Every Country Has A Past, Every City Has A Story

Get Spooked On The Dark Side Of Seoul Tour

  It was a dark and stormy night, the wind howled, and the full moon shown through the gathering storm clouds, clearly illuminating the group of huddled tourists on the bustling streets of Seoul.  The seasoned guide explains to his charges that a famous psychologist theorized that we create ghost stories and legends to give voice to our deepest fears.  Most of us, either at a sleep over with our close friends or classmates or around a campfire at summer camp have gleefully told stories that would make the hair stand up on the necks of our listeners.  Every culture has their haunted locations, ghost stories, and urban myths.  The Dark Side Of Seoul Tour will take you on a leisurely guided walking tour exploring Korea’s seedy, sometimes turbulent past and the history and legend deeply embedded in these areas of Seoul and Korea.  The bloodied past, sordid tales of political intrigue, sex, and jealousy hidden by the march of time, just waiting to be uncovered and if only briefly brought back into consciousness.

 Without spoiling the tour let’s take a look at some of Korea’s spooky past that at one time or another covered on Brent’s World, and you would never know a deeper story existed.

  Let us start with Cheonggyecheon stream, which every year hosts the Seoul Internal Lantern Festival <Click HERE to view!>,  and used to be one of the city’s main sewer canals.  In Seoul, you will hear a lot about the Joseon Dynasty.  King Yi Seong Gye had 2 queens. One from Jeonju, and one from Seoul.  The King was madly in love with the 2^nd Queen.  Queen Sindeok.   The sons of the Queen from Jeonju were never happy that their father was more enamored with Queen Sindeok then their own mother.  This lead to Queen Sindeok wanting to promote her own sons to be heir to the throne of Korea.  Queen Sindeok suddenly became ill and passed away.  This lead to one group of sons plotting to kill the other, and when the King found out (As Kings often do of such things.), he was so heartbroken he abdicated the throne and gave it to his oldest son from oldest heir on the Jeonju side.  Shortly after this a massive flood hit Seoul and took out the Gwangtonggyo bridge.  One of the main roads crossing the stream.  In a way of showing disdain for the late Queen Sindeok, and flexing his nuts to his half-brothers he decided to reuild the bridge not only using the stones from Queen Sindeok’s tomb, but moving the entire tomb, and reburying the queen upside down, the ultimate disrespect in Korean burial!

The Dead Virgin And The Day The Fish Stopped Biting.

  Way back in 2014, on our trip to Seokcho, we stopped at an interesting attraction called Haesadang park, or colloquially Penis park, so named because this cliffside park is literally strewn with these carved wood and stone penis sculptures.   As stated in the blog < Click here to view > and paraphrased here, this blatant display of sexuality is very unusual for a usually very traditional Korean society.  What exactly is the story behind these strange sculptures that fill this town?

  A long time ago in a small fishing village in Korea, a maiden went down to the sea on her wedding day and was swept away and drowned.  Her unsettled spirit being upset that she was not able to consummate her marriage with her husband cursed the ocean around the village and the fisherman were unable to catch any fish!  Faced with famine, the fishermen came up with a plan!  Each of the adult village men all went down to the sea, whipped out their manhood and depending on who is telling the story either had one large circle jerk casting their seed to the ocean, or they all urinated.  Take your pick.  Regardless, this appeased the virgin and the catch rate returned to normal.  So, these statues were built to continue to make the virgin happy thus sustaining the village.

Saenamteo – The Catholic Martyrs Shrine, the day the Han turned red with blood.

  Saenamteo was a military training ground outside the city walls of Seoul near the Han river, it was famously used as an execution ground for political prisons.  Most famously Catholic priests, missionaries, and followers.  The Christian religion was seen as a contradictory belief system to the reverence of confusion beliefs and more importantly the rule of the Joseon Kings, after all you should honor your King and Queen before honoring your father and mother!  On a day of torture and execution it was said that the Han River would run red with blood.  In the 1980’s the church of Saenamteo and martyrs’ shrine was built, the unique feature being that the building is constructed using traditional Korean architecture.  If you are interested in visiting Saenamteo, read my blog by clicking HERE.

  The Dark Side Of Seoul tour was a real interesting tour for Mi Jung and myself, although we had been to most of the areas talked about on the tour, it was really nice to get an idea of the history of those areas.  I would definitely recommend the tour as a first stop to tourists, and new arrivals to Korea as it is a great overview on what to come back and explorer.

 Reservations can be made online by clicking HERE, there are 2 tours offered, a 2 hour or 3 hour tour (Don’t worry, there are no boat rides!).
You will be contacted by your guide with the final instructions after booking.

There are 2 meeting points. 

Anguk Station Exit 2, Gahoe-dong, Seoul, South Korea
Seodaemun Station, Chunghyeon-dong, Seoul, South Korea

If you take this tour, please come back and discuss in the comments section, or the forum!

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