SEOUL SISTER!
some selfies in this urban garden: There are about 254 species of local trees and flowers, cherry blossoms, and shrubs! You can switch on to Panorama mode as you take in the view from 55 feet above. Throughout Seoullo, there will be exhibitions, vendors that sell tea and street food, and flower shops. Learn to cook at Cheongjungwon Cooking Studio
If you’ve always been a fan of Korean food, here’s your chance to learn how the locals make them. Fans of Hallyu dramas and entertainment shows—which always prominently feature Korean style chow—can now join special classes where you are taught to make some of the best Korean dishes, from bibimbap to seafood pancake. Once you’ve finished cooking, you get to eat your own creation (so good luck with that).
To really understand Korean culture, you have to understand their food (or, you know, just understand the secret behind the enviably flawless skin—spoiler alert: lots and lots of vegetables), and there is no better way to do it but to make their dishes yourself at any of the cooking programs available for foreigners. The length of each program varies with the food you’re preparing, but do save half a day. (Because, ding ding ding, you’ll have to wash your own dishes.) Sip some liquor at Sansawon Home Brewing Culture Gallery
One-and-a-half hour from Seoul is the picturesque province of Gyeonggido, where you can step back in time, through more than 2,000 years of history, at Sansawon, where you can see appreciate Korea’s home brewing culture. The traditional liquor gallery highlights Koreans’ fascination, deep love, and mastery of the art of traditional liquor. More than 400 jars are lined up in an outdoor storage facility, all holding 600 liters each of precious liquor, fermented for as long as 16 years. Prices vary greatly, from a 2,000-won product to a 250,000-won one. The garden is replete with reproductions and mementos of home brewing. There is the buandang, the warehouse; the pavilion called the chuiseongak, the social meeting place where people gather for tea; and the usanggokso, a stream where you can dip your wine glasses. Inside the gallery, there’s a classroom for those who would like to try their hand at home brewing, and an exhibit area where you can taste-test the company’s products. Indulge in the arts at the Pocheon Art Valley
If there’s one thing Filipinos should learn from South Koreans, it’s how to turn something “damaged” into something beautiful, like the nearlydestroyed overpass that became Seoullo’s urban garden. Pocheon Art Valley used to be the Hwangagam granite quarry—a mine—before the local government decided to repurpose the environmentally damaged site into the first eco-friendly culture and art park in Asia, which runs various cultural programs like performances, exhibitions, and experience center. The Pocheon Art Valley has the breathtakingly beautiful, man-made Cheonjuho Lake, perhaps its biggest attraction apart from the astronomical observatory, which has been the location for Lee Min Ho’s The Legend of the Blue Sea and Korean dramas like Moon Lovers. Cheonjuho is formed by water and rain that formed in the pit. The deepest part of the lake is 25 meters, and yes, actual sea creatures like crayfish, salamanders, and Chinese minnows live in this man-made lake.
The granites that came from this quarry were used to build major buildings like The National Assembly Building.
To reach the valley, one must take a monorail, which brings you to the Observatory, Sculpture Park. Sanmaru Outdoor Stage, Wishing Sky Park, and other locations within the 178,357-square-meter area. Create your own lipstick at the Amore Pacific Story Garden
The minute you step inside the Amore Pacific Story Garden building, you will immediately look for Anna Wintour (or her Asian equivalent). Sleek, intimidating, and studded with fine art installations (with blended musical effects playing in the background), this 2013 architectural masterpiece is the headquarters for the Amore Pacific brand, which practically owns most of Korea’s beauty brands. Under Amore is Sulwhasoo, Laneige, Innis Free, Hera, Iope, Etude, Ririkos, and other lesser known brands with huge cult followings in Asia. In 2016, Amore owned 33 percent of the beauty industry pie in Korea, with $15 billion coming from the domestic market.
Inside this impressive, 10,000square-foot multi-level storey building, which has reinvented the concept of the factory tour, visitors get to check the history of this global brand, which began with humble origins in the owner’s mother’s (Yun Dukjeong) kitchen, who made products, mainly from camellia (now the symbol of the company) for a living as Korea struggled to rise post-war. The Story Garden was originally intended for only a limited audience of the company’s employees and beauty consultants but the tour experience has become so popular it now welcomes guests six days a week, with limited public tours also available. A big beauty bonus: Your own customized lipstick shade, free, at the end of the tour. There’s no more IG-worthy snap than a lippie named after you. Get super pampered at the Sulwhasoo flagship store
Sulwhasoo is, to the uninitiated, the La Mer of Asian skincare. Sulwhasoo’s flagship store, five-stories of pure luxury—is an ode to the lantern, which is an important Asian symbol.
Navigating through the building, customers experience changes in atmosphere. The basement spa with its dark brick walls, earthy grey stone treatment rooms, and warm crafted wood floors has a sense of intimacy. Linger all you want at the very intimate and posh luxury retail counters, but don’t forget to book a spa appointment—there’s nothing like the most luxurious Korean skin products lovingly massaged on your skin to send you off to La-La-Land. Rub elbows with the biggest stars at Grevin Wax Museum
Welcome to Hallyuwood! Grevin Wax Museum’s South Korea branch— it has museums in Paris, Montreal, and Prague—is a veritable treasure trove of selfie opportunities. Here you can find not just the eerily realistic figures of international celebrities like Steven Spielberg, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, and world leaders like China President Xi Jinping and former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, you can take as many photos with K Pop’s biggest stars like Kim Tae Hee, Rain, Kim Soo-hyun, Lee Min Ho, Park Shin Hye, Jang Keun-Suk, and Hyun Bin. Don’t forget to check out the Discovery Atelier, where you can check the process of making wax figures step by step, or the Artists at Work section, where you can print your face in Andy Warhol’s pop art style. The museum is chockfull of activities so you are never just a passive viewer: Test your luck in a roulette game, solve a quiz about advanced science and information technology, superimpose your face over a celeb’s, and take a picture a la Korean drama at the Hallywuood set.
www.grevin.com Experience Seoul from 500 meters up st Lotte Sky Tower
Not for the faint-hearted, Lotte’s Seoul Sky draws the adrenaline junkies (and those who really just want a crazy picture) for its “world’s highest glass-floored observation deck.” The newly opened building, which has forever changed the landscape of Seoul, has the third highest observation deck in the world. It has broken three Guinness Book of World Records, with the Sky Shuttle elevator recorded as the fastest double-deck elevator (with a speed of 600 meters per minute). The elevator also becomes a LED display that showcases Korea’s and the building’s history.
Seoul Sky provides visitors a complete view of the entire city with glass walls on all sides! On a beautiful day, you can see all the way to Incheon. Make sure your phone’s juice is full because the views are profilepicture worthy.
seoulsky.lotteworld.com Fangirl at SM Town Coex Artium
If you’re a fan of KPop groups, and you can’t catch them live in concert, tthe next best thing is to watch them on surround cinema. Head on to SMTOWN Coex Artium, an entertainment complex that is a mecca for fans who love SM Town artists like EXO, Girls’ Generation, Shinee, Super Junior, Red Velvet, and others. Called “theme park in the city,” the Artium has six full floors of K Pop merch, photo ops, and yes, the piece de resistance, the surround cinema. The fifth and sixth floors have theaters that are used for hologram concerts. Holograms! (Don’t be surprised when the audience start screaming as if they are in a real concert.) That’s how crazy it can get. At the fifth floor, you can go inside a photo box and take a very realistic photo next to your fave artist, and have it printed for a free for about 70,000 won.