premium beef bowl:
They were amazing! And we were lucky we got there in time because after we ordered, a family came in and were told that the restaurant was closed between lunch and dinner service. After such a delicious lunch and warming ourselves up from being out in the cold for a bit, we were ready to visit Hwaseong Palace.
The palace was originally built in 1796, but was almost completely destroyed in the early 20th century, so the current palace is a restoration that was completed in the early 2000s:
We enjoyed that there were fewer people here than at the palaces in Seoul as it gave us more space to explore the grounds. There was also an area that had games inspired by the games in Squid Games, and since entry was free, we saw many kids there having fun and families hanging out. It gave a cool, community feel for the space, and just so lovely to be part of while walking around the palace.
The pattern of short doorways also continued here:
If I have to duck to get through, then you know these doorways are extremely short.
But that didn’t prevent us from exploring the adjacent smaller buildings in the back:
I think one of these buildings was used for storage, but as a whole, this area seemed pretty ignored by the public. Still, the emptiness provided a serene place to enjoy the space.
The sun was starting to set at this point, so we headed into the main commercial area of the fortress, and on the way out, we saw this extremely contemporary looking bathroom:
The building in the back is the Museum of Art, so the signage here is correct for both interpretations of “Toilet by Museum of Art.” First, it is literally located next to the museum, so it is ‘by’ the museum, but we’re also fairly certain that the museum also made the bathrooms because of the extremely similar design, so in that case, it’s also made ‘by’ the museum. Sorry, being a linguist, it’s hard to not get obsessed with ambiguity, although in this case, both readings are semantically correct.
Besides the cool design, the bathrooms were large and clean, which is amazing for a public bathroom.
Once we walked into the area with cafes and stores, it was getting dark and colder, so we walked quickly through and found a coffee shop to take a quick break:
Because the ride back to Seoul would take an hour, we walked back to the train and headed to Hongdae. The train was much more crowded because it was rush hour, but we managed to make it to Hongdae with no issues other than trying to get out of the way of people entering and leaving. Our main destination in Hongdae was the Ader Error store that Tiffany wanted to check out. On the way there, Nick and I saw a familiar place:
Back in 2019, when the two of us last visited Hongdae, we actually went to Meerkat Friends to kill some time and to see some cute animals. We didn’t visit this time, but it was mildly nostalgic to see the same place after so many years.
After a brief hiccup finding the main entrance to Ader Error, we made it and the storefront was cool:
Unfortunately, we didn’t find anything we liked in the store, so we decided to get KBBQ for dinner and walked to this camping themed restaurant nearby:
It was fascinating…the main dining area was in a tent, so you had to unzip from the bottom to enter. There were tablets on the table for you to order, and the menu was available in English, so there was no issue ordering. After we placed our order, the server came out with a camp stove and the grill with the food we ordered:
We ordered a pork combination, and the food was really good—the meat tender and the banchan was unlimited. At one point, we were distracted with the side dishes and eating that the server came over and told us to flip the food because it was burning.
Hongdae appears to be full of bars and nightlife, which neither of us were really interested in, so we decided to head back to the hotel and relax after our day trip to Suwon. Tomorrow, we head off to Itaewon to see some art!