50 reasons why Seoul is the world's greatest city

[bluesky79]

50 reasons why Seoul is the world's greatest city There's a reason Asian tourists have ranked Seoul as their favorite world city three years in a row. Actually, there are 50 of them..

CNNGo, the 24-hour news channel’s Asian culture website, on Wednesday offered "50 reasons why Seoul is the world's greatest city." It also describes Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-na as "the pride of every Korean's heart."

Besides Kim, which it calls "an ice princess you actually like," CNNGo also lists Korean food including galbi (grilled beef ribs), kimchi, bibimbap (rice with mixed vegetables and meat) and live squid, actresses who lead the Korean Wave, G-Dragon of the popular boy band Big Bang, Incheon International Airport, COEX, and Korean sauna or jjimjilbang.

Seoul also boasts the "wildest celebrity scandal" involving the divorce of Korea's "cultural president" Seo Tai-ji and actress Lee Ji-ah, according to the site.

 

[Mad Scientist]

I've been to Korea 8 or 9 times from 1983 to 1995. They eat so so much Kimchee that the whole country smells like that stuff. Much of the country has an open sewer system called "benjyo ditches". Water runs over a deep layer of brown slime and you can probably guess what that is.

When the sun rises in the summer months it warms the ditches which then give their "aroma". Korea is called "Land of the Morning Calm" but we always called it "Land of the Morning Stench".

In the winter months the ground freezes solid so we had to build whatever fighting positions needed above ground. Korean winter is interesting (maybe because it's a peninsula) in that there is no "indian summer" where it gets cold, warms up a bit then gets cold for winter. Nope, it starts getting cold around September 1st, it's snowing by the 15th and the ground is frozen solid by the end of the month.

The Koreans use a type of charcoal heating system called "andol" and it gives off this strange smell that I can only describe as a combination of charcoal and hairspray. Like most things that smell in Korea it's overwhelming at times. The Koreans call it "pungent".

All that considered, I still had lot's of great times there.

 

[California Girl]

Link?

 

[LumpyPostage]

What are the 50 reasons? I know they have Krispy Kreme, but so do a lot of cities.