Recently in Seoul Category

Pack your PJs and order something yummy for breakfast, because you're all but guaranteed to feel like a kid again during your weekend stay at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill in Seoul. The 14th annual Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Fest runs through Sunday, and is sure to give you a hefty dose of all things cartoony.

The fest is a biggie. In 2006 the audience weighed in at 130,000, who came to see 194 films from 54 countries. Determined to unearth outstanding domestic and international films by long-standing and fresh talent, the July 21-25 fest is nothing if not diverse. A Friday segment titled "World Famous Directors' Early Work Special" presents exactly that; if you're a fan of chills and thrills, check out "Creepy Scary Stories for Everyone," which features an hour-and-a-half of shorts like Who Wants Some Liver Pate?, about "the tragic fate of a little sickly boy in a family of fat sloths." On Saturday evening, one theater will show five films by well-known Russian animator Alexander Petrov, including The Old Man and the Sea, a 20-minute film composed entirely by using pastel oil paintings on glass, and which won the 2000 Oscar for Best Short Film, Animated. If you're looking for something a little longer, Sunday's screening of In the Attic: Who Has a Birthday Today? is a 76-minute film by Jiri Barta from the Czech Republic about a peaceful kingdom of abandoned toys that gets turned upside down when the mean ruler of the Land of Evil falls for the sweet and beautiful doll, Buttercup. If you're an awards-show junkie, be sure to cap off the weekend by attending the SICAF2010 Awards Sunday evening.

If you can't make it to Cape Town for the World Cup, there's no need to get your Adidas shorts in a twist. Whether you're a soccer lover or a fan of big boisterous crowds celebrating an international event, there are plenty of viewing options in the States and beyond. Some highlights:

Beijing: Paddy O'Shea's has the unique honor of being the city's only Irish-owned and Irish-managed Irish bar, and it plans to show the World Cup on plenty of screens throughout the bar's two floors. Stay at: The St. Regis Beijing.

Chicago: The city's three SmallBar locations are big of beer - and soccer, too. Opening half-an-hour before each match, played on new HD flatscreens, the bar is handing out prizes to loyal watchers: Check out 4 matches and get a comp beer; watch more than 60, and you'll net yourself a 2010 World Cup Jersey. Stay at: W Chicago Lakeshore.

London: The HMV Apollo has seen some big events - 38 Beatles gigs and David Bowie's final turn as Ziggy Stardust, to name a few - and will be showing all the matches live on a screen that's three times the width of a soccer goal. Stay at: Sheraton Park Tower, London.

Munich: The well-known nightclub P1 will show the matches in style on plenty of high-resolution screens. If the weather is good, you can experience the World Cup almost as the fans do - outdoors, on P1's roofed terrace. Stay at: Four Points By Sheraton Munich Olympiapark.

By any measure, Seoul is a high-tech city, with glassy skyscrapers, glimmering lights, and video screens broadcasting fantastical visions from every angle, but ancient Korean traditions can still be found, if you know where to look. Those who wish to experience Korea as it once was should visit Seoul's Bukchon Hanok Village, a neighborhood of winding lanes, picturesque courtyards, and beautifully restored wooden homes called hanok. The area was founded in 1392 as an enclave for the aristocracy, and it soon became a center for arts and culture that carried great influence with successive dynasties. Today, visitors can stroll past more than 900 houses, some of which date back hundreds of years, to see what Seoul looked like before technology changed the cityscape forever. Take a walking tour and get a feel for hanok life, drop by the cultural center, or enjoy some food or a cup of tea at one of several Bukchon restaurants. The slow, deliberate lifestyle provides a refreshing counterbalance to the fast pace of 21st century Seoul. Starwood has three Seoul properties, including the chic W Seoul - Walkerhill.

[image via visitseoul.net]

The South Korean capital of Seoul is a bustling metropolis of ten million people, but it is also blessed with a range of picturesque mountains which provide a place of rest and recreation to its many overworked and overstressed residents. Mount Suraksan, Mount Dobong, and Mount Namsan all stand majestically over the city, each offering a different experience to the visitor.

Mount Suraksan, for example, is a place of great natural beauty, where visitors pass three waterfalls on their way to the 637-meter peak. The somewhat taller Dobong, meanwhile, consists of multiple peaks, and offers a good workout for the intrepid adventurers who come to savor breathtaking views of Seoul. The most famous of all is Mount Namsan, which is located in central Seoul. This 252-meter hill is pretty manageable, as visitors can take a cable car all the way to the summit. There they can enjoy the amenities of a small mountaintop town and even visit the N Seoul Tower, which rises nearly 237 meters from the summit, nearly doubling the height of the mountain. On a clear day, visitors can see over 25 miles from the tower's observation deck and gourmet restaurant. Now that's what I call mountain climbing. Starwood has three properties in Seoul: the Westin Chosun, Busan, the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill, and the sleek W Seoul - Walkerhill.

With so much of South Korea racing into the future, Seoul's Chongdong Theatre is one place where traditional Korean culture continues to thrive. While the theater itself dates back only to 1995, it was built as a reproduction of Wongaksa Theater, the first modern theater in Korea which was in operation during the early 1900's. The Chongdong Theatre carries on the Wongaksa tradition, staging shows representing the four genres of traditional Korean performing arts: traditional dance, pungmul (Korean drumming), sori (voice and music), and musical instrument performance. I'm particularly intrigued by the pungmul, which refers to the name of the group of four instruments used in samul nori, a genre of percussion music that always uses a kwaengwari (small gong), jing (large gong), janggu (hourglass-shaped drum), and buk (bass drum). Performances at the Chongdong are held every day throughout the year, so while it's always best to have a reservation for this somewhat intimate venue (400 seats), you'll probably have little trouble scoring a ticket for most events. Whichever performance you attend, expect a more social theater experience than you'd find in the west: audiences enjoy complimentary green tea prior to curtain time, and get to take to the stage and mingle with performers afterwards, often getting swept up into impromptu dance lessons and Korean-style conga lines. How's that for immersing yourself in a different culture? Starwood has three properties in Seoul, the W Seoul - Walkerhill, the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill, and the Westin Chosun Seoul.