Transportation in Seoul is one of the best systems in the world. You won’t need to look far to find a bus or a subway station and there are plenty of taxis around for the rush travellers. There are a number of things though that are very interesting about transportation in Seoul, Korea.
Tour Bus System: In Seoul, they have tourism on their mind with their every 30 minutes daily tour bus that travels all around the city to all major tourist locations. There are 3 lines for this tour bus system and each comes with a different experience. We got the Palace and Seoul Tower package, which was roughly $10 CDN for the entire day and you can buy this ticket right on the bus from the tour guide. Amazingly, the tour guide also speaks 5 languages: Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, and French. Damn I wish I had the time to learn 5 languages.
Subway System: The subway system is a vast network of lines all owned and operated by the same company. When looking at Japan, you will notice that Japan has at least 3x as many stations and more companies that operate the subway system. However, Seoul is a relatively compact city and thus does not require such a massive subway system as Tokyo. Korea also has the Korean equivalent to the Japanese bullet train called the Shinkansen. Although the Korean version of the Japanese Shinkansen is uglier and less comfy, it is still just as fast as the Shinkansen here in Japan. Also, the subway cars in Korea are much larger in comparison to the subway cars here in Japan. They are also more dirty and stinky >.<. Interestingly enough, some of the stations enclose the train line within a giant plastic box, which has doors that open when the train arrives. Apparently, there were a number of suicides and people falling on the lines that caused the government to respond by encasing the train in a giant box and only opening it when the train has stopped moving. Luckily, Tokyo does not have this problem.
Roads and Cars: The roads are relatively straight forward and are definitely not as complex as Tokyo’s road system, which was designed to confuse foreigners. About cars though, while on the tour bus, I counted the number of Hyundai cars out of 30 that I saw. It was about 70% (21) cars that I saw were Hyundai. Also, the drivers are often assholes. I was walking on the street in the photo below, and a car was coming into the crowd. While approaching us, the side mirror hit my arm. On another note, when I was waiting at a bus stop, some guy was transporting his house or something on a motorized scooter on the sidewalk. The side of his house or box or whatever hit me in the shoulder and that really hurt.
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