Key takeaways
Oksu-dong has recently picked up the nickname "the new Apgujeong" (a play on Apgujeong-dong, Seoul's well-known wealthy Gangnam neighborhood), as young, financially well-off households — many from Gangnam — move in. Fact But just one generation ago, this was such a textbook example of a hillside slum that it became the setting for a television drama.
The ones who benefit are the new residents enjoying the asset value of newly built, river-view apartments. The ones who bore the cost were the original residents forced to leave their homes during redevelopment. And the ones left to live with the outcome are today's visitors, who encounter only half this hillside's history.
What to look for on site
- The contrast between "up-and-coming enclave" messaging and records of the shantytown era
- The physical boundary between surviving old alleys and new apartment complexes
- Memories of this hillside slum preserved in local archives and exhibitions
A structural question worth carrying with you
Does remembering this hillside only as a wealthy enclave erase half the history of the people who actually lived here? FIT TRIP won't answer that for you. But it's worth carrying the question as you walk.