By Lee Suh-yoon
Seoul is not a city best known for preserving its past.
Much of the city's dense concrete landscape was formed over the past few decades by top-down industrialization. The lack of historical layers and diversity in the city's contours ― except for a few restored ancient palaces ― has earned it the nickname "a city with no soul."
The city's recent rise as a tourist destination has made the identity crisis more acute, as it struggles to offer visitors something deeper than mass consumer culture and endless shopping avenues.
Faced with the need to present an authentic identity to outsiders as well as Koreans, the city decided to take stock of what it had. In 2012, Seoul started compiling a list of "future heritage" sites that embody the city's recent industrial growth and political turmoil.
The sites are rarely aesthetically pleasing and some are restaurants or shops that are still in operation, passed down generations in one family. All represent a part of Seoul that is disappearing quickly with the city's development and the shift to an IT-based service economy.
On Dec. 27, the city announced 14 new additions to the list ― including the city's landmark tower, a bakery, and a few novels ― bringing the total number of Seoul's future heritages to 461.
"Though these future heritage sites seem unremarkable in our present everyday lives, they will be valuable cultural, historical resources for the next generation," Seo Jung-hyup, head of Seoul Metropolitan Government's culture department, said after announcing the new additions. "By preserving and using these future heritages, we will be able to establish the cultural identity of Seoul."
Below are some of the new additions.
N Seoul Tower
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| Chinese tourists climb to N Seoul Tower in this June photo. / Korea Times file |
N Seoul Tower, informally known as Namsan Tower, was built in 1975 as the city's first general broadcast tower. Its cylinder-shaped observation deck was added later and opened to the public in 1980. Though only 236 meters tall, the tower's location atop Mount Nam, a mountain standing 243 meters above sea level at the center of Seoul, makes it a perfect city-viewing observatory. This local landmark still provides TV broadcasts to almost half of Seoul's residents.
Pai Chai High School Appenzeller Noble Memorial Museum
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| Pai Chai High School Appenzeller Noble Memorial Museum / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government |
Pai Chai High School's memorial hall named after the school's founders ― Methodist missionaries Henry Appenzeller and William Noble ― has a unique history. Pai Chai High School was one of the famed academic institutions that were relocated to Gangnam, south of the Han River, in the 1980s to draw people away from the overcrowded old downtown above the river.
The Appenzeller Noble Memorial Museum was rebuilt in the image of its original 1923 building in Jongno, preserving the construction style of that period.
Napoleon Bakery
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| Napoleon Bakery (photo taken between 1979 and 1981) / Courtesy of Napoleon Bakery |
Opened in 1968 and passed down within one family, Napoleon Bakery is considered one of the top three bakeries in Seoul. Though it now has over a dozen branch stores across the country, the original store is located in Seongbuk-gu, northeastern Seoul.
Napoleon Bakery is often called "the academy" in the industry, as its kitchens consistently produce the country's top bakers. Though it experiments with different breads and confectionaries, one of its most popular items is still the good old red bean paste bun.
Gyeongbokgung Station
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| Inside Gyeongbokgung Station on Seoul Metro Line 3 / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government |
Unlike others, Gyeongbokgung Station got its own art exhibition hall when it was built in 1985. The station was chosen as a future heritage site for its "harmonizing of traditional aesthetics and advanced construction methods," the review panel said.
And books
Seven of the new additions to the heritage list are well-known novels "Wild Rose," "Korean," and "Novelist Gubo's Daily Life"; essays "The Tofu Seller," "20 Years at Myeongdong," and "Garam Diary"; and the cartoon "An Imaginary Point of View."
The creative pieces vividly capture the city's scenery and people in the time frame between the 1920s and 1970s and are mostly set in the old downtown area of Seoul.
Previously added sites on the Seoul future heritage list include Euljiro Nogari pub alley, Noryangjin hagwon town, and Haebangchon's 108 Stairway. A full list can be found at futureheritage.seoul.go.kr (only in Korean).
