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Fortress wall and stream

Seoul

Photo: Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disaster HQ · CC BY-SA 4.0
Night walk3h

Naksan Park fortress wall at dusk, then down to the Cheonggyecheon stream lights.

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✨ About this walk

🌙 If I could take a first-time visitor on just one evening walk in Seoul, it would be this one. Naksan is a tiny hill, only 125 m, but stand on its old city wall at sunset and the whole of Jongno, Bukhansan and Namsan Tower are laid out in front of you, for free.

Then it only gets easier. The wall carries you downhill to Dongdaemun gate, and the Cheonggyecheon stream, lit up and full of life after dark, carries you 3.3 km west through the old city to Cheonggye Plaza. 5.6 km, almost all downhill or flat, with dinner at Gwangjang Market halfway.

🚶 The route

  1. Naksan Park entrance on the Dongsung-dong side, 10 min uphill from Hyehwa Station exit 2: the park path to the central plaza and the small exhibition hall on the wall's history.
  2. First View Plaza: panorama west over Jongno, Bukhansan and N Seoul Tower. Best light at sunset.
  3. Join the Seoul City Wall and keep it on your left all the way down. The first secret gate opens onto Ihwa Mural Village and the angel-wings mural 100 m down the lane. Residents live here, so keep quiet.
  4. Heunginjimun Park above the road, then Dongdaemun gate itself in the middle of the junction. The silver curves of Dongdaemun Design Plaza are a short detour south.
  5. Down the stairs at Cheonggyecheon Fashion Plaza and upstream along the water: the Jeon Tae-il bridge, Gwangjang Market overhead at Saebyeok-dari, the Sewoon arcade sky deck.
  6. The 192 m ceramic mural of King Jeongjo's procession, Gwangtonggyo, the oldest stone bridge on the stream, and the candle fountain at Cheonggye Plaza. Gwanghwamun and City Hall stations are minutes away.

💡 Good to know

  • 🚇 Getting there: Hyehwa Station (line 4), exit 2, then through the Daehangno theatre quarter and up Naksan-gil.
  • 🍜 Gwangjang Market, directly above the stream halfway along, is the dinner stop: bindaetteok mung-bean pancakes, mayak gimbap and yukhoe. Most stalls run until late evening.
  • 🔦 The wall path is steps and slopes with dark patches between the lit sections; a phone torch helps. The stream walkway is flat and lit.
  • 📍 The stream walkway closes after heavy rain. Toilets at the Naksan central plaza.
  • #Seoul
  • #NightWalk
  • #Naksan
  • #SeoulCityWall
  • #Cheonggyecheon
  • #Dongdaemun
  • #GwangjangMarket
  • #SunsetView
  • #KoreaTravel