As you can tell from the name of this location, it’s targeted at K-pop fans (and I suspect international ones specifically).
The main attractions here are the gangnamdols and entertainment agencies. As quoted from Visit Seoul.Net, Gangnamdols ‘is a symbolic sculpture of the K-Star Road, with the symbolic images of the famous K-pop groups printed on the human-scale bear doll.’
Map of K-Star Road – good to save for future referencing! Do note that the locations of entertainment agencies may not be updated though, as JYP’s HQ has reportedly been sold off – read more here.
Unfortunately, I went on a rainy day and all the gangnamdols were wet. It didn’t stop me from taking photographs, but the gangnamdols were all dripping wet in them haha. Here are a few of my favourite groups!
One point worth noting is that some of these dolls have idols’ signatures on them, so remember to check all of the dolls carefully ~ They’re usually on the back, such as the ones on BTS:
I have a very, VERY bad feeling that their signatures will eventually be washed away by rain and snow, as you can already see how faded some of these are, so do go as soon as you can to take photographs of these before they disappear!
I also found photographs of some idols posing with their gangnamdols (B1A4, BTS, KARA etc.), you can see them here.
I’ll be covering the entertainment companies in separate posts, so do look out for that as well. As of writing this post, I currently only have the JYP one up, and will be working on the rest as soon as I can.
Overall, there’s nothing much to do here besides taking photographs and will probably only appeal to you if you’re a K-pop fan, unless you’re interested in shopping at luxury brands like LV and Gucci. As quoted from Wikipedia,
Apgujeong-dong (Korean pronunciation: [apk͈udʑʌŋdoŋ]; Hangul: 압구정동; Hanja: 狎鷗亭洞) is a ward of Gangnam-gu in Seoul, South Korea. It is considered one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in South Korea, where one square meter costs up to $10,000.
As you can tell, there’s probably nothing very affordable to do in such a wealthy neighbourhood, so I would not suggest coming here if you’re not that keen on K-pop. Alternatively, you could treat it as a ‘learning journey’ and see how the rich in Korea live. When we were there, we saw a super long queue for LV… and one of the most affordable places we could eat in was Paris Baguette.
DIRECTIONS
Address: 407, Apgujeong-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
[Subway]
Get off at Apgujeong-Rodeo Station (Bundang Line), Exit 2.
For more information, visit KTO’s website here.
THEVYPEFFECT 