My Seoul: mobile app for foreigners

Seoul Global Center announced* Seoul city's new free mobile app for foreign residents and entrepreneurs on Android and Apple Store.

It's still young (1000-5000 downloads on GooglePlay), but already sexier than the Dasan 120 app launched two years ago (see "Get the Dasan 120 mobile app!")... which basically never got updated ever since. But Dasan 120 remains a very convenient free hotline, and this new app naturally speed dials you there anytime you need help.

On this first version of "My Seoul", practical informations for expats are already available in 5 languages (Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese - 3 more will follow: Cambodian, Tagalog and Mongolian), for the SGC's usual 'verticals' (education, visas, job info, counseling...). Maybe in further versions dynamic links and functions will be added - or for instance subway maps or links to online databases could help in the 'public transportation' chapter. Interactive / community solutions are included in the main menu, so let's see how they grow. Right now, the killer app could be the free international calls goodie.

I haven't tried everything yet, but please, dear fellow Seoulites, give it a shot: the more people try the application and give their feedback, the better. As usual, return on experience is key, and you could help hundreds of thousands of users.

My Seoul, the main menu: Seoul Life, Notice, Korean Edu, Chatting, Intl Call, Phone Book, 120 Dasan, Calc. pay, Invite Friend, ...

My Seoul, the Seoul Life menu looks definitely less dynamic, but all basic answers are available in all the main Seoul Globla Center verticals

And don't forget the other free Seoul apps: iTourSeoul (Seoul Metropolitan Government), Seoul Walking Tours (Korea Tourism Organization)...


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* see "Smartphone App for Expats ‘My Seoul’"

TempleStay? Check

For the best ad of the year, HomePlus / Cheil Worldwide sure made a splash with their QR code based 'virtual store' campaign in Seoul subway*, but I'll vote for this one instead:

Advertising is always somehow lying or selling what you don't have but here, the announcer is telling the truth and insisting on what it doesn't offer. TempleStay invites you to check in if you're not interested in the usual perks (bed, tv, phone, shopping, oversleep, neon sign, coffee, meat), but in a journey in search of yourself. The best loyalty program around.

If you're not aware of this successful program, Korean temples have always been welcoming but now, even families give it a try. The concept gained international momentum around the 2002 World Cup, to the point Jogye Order moved its TempleStay Info Center to brand new headquarters, right across Jogyesa (in 71 Gyeonji-dong, Jongno-gu, +82.2.2031.2000 - check their website eng/TempleStay.com, and the video below).

Note that KNTO has been promoting "Hanok Stay" along a similarly labelled path. Another way of experiencing a more traditional side of Korea.

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* remember "HomePlus virtual stores in Seoul subway : from your smartphone to Cannes festival screens"? The concept has been extended IRL ("HomePlus subway virtual store gets "real" (from click and mortar to billboard and click)"). That video was seen over 25,000 times, see if you can do better with this one from Arirang TV (about Songgwangsa in Suncheon, Jeollanam-do) -and don't worry, the film starts after a few seconds of test pattern:

"Global cluster building" in Seorin-dong

Seoul Metropolitan Government provided more details about their ambitious "Global Cluster Building" :

- WHAT ? The "one-stop services for Seoul expats" concept becomes brick and mortar. Imagine a 14 story (+ 5 basements) building, and under the same roof : the Seoul Global Center and its vast array of services, the Seoul Immigration Service, a few foreign Chambers of Commerce, a medical center, a cultural area... you name it*.

- WHEN ? work will start early 2011 for an inauguration planned in June 2012.

- WHERE ? Seorin-dong, Jongno-gu, next to Yeongpoong Building, and just meters away from Jonggak Station (Subway Line 1, exit #6). From this new location (right now, a 1,070 square-meter parking lot on Jongro), the Seoul Global Center will be less than 100 m away from the Korea National Tourism Association as the crow flies - humans will simply cross Cheonggyecheon at the small bridge of Gwanggyo. Note that nowadays, the trip from Taepyeongno (SGC headquarters) isn't that long either (hardly 300 m). On Cheonggyecheon and at the crossroads between Tapgol Park, Insadong, Gyeongbokgung, City hall and Deoksugung, the SGC is bound to welcome even more visitors.

