Riding the rails

Our first experience with the Seoul subway was way back at the start of December. Jonathan and I took Seoul subway Line 1 from Cheonan to Hoegi station in Seoul where we met our friend Renee. She gave us a lovely first taste of Seoul. But that evening, instead of taking the two and a half hour subway ride back to Cheonan we opted for the KTX for our return trip.

Our next subway experience took place while we were visiting Busan. We didn't realize it at the time, but Busan was actually a great place to learn how to use the Korean subway system. Busan currently only has four subway lines and we quite quickly learned how to navigate our way through the city.

Busan subway map

 At the end of our Christmas break we headed back to Seoul to begin our new jobs. And we were very glad we'd had the learner course in Busan. Seoul subway system has more than 10 lines and, many times, countless routes to get wherever you're headed. It can get a little confusing. (Especially when you happen upon a subway station that doesn't have a single subway map outside the turnstiles...a situation that happened to us in mid-January. We ended up just guessing which line would be best to take and didn't make too bad of a choice. We just had to make one transfer to make it back to our familiar Hoegi station.) Anyway, we've since acquired English subway maps from generous coworkers and have been improving our subway-smarts ever since.

Seoul subway map

So when my friend Renee, who is now back home in the U.S., posted the following video on Facebook, I immediately knew it would make it on our blog. The song in the video is based on the Seoul subway transfer song. Every time the subway gets to a station where travelers can transfer to another subway line, that song plays as a reminder to get off if that is your transfer. It's quite a handy feature and the tune is pretty catchy. It can get stuck in your head for hours... Enjoy! (Warning, the video showcases a remix version of the song, so beware. Not all audiences might appreciate it.)

Subway maps from exploringkorea.com.