The south face of Namsan, running down to the Han. Itaewon grew up against the wall of a foreign garrison and still reads that way — a mosque, an antique trade started by departing US servicemen, and forty-odd halal kitchens inside five minutes' walk of one subway exit. Hannam-dong, east of the tunnel, is the opposite: quiet money, embassies, and in the last five years the densest concentration of blue-chip contemporary art galleries in Asia. Uphill to the west, Haebangchon and Gyeongnidan-gil are the cheap-rent overflow that got expensive and then partly emptied out again. It is the least Korean-feeling district in Seoul and the one most changed by a single night.
Who it's for: Museum people above all — Leeum, the National Museum of Korea and the War Memorial are all here or a short ride away, and the last two are free. Anyone who wants a break from Korean food: this is where Seoul keeps its Turkish, Pakistani, Thai and Texan kitchens, and they are the real thing rather than tourist approximations. Gallery-hoppers, who can walk Pace, Thaddaeus Ropac and Leeum in an afternoon without a taxi. Muslim travellers, for whom this is effectively the only district in Seoul with a real halal infrastructure.