The Subway System in South Korea
Posted on March 5, 2021 by Jada Johnson
It is no surprise to me that South Korea ranked number 7 in the world’s best public transportation. The public transportation system in South Korea was a force to be reckoned with. Going to school in Mobile, Alabama you don’t expect much from the bus system and there is no easily accessible train or subway station. So going from barely having reliable transportation to being able to catch the subway every 10 minutes was warmly welcomed.
Getting Started
To get your journey started you have to decide if you’re going to get to your destination using the subway or bus. For most of my journeys through the city, I mainly took the subway; if you’re traveling to more rural areas of Korea the subway won’t be much help, you would stick to local busses. To look up addresses and figure out which Subway stations were closest I used apps like “Naver Maps” and “KakaoMetro” both of these apps had an English option, so it was very easy to understand and use. I also didn’t have to worry about being able to understand street or subway signs because all of them also had an English translation. Once I picked out my destination I would put it into Naver Maps, and it would tell me the quickest way to get there and also the walking route to get to the closest subway or bus station. You should also make note of the time it will take you to get to and from your destination. The subways in Korea are not 24hr and they mostly stop running around midnight. If you know you’re going to be out past midnight, you might want to get a taxi home instead.
Now you may be wondering, okay I have my destination now how do I pay for it, because surely it’s not free. Well luckily at any convenience store you can purchase a rechargeable “T-money” subway card. This was probably one of the items I was looking forward to buying the most, they are known to come with a bunch of different designs, and you can even get ones with your favorite Korean celebrity on it. All I had to do was go to one of these convenience stores and ask the cashier for a T-Money card and with a little luck, and maybe some Google Translate, I was able to buy a card and load money onto it. If you don’t want to purchase a rechargeable card you can always buy a single use card at the subway station for about 1,950 Korean Won, which is about 1.65 USD.
Time to Start Your Journey
Now, you have your destination and a way to pay to get to said destination; it’s time to head to the subway. Once you arrive at the subway station, depending on which station you go to, you’ll notice there can be a lot of fun things to do inside of the station, so you may want to set some time aside to explore before you head to your destination.
Korea is known for having many underground shopping and food areas connected to subway stations. Some of the most notable ones being the Gangnam Terminal Shopping Mall, located at Gangnam Station on Line 2 of the Seoul Subway. Here you can do some shopping or grab a quick bite to eat. Me and my friends would sometimes meet in these types of underground shopping malls and hang out for a few hours and not even get on the subway to go anywhere; they are truly an experience by themselves.
One thing that I found was really unique was the various types of advertisements for various Korean celebrities. These celebrities have fan clubs that pay to have birthday advertisements put up inside of subway stations. The more popular celebrities usually have very elaborate advertisements for their birthdays or special dates. This was something I was really surprised about when I first got to Korea. This is something that I don’t really see here in America, but I think it is a really cool system and maybe we should start putting up advertisements for our favorite celebrities’ birthday. It’s not uncommon to see people taking pictures with these advertisements, including me.
After you’ve shopped, had food and maybe even taken a picture “with” your favorite Korean celebrity, you can head into the actual subway station to get on the subway. There are many signs written in English to ensure you’re on the right path. You scan your card to get through the gate and use your KakaoMetro app to figure out which direction you should head. This by far was the trickiest part for me and definitely took some time to get used to. There were multiple times where I got on a subway I thought was heading in the right direction, only to find out it was actually the wrong way and have to get off and go back in the opposite direction. I would also warn of subway lines that split to become two, you could wind up on the train going on the wrong side of the line.
One thing I love about the KakaoMetro app is it tells you which platform you should be standing on to get your subway. Once you’re on the subway, it will even tell you which exit to get off at, which side the doors are on and even when you need to get off and transfer to another subway. If you’re worried about being able to understand which stop to get off at, they have signs inside of the subway with the English translation of the stops and they also announce the names of these stops in English.
The public transportation in South Korea is something I will truly miss. It was always lively and full of people and new things to see and experience. I definitely think the U.S. could take a few notes from South Korea when it comes to public transportation.