Situated on the capital’s far-flung southeastern flank, Jamsil and its surrounding neighborhoods would seem like an easy place to skip during a visit, at least at first glance. After all, Seoul is a massive, sprawling metropolis with plenty of enticing destinations closer to the city center, but when you look a little closer, you can see that the Jamsil area has plenty of charms for those willing to make a trip to investigate.
Jamsil sits smack dab in the middle of Songpa-gu, Seoul’s most populous district. This, of course, means that much of the area is residential, but interspersed throughout this sea of high-rise apartment blocks are museums, cafes, great restaurants, green spaces, romantic wine bars, theme parks, and some of the best shopping the city has to offer. There’s also Jamsil Stadium, which, from April through October, hosts raucous professional baseball games, an essential experience when visiting Seoul.
The area that Jamsil calls home is a historically significant piece of land. This was once home to Wiryeseong, the capital of the Baekje Kingdom (18 BCE–AD 660). Traces of this civilization can still be found in places like the Bangi-dong Ancient Tombs, where many Baekje kings were laid to rest.
The area remained largely rural for more than a millennia, a place of bucolic rice fields and rolling hills, until the city began development in the 1960s and '70s. By the 1980s Jamsil was fully urbanized, and celebrated by hosting the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Most of the events were held in Songpa-gu, and the games’ physical legacy is embodied in gems such as Olympic Park and Sports Complex.
These days, when many Koreans think of Jamsil, the word “Lotte” springs to mind. Founded by Shin Kyuk-ho in 1948, this corporation began as a chewing gum company and has since grown to be the country’s fifth-largest conglomerate. Lotte has chosen to make Jamsil the center of its universe, in a way, since at Jamsil Station you will find Korea’s largest high-rise, Lotte World Tower, along with Lotte World Mall, Lotte Department Store, and the Lotte World theme park. The company’s handprint is large and firm, and has largely come to define the neighborhood.
Despite the big, bright, and shiny corporate presence, Jamsil still has plenty of smaller, understated pleasures such as the Songridan-gil, which sits in the shadow of Lotte World Tower. This area of old houses converted into cafes and hip restaurants will remind you that the older neighborhoods and modern malls can exist side by side. Both do their part to make the place interesting, and in a way, they represent what this dynamic city is about more than any other place in the capital.
