Ever walk through a city so fast you miss the soul of the place? Honestly, it happens to everyone in Seoul. The neon, the subways, the 24-hour hustle—it’s a lot. But there is a different way to see the capital, one that isn’t found on a standard tourist map or a grainy TikTok reel. I’m talking about the version of the city captured in Seoul’s historic walks in sketches, specifically the work of artist Janghee Lee.
Lee didn't just take photos. He sat down. He looked at the peeling paint on a 1930s-era gate. He traced the weird, jagged rooflines of Bukchon with a pen. His book, Seoul’s Historic Walks in Sketches, basically serves as a slow-motion replay of a city that usually moves at warp speed. It’s a reminder that Seoul isn't just an "antique" frozen in time; it’s more like a living organism that keeps growing over its own past.
The Art of Not Rushing
Most people do Gyeongbokgung Palace in about forty minutes. They get the photo, they see the big gate, they leave. But if you actually follow the path of Seoul’s historic walks in sketches, you start noticing things that feel almost invisible otherwise.
Take the Gwanghwamun area. You've got these massive glass towers housing hedge funds and tech giants. But right tucked behind them are tiny, crooked alleyways in Susong-dong or Cheongjin-dong that have survived the Korean War, industrialization, and the relentless march of Starbucks. Lee’s sketches capture that friction—the way a 600-year-old stone foundation sits right next to a sleek LED screen.
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Why does sketching matter more than a photo? Well, a camera captures a split second. A sketch captures a duration. When you look at his drawings of the Seoul City Wall (Hanyangdoseong), you see the different shapes of the stones. The big, rough ones are from the early Joseon era (late 1300s). The smaller, more uniform ones? Those are from the 1800s. A sketch forces you to see those layers of history. It’s kinda like reading a city’s diary.
Why Seoul’s Historic Walks in Sketches Still Matters Today
In a world where everything is digital and fleeting, these sketches feel permanent. They cover fifteen "must-see" attractions, but not in the way a brochure would. We’re talking about places like:
- Myeongdong: Not just for skincare shopping, but the site of the stunning Myeongdong Cathedral, which stood as a pro-democracy sanctuary during the 1980s.
- Jeong-dong: The first place in Korea to get "Western-style" buildings. It’s where you’ll find the beautiful red-brick walls of the Deoksugung Palace area.
- Dilkusha: A literal "House of Hope" built by an American journalist in 1923. It was forgotten for decades until someone recognized its unique architecture.
Honestly, the best part about exploring Seoul’s historic walks in sketches is the "hidden" factor. Most locals walk past these spots every single day without realizing they are standing on the site of a former royal garden or a colonial-era resistance meeting spot.
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The North vs. South Divide (Historically Speaking)
There’s a funny bit of trivia about Seoul: the "real" history is almost entirely north of the Han River (Gangbuk). While Gangnam is the shiny, rich cousin with the wide boulevards, Gangbuk is the messy, layered grandmother.
If you're looking for the vibe Lee captures, you head to the neighborhoods within the four ancient gates. This is "Hanyang." Walking through places like Hyehwa-dong or the hills of Inwangsan, you realize the city wasn't planned on a grid. It was planned according to pungsu (feng shui)—the flow of the mountains and the water. The sketches show this perfectly; the buildings don't fight the hills, they sort of nestle into them.
What You Get Wrong About Hanok Villages
People flock to Bukchon Hanok Village. It’s beautiful, sure. But there’s a misconception that these houses have been there since the 1400s. Actually, many were built in the 1920s and 30s as a form of urban "modern" housing by a developer named Jeong Segwon. He wanted to keep the Korean architectural style alive while the city was being colonized and modernized.
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When you look at the sketches of these houses, you see the "modern" touches—glass windows and electricity—mixed with the traditional giwa (tile) roofs. It’s a hybrid. It’s "K-Modern" before that was even a thing.
How to Do Your Own Sketch Walk
You don't have to be a professional artist to appreciate this. You just need to stop.
- Pick a Hub: Start at Gwanghwamun Plaza.
- Look for the "Small": Instead of the big palace, look at the stone markers on the ground. Look at the way the old drainage systems (like the Cheonggyecheon) have been reimagined.
- Find a High Point: Go to the rooftop of the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History. The view of Gyeongbokgung from above, with the Blue House (Cheong Wa Dae) and the mountains behind it, is exactly the kind of composition Lee loves.
- The Alleyway Test: If an alley looks too narrow for a car, go down it. That’s where the 100-year-old fried chicken shops and the hidden tea houses are.
The Actionable Takeaway
If you're heading to Korea or just exploring via art, don't just consume the "famous" spots. Look for the "disappearing" landscapes. Seoul is changing so fast that parts of Lee's book are already "historical" because those buildings have been replaced.
Your next step: Head to the Jongno district. Specifically, find the area around Ikseon-dong. Before it became a trendy cafe hub, it was a cluster of traditional homes for the working class. Walk through with a notebook—or even just your phone—and try to find three things that don't look like they belong in 2026. Maybe it's a rusted gate with a traditional pattern or a stone steps that have been worn down by a century of footsteps. That’s where the real Seoul is hiding.
The city isn't a museum. It's an ever-changing organism. If you look closely enough, you'll see the scars and the new skin growing over them all at once. That's the real magic of sketching the past.