Urban rock climbing - a popular tourist trend in Seoul

Wearing hanbok around Gyeongbok Palace, enjoying street food and shopping for branded goods and cosmetics used to be the favorite things for international tourists when coming to Korea. But now, conquering the mountains in the center of Seoul is the most popular tourist trend, including Bugak Mountain (342 meters high), Gwanak Mountain (629 meters high) or Bukhan Mountain with the highest peak of 836 meters.

Bugak Mountain offers a great view of downtown Seoul. Source: Seoul Tourism Organization.

Searching for hashtags like #seoulhiking, #hikingtourism or #hikinginseoul on Instagram now yields more than 10,000 posts. In Seoul, it has become common for foreign tourists to explore mountain trails or take photos at the top. Other experiences, such as slurping ramyeon (instant noodles) and eating gimbap (Korean seaweed rice rolls) on top of a mountain and cooling off with makgeolli (Korean rice wine) after a hike, are now popular with foreign tourists too.

Foreign tourists walk along the trail up Bugak Mountain in Seoul.

Seoul Hiking Tourism Center, located in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, is often the starting point for hiking trips. Visitors come here to rent hiking clothes, shoes, poles and other safety equipment before setting off. They walk through the city streets and head to Bugak Mountain, stretching from the entrance of Samcheong Park to Palgakjeong Pavilion and Malbawi Observatory, taking about 3 hours.

Bukhan Mountain in Seoul is considered accessible but has difficult terrain.

Tourist Catalina (from Romania), who joined about 30 foreign guests on a 3-hour hiking trip on Mt. Bugak in Seoul, said the mountains in Seoul are quite accessible.

"In Korea, it's very easy to climb mountains. In my country, we have very high mountains, but there's no infrastructure. So to get there, you actually have to take a car, and then hike for a few days. In Seoul, you can wake up one morning, want to hike, and then decide to take the subway and start hiking," she said.

Tourist Maria Jose (from Mexico) shared that eating instant noodles and gimbap together on the mountain top created a unique Korean experience: "I never thought that I would eat ramyeon noodles while hiking. So for me, climbing to the top of the mountain and enjoying ramyeon noodles was a unique experience."

Tourists try makgeolli (traditional Korean rice wine) and jeon (Korean pancake) at a restaurant after hiking in Seoul.

The number of foreigners visiting Korea's mountains is growing rapidly. The Seoul Hiking Tourism Center currently operates a total of three centers, with the first branch at Bukhansan due in 2022, Bugaksan in 2023, and most recently, Gwanaksan this year. As of early July this year, more than 95,000 people had used these centers, with more than 26,000 of them foreigners.

Sales of hiking and trekking packages to South Korea's famous mountains increased more than 120% in 2024 compared to the previous year, with visitors from the Americas, Singapore and the Philippines accounting for the majority, according to global booking platform Klook.

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Source: https://baolaocai.vn/leo-nui-trong-thanh-pho-xu-huong-du-lich-hut-khach-o-seoul-post649833.html