Jongno 3-ga: The Insider’s Guide to the World’s Coolest Neighborhood

In 1968, a man heading into the blocks around Jongno 3-ga after dark had a good chance of walking into a wall of floodlights. Plainclothes police and reporters waited in the shadows at every entrance to what was then the biggest red light district in Seoul. Anyone who crossed the light got a polite question about his plans for the evening, followed by a camera flash in the face. The city called it Operation Butterfly. It was supposed to run for a month. Within a week, every adult business in the area had packed up and moved out toward the American military bases.Fifty-odd years later, Time Out named the same neighborhood the coolest in the world. I’ve known Jongno 3-ga since I first came to Korea over 20 years ago, and I still walk through it three nights a week. I’m glad it got the recognition. I’m less glad about the parachute influencers who now copy each other’s videos and send everyone to the same four spots. So this first episode of the ZenKimchi Korea Food & Travel Podcast is my version of the neighborhood: how it got this way, how I break it into sections, and where I actually go. How Jongno 3-ga got this wayDuring the Joseon Dynasty, this stretch sat between two market...