Gangnam: What the Song Got Right and What It Got Wrong

PSY’s 2012 song introduced “Gangnam Style” to the world and associated the neighbourhood with a particular vision of Korean nouveau riche culture: designer goods, expensive grooming, ostentatious consumption. That vision was always somewhat satirical (PSY was born in Gangnam and the song is a critique of the aspirational culture it depicts as much as a celebration of it), but it was not entirely wrong.

Gangnam-gu is the wealthiest district in South Korea. The apartment prices are among the highest in Asia. The plastic surgery clinics (Korea has one of the highest rates of cosmetic surgery per capita in the world) are concentrated along Apgujeong-ro. The designer flagship stores are here rather than anywhere else in Seoul.

What the song and the subsequent tourist curiosity miss is that Gangnam also has substantial cultural and historic interest beyond the money: the best Buddhist temple in central Seoul, one of the more interesting contemporary art districts in East Asia, and a café and food culture that generates the trends that the rest of the country eventually follows.

Bongeunsa Temple

Bongeunsa is a 1,300-year-old Buddhist temple surrounded by glass towers in the middle of Gangnam, two minutes’ walk from COEX. The contrast is blunt: monks in grey robes crossing the courtyard while Hyundai headquarters towers above the treeline. The main hall, rebuilt in the 19th century, has a giant bronze Buddha visible from the approach path. A 23-metre carved stone Mireuk (Maitreya, the future Buddha) stands in the grounds looking back over the neighbourhood.

The temple has a Temple Stay programme: overnight or short-stay experiences involving meditation, Buddhist meals, and participation in the daily ritual cycle. It is open to non-Buddhists and has English-language support. This is one of the more grounded and less touristic ways to engage with Korean Buddhism in Seoul.

Apgujeong and Cheongdam

Apgujeong-ro and Cheongdam-dong form the fashion and luxury retail core of Gangnam. The Garosu-gil (tree-lined street) in Sinsa-dong adjacent to Apgujeong is the more accessible, less overwhelming version: independent boutiques, gallery spaces, and cafes at street level with slightly lower prices and more local character than the main Cheongdam designer strip.

The gallery district around Cheongdam has serious commercial galleries, not just fashion outposts. Lehmann Maupin and several Korean galleries with international programmes are concentrated here.

Plastic surgery consultation clinics are visible throughout the area. Gangnam has become a medical tourism destination for cosmetic procedures; the concentration of experienced surgeons and competitive pricing draws patients from China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. You will see clinics advertising in Chinese and Japanese on Apgujeong-ro.

COEX and the Starfield Library

COEX Mall is a large underground mall with the usual combination of Korean fashion brands, food courts, an aquarium, and a cinema. The Starfield Library inside COEX is the genuine draw: an extraordinary public reading space with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves rising five storeys in an atrium. It is free to enter, quieter than you expect for its fame, and photogenic in a way that has driven heavy Instagram traffic. Go in the morning on a weekday when it is actually quiet.

Where to Eat

The food options in Gangnam range from the very expensive (tasting menu restaurants in Cheongdam that compete for Michelin stars) to cheap and good.

VATOS Urban Tacos near Gangnam Station is the Seoul outpost of a Korean-Mexican fusion concept that has been running long enough to be considered a local institution. The bulgogi taco is the standard order and remains good.

For affordable Korean food, the basement food courts in COEX or the smaller malls around Gangnam Station have gukbap (beef soup with rice), sundubu jjigae (soft tofu stew), and bibimbap at prices well below street-level restaurant rates.

Baekhwa Store in Garosu-gil is a compact café that does pour-over coffee at a serious level and has good seating. It is the kind of café that Gangnam’s trend-setting culture produces regularly.

Getting Around

Gangnam Station (Lines 2 and Sinbundang Line) is the main metro hub. Apgujeong station (Line 3) and Express Bus Terminal (Lines 3, 7, and 9) serve the western and eastern edges respectively. The distances within Gangnam are large; taxis are cheap by European standards (base fare around 4,800 won) and the Kakao T app makes hailing straightforward.

Avoid Gangnam by car during rush hours (7-9am and 6-8pm weekdays). The traffic is serious.