While they were at it, SMG also delivered updates about their other brick and mortar projects for foreigners : following the DMC Ville (175 households in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu), Seoul will operate a second residence for foreigners in Seocho-gu (178 households, inauguration November or December 2010).

Seoul keeps upgrading its hardware and software for foreign visitors and residents at an impressive pace.

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* come to think of it, you probably will be invited to actually give it a name (just like for the new Coex global business center) : 'Global Cluster Building' is only a tentative name.

Gwanghwamun Square - Preview

Gwanghwamun Square is preparing for its inauguration on Saturday (August 1st, 2009) : most fences have been removed around the site, and a giant stage with big screens installed where The King, the way only major stars do, shall take a seat long after the party is over.

Sorry for disappointing Elvis fans : that King probably won't come. This is Sejongno, and as we saw earlier (see last year's "Gwanghwamun Square" focus on Seoul Village), King Sejong will at last be granted a statue on the avenue named after him. Different projects have been exhibited in front of Sejong Cultural Center a few months ago, but the winner is going to wait until long after the Plaza inauguration : in this (literally) double stage launch, we'll celebrate separately the opening of a new public space and the return of the King.

King Sejong's statue will be officially uncovered on October 9th, 2009... in other words : Hangeul Day (한글날). A perfect tribute to the Great Man's most beautiful gift to his country : the Korean alphabet.

I can't wait until Saturday to see Gwanghwamun Plaza without its last protecting fences. Since I leave one block away, I've been checking the working site almost every day from every angle - from the pavement, from up the staircase of the Cultural Center, from my bike... By the way : bike lanes are ready (see "Seoul loves cycling... even around Gwanghwamun !"), but only around Gyeongbokgung. One-way, painted red, and symbolically protected from car traffic by two rows of stone pavements, they have not been opened to the public ahead of the Plaza's inauguration.

The new traffic lights, joining as expected both sides of Sejongno to the Plaza's midsection, are also ready but not operational yet.

I must confess I did cross by foot today nonetheless, while the traffic was clogged at the main crossing (the only one up to now, in front of the Kyobo Building). The beautiful perspective with Gwanghwamun itself - the gate - and Bukhansan in the background was spoiled by the podium in the foreground, but the screen started flashing the new blue Gwanghwamun Square logo, so you could compare the real thing with its symbol. The logo represents the same perspective with the very same angle, but of course with the original and graceful gate, and not the colorful mock-up hiding it since the restoration of that other landmark started (I wonder how the gate - which has yet to rise from an uncompleted wall - can be ready for the King's party - but then again, I still wondered two weeks ago how the Square could be completed before August 1st).

On the square, the images representing Seoul's history were yet to be washed up from their dust, but the gentle slope leading to the underground gallery (called "Haechi Madan") and Gwanghwamun Subway was opened and fully lit, including the video screens on its sides. The slope looks much larger and nicer than on the master plan drawings. As it offers Haechi a new lair, Seoul pays another tribute to its "new" mascot, a longtime Gwanghwamun resident if I ever saw one (see "Goodbye HiSeoul, hello Haechi").

On Saturday, there shall be crowds and music, geiser fountain shows, wows and aahs. Some may complain about the lack of shade and trees, but at the end of the day, all Seoul citizens will claim the place as theirs, rediscover their history, see the heart of their city from its best angle, wonder at the incredible panorama (I don't know of many capital cities boasting such a beautiful and pristine mountain at its very center). As German-born LEE Charm (Bernard Quandt, the newly appointed head of KNTO) noticed, too many Koreans are not aware of the formidable assets of their country as a tourist destination.

At very last, Sejongno Highway, which cut in two Hanyang's historical center, is gone. Pedestrians, tourists, and Seoul lovers will quickly embrace this most vital articulation, Seoul's original and true center.

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ADDENDUM 20080731

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh ! An utterly kitsch multicolored carpet of flowers has been laid all over the square overnight. The nightmarishly kaleidoscopic disneylandesque patterns, probably a tribute to some supposedly French Garden in Michael Jackson's Neverland, reminds me of that extravagant Dutch trap for tulip tourists where I'd been unwillingly dragged back in the 90s.

Now I can't wait to see if this monstruosity will survive Saturday inauguration.

Say it ain't so, OH, please, say it ain't so.