Even before our trip to South Korea, I did some research about the public transportations, I came across the Seoul Metro Map, and honestly just looking at it would make you feel so lost already, a friend of ours who lives in Korea said the metro map is very easy to understand specially when we get there, I have also asked a Korean Schoolmate about certain things about the metro.
Every tourist should go grab a Metro Map from the Information Office located in every station, the map you need is suppose to be as big as a long bond paper so it's easy to fold and easy to keep, what we got was a big map which was pretty useless since it was really big and and confusing.
The Seoul Metro Map is color-coded, so it's easier to know where to transfer lanes.
#1 tip to not get lost in the metro? Always know your stop, and count how many stops before your destination
(Ex. LINE 2 Hongik University -> City Hall)
If you still can't understand the map, you can always ask for directions, Koreans are very helpful, they will help you regardless if they can't speak english :))
To make your travel easier, it's recommended to have a 'Seoul City Pass' known as "T-Money" in Korea, it's very convenient and easy to use, and you can buy this in any Convenient store.
South Korea has a lot of Convenient stores around [GS25, Family Mart, 7Eleven, Mini stop]
What is T-Money? It's just basically a card you can use to ride the Train, Taxi, and Bus, you can even use it to pay in convenient stores.
We bought our card at GS25 in Incheon International Airport for 3000 Won, you have to load it first before you can use it, and the term Koreans use is "Re-charge" if you say "Load" they would only get confused, especially if the workers can't speak english. You just have to look for the T-Money Logo posted either on the counter or on the glass of the store.
You can practically load this anywhere, there are Recharging Machines in the Train Stations too!
For more information about T-Money, head to their
Official Site.
When you walk around certain stations you may notice a yellow line along the pathway, this is to know which side you are suppose to walk to, outbound or inbound so to speak.
If you want to commute at a less crowded time, around 6am-7am would be great.
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Seoul Station |
I actually enjoyed standing during the whole train ride, and usually when you ride the train during a later time, almost all the seats are taken, and you'll even see girls in very high heels standing as well or walking in the middle while texting, and if you're gonna ask if boys give their seats for girls? Yes, but it's very rare, usually they only give their chairs to the elderly.
I forgot to mention that there are actually designated seats for the elderly, women with babies, and pregnant women, the seats are usually color-coded either Blue or Red, be careful when seating at those areas, you will get either nagged on or be stared at if you sit there!