Dutch YouTuber aims to explore all 467 of Seoul's neighborhoods

Dutch YouTuber Bart van Genugten surveys Seoul's landscape during the filming of an upcoming video on one of the city's 467 neighborhoods for his "Welcome to My Dong" video series, Sept. 24. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

By Jon Dunbar

Bart van Genugten wants to visit every neighborhood of Seoul. The city has 467 administrative divisions, known as "dong," in Korean, and the Dutch national has already checked a decent number off his list, in his YouTube video series, "Welcome to My Dong."

"Once I promise myself to do something, I tend to keep that promise," he told The Korea Times about his prospects of reaching that goal. "It may take me four to six years without any distractions."

He's already visited 50 dongs creating 35 videos and 36 shorts on his YouTube channel, iGoBart, which has over 193,000 subscribers.

"All I have discovered, being 50 neighborhoods into the project, is that every dong has something interesting, no matter how small, they all have something worthy of a visit, and I want to show this to the world," he said. "Seoul is more than only the famous landmarks and has so much more to offer if you’re curious. I wish more creators did so."

He began the project when he noticed that most creators, influencers and government agencies promoting Korea online tend to focus on the same well-known local destinations or what's trending at the moment. He cited popular tourist sites like Gwangjang Market, Lotte World Tower and Gyeongbok Palace, which have been covered countless times ― "I don't blame them!" he added, acknowledging their value.

"I also often felt an absence of depth in the content and, therefore, a missed opportunity to understand and see other beautiful or exciting faces of Seoul."

Then one day he was walking through an otherwise nondescript, lesser-known neighborhood when he started appreciating its beauty. Looking into it later, he learned that the area had some interesting history, which was known only to a few local residents and experts. "I came up with the idea to systematically explore and learn about every neighborhood one by one and try to dig up as much history, culture, stories, events, architecture, you name it, to somehow define the area based on my own experience."

He inaugurated the series with a video centered around Jongno, the main street through downtown Seoul, checking four dongs off his list and asking why the area's alleyways are disappearing. Next, he hit up Changsin-dong, followed by Junggye-dong where he pondered "Am I weird thinking that Korean Moon Village is beautiful?" After that, he went to Yeouido-dong to explore the "secrets hidden among the skyscrapers of Yeouido" and then Sangam-dong, which was "built on top of trash."

His videos frequently rely on interviews with locals as well as experts familiar with the dongs he visits. For his Insa-dong video, he's joined by Korea tourism scholar David A. Mason. When he explores Jingwan-dong, he climbs up Mount Inwang with Shawn Morrissey, one of the guides with The Dark Side of Seoul Ghost Walk, and has a close-up look at several shaman sites on the urban mountain. And he follows urban explorer Ryan Berkebile into a redevelopment zone in Heukseok-dong.

"Some neighborhoods are so unknown, even to the Korean internet, that I have only one option: to invite a guide who knows the ins and outs and has done the research already," Bart said. "It also keeps the series fresh and shows my audience that some people have a unique knowledge of Korea. Some history or stories can be said a hundred times better by a specific expert than me."

When he visits these areas, he gazes into them without flinching, ready to tell their authentic stories ― even ones many people might not want coming out. Considering the subject matter as well as the number of views his videos get, it's not too common for his comments sections to fill with arguments.

"I don’t want this content to be influenced by anyone, and whatever controversies are to be found will also be covered," he said. "I don’t want to avoid controversies ― there are many in Korea. "At first, I tried to make my videos trigger as few people as possible, but it didn’t work ― you become like anyone else and lose character and yourself. Along the way, I learned how to phrase matters so that it won’t trigger too strong of a reaction, but I want to stay as unfiltered as possible."

In the streets, when he's recording the videos, he has only had one ugly encounter so far.

"I was filming a redevelopment area in Yeonhui-dong, interviewing one of the tenants about when he had to move out when suddenly, a man in a black self-made security T-shirt ordered me to stop filming," Bart said. "I was on a public road, interviewing someone who still lived there legally. He kept harassing me to stop. There wasn't a sign or fenced road or anything. According to the people in the comment section, the man had no right to tell me to stop, but that this is part of a more complicated redevelopment game I don't know much about."

Bart also has produced video series on his visit to North Korea, meeting Korean War veterans, cycling around Korea and tracing the story of shipwrecked Dutchman Henrik Hamel in Korea. He has also released a book in Korean about visiting North Korea, which he said will be released in an English edition soon.

As he keeps accumulating all these stories and laying bare the country's face, he seems only to be falling more in love with Korea. His first time here was in 2014 when he took a two-month language course at Sungkyunkwan University. He returned in 2017 as part of a six-month backpacking trip through East and Southeast Asia.

"Korea was by far my favorite country in terms of comfort, culture, food and all, so I decided to return at the end of my trip from Myanmar and stay as long as possible," he said. "Now six years later, I’m still here with no regrets."

Visit Bart's YouTube channel @iGoBart to see more of his videos.