By Philip Iglauer
Korea has reached a milestone recently on its way to becoming a “multicultural” nation with the number of foreign residents topping 2 percent of the country’s total population.
One neighborhood of Seoul, however, has long been a nexus of international diplomacy, culture and people.
Hannam-dong marks the intersection of Seoul’s diplomatic and foreign residential neighborhoods, conveniently located near the heart of the city and nestled between Namsan and the Han River.
That’s because Hannam-dong is now what it has been historically, Korea’s representative foreign residential area. According to official figures, some 3,000 of its 22,000 households are foreign residents. That’s four times the number of foreign residents nationwide.
Plus, foreigners from all over the city frequent the neighborhood’s shops, cafes and restaurants.
Africa, Latin America, East Asian, Europe or the Middle East: You very well could meet someone from any one of these regions in Hannam-dong.
The neighborhood has long attracted foreign envoys and business executives from all over the world, because of its convenient location, its wide range of available amenities and nearby foreign schools, its low key atmosphere and villa-type homes.
One such attraction is the brainchild of restaurateur Mihal Ashminov Zelen, a neighborhood Bulgarian eatery popular among many of the foreign diplomats residing in Hannam-dong.
The district is quartered by two streets where some two dozen embassies, official diplomatic and military residences and international organizations call home.
U.S. civilian and military apartments, embassies, diplomatic and foreign corporate executive residences, and their international schools, cafes and restaurants that pepper the urbanscape give credence to the moniker Seoulites have attached to the area as a “miniglobe.”
Even the first time visitor to Hannam-dong can spot envoys and their diplomatic missions of Paraguay, Spain, Myanmar, Cote d’Ivoire, Italy, Bulgaria, and that line Hannam Boulevard.
Located along the intersecting Embassy Row, the embassies of Egypt, Angola, Mongolia, Mexico, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, can be found.
“I don’t need to go outside the neighborhood because I have everything I need right here,” said Paraguayan Ambassador to Korea Ceferino Adrian Valdez Peralta. “I do my daily walk here, I go to the Franciscan church here, where I see all the Latin American diplomats there.”
“I run into diplomats walking in the street sometimes because we walk our dogs,” he said. “I saw the Egyptian ambassador walking his dog just the other day, too.”
High-ranking government officials, including the official residences of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, also live in Hannam-dong.
Celebrity corporate executives, including Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee and LG Chairman Koo Bon-moo have picked Hannam-dong are known to have home there, too.
Initially not belonging to Yongsan ward, during the Japanese Colonial Period, Hannam-dong was just a small hamlet called Han River Village within Goyang County and lying near to the Han River.
The name “Han Nam” combines word parts from “Han River” and “Namsan,” as this region has the river on the front and the mountain at the back.
Such a location is regarded as the most auspicious and prosperous for living, raising one’s family, calling home, one according to feng shui (geomantic principles), which explains why Samsung’s CEO nestled in Hannam-dong, followed by other Korean top corporate leaders needless to mention the names of each.
All this adds up to pricey real estate.
Kim Se-mok, a realtor who specializes in finding locations for foreigners, said many business executives and foreign diplomats from countries across the face of the globe are willing to pay more to live there.
Property in the U.N. Village area is the most expensive averaging at about $40,000 per pyeong (about 1 square meter), which means your average three bedroom, two bath home in the United States ― say, a 100-pyeong property, could fetch some $4 million.
The other two most expensive areas are what locals call the Leeum Museum area, referring to the hills above Hangangjin Station, averaging at about $35,000 per pyeong and the residential area adjacent the top of Hannam Boulevard at the relatively modest $25,000.
The good news, Kim said, is that foreign residents don’t buy, but rather lease or rent month-by-month. Leasing costs, called jeonse in Korean, is less, anywhere from 30 to 80 percent of the sale price and paid as monthly rent or as a one-lump-sum deposit depending on the area of town.
Hannam-dong rates closer to 80 percent.
Just before the down economy, two new venues opened up. Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art and fashion designer Rei Kawakubo’s artsy and upscale Comme des Garcons store were launched, as well as new and hip eateries and bars in next-door district Itaewon.
Even after the global downturn, new hip cafes, restaurants and galleries are sprouting up in Hannam-dong, including a large cultural and commercial complex called Blue Square, at the top corner of the neighborhood and beside Hangangjin Station.
Some foreign envoys said they never stop finding new cafes and restaurants, and interesting distractions from their busy schedules in the neighborhood.
As a result, curious Seoulites are increasingly frequenting Hannam-dong‘s new shopping and art centers.