Seoul Off the Beaten Path Tips by meetkorea

You can see Cyrillic (Russian) words everywhere in the Central Asia Town located in Guanghee-dong, downtown Seoul. In this area, signboards of restaurants, fried chicken houses, cafes and video shops are all written in Russian. You can even see a Cyrillic warning of a ferocious dog at the end of an alley here.

The town is only four to five years old, a newcomer among the foreigners’ districts in Korea. But it has a different history from other similar communities in Seoul. Currently, most foreigners’ districts which have recently been established are located close to industrial complexes such as Kuro in Seoul and Banwol in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. However, there is no industrial park in Guanghee-dong and neither do many foreigners come to visit the area. How then was the Central Asia Village formed here

As soon as you enter the district starting from Beolwoomul Road, you feel as if you are in a remote foreign country. In particular, New Gumho Town, a 10-story building standing on the roadside, has put up an office information board completely written in Russian. The building’s elevator wall covered with Cyrillic commercial stickers give visitors a brief illusion that they are in a store in a city of Uzbekistan. Most companies in this building, also known as ‘Mongol Tower,’ are forwarding agents, with a few employment agencies for job seekers from Central Asia.

Hidden in the small alleys crossing Beolwoomul Road are the truly ‘exotic’ features of this area. Both sides of the alley are filled with rows of restaurants carrying Cyrillic signs, all of them frequented by Central Asians seeking to ease their homesickness with home-style food and drink. Among them, a Russian restaurant named “Cry NodNoi” on the Samsong street behind the Guanghee Building has become popular among Koreans who want to taste exotic food. “Cry NodNoi”, meaning ‘my hometown place’ in Kazakh, serves Russian and Kazakh food.

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Other Contact: Foreigners’ Towns in Seoul1