Street stall in suburban Seoul

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Korea

The mathematics of vertigo, from the Grand Hyatt in Seoul

Spider art at a gallery in Seoul.

Sculpture in a park, Seoul, South Korea. Maybe three storeys high?

The almost sculpted symmetry of security. At the DMZ on the South Korean side

Sculpture in a park in South Korea

At the DMZ in South Korea looking north. Note how the guards on the right and left only reveal half of their body as they stand at the corner of the building. Must be hard looking at a wall with one eye.

A bent building in central Seoul where some of the architecture can be challenging and beguiling.

Well, if Rolf Harris can murder Led Zepp's Stairway to Heaven why shouldn't these people do the same to his classic on a Korean television show?

A gentleman in some civic administrative department in the Seoul Metropolitan Government spoke of how they planned to standardise signage around the city. Good luck.

The spectacular Nuritkum Business Tower in Mapo-ga, Seoul.

Something old, something new and something blue in central Seoul.

Lanterns at the old Buddhist temple in central Seoul.

What were the kids -- or advertisers -- in South Korea thinking in the late 50s?

A walk across the rooftops in the old quarter of Seoul. Houses from the Twenties and Thirties which were lucky to survive the Korean War.

From the 12th floor of the handsome Grand Hyatt in Seoul, South Korea looking towards the Han River.

This is cheating a little because my view from the Grand Hyatt in Seoul (see previous photo) was actually the other way. But from the lift lobby outside my door you got this view of the Seoul Tower.

Scenes you don't often see in Seoul, an empty subway. This was, unbelieveably, Noksapyeong Station near every-busy Incheon at 9am on a Saturday.

The central city suburbs west of Mt Namsan in Seoul.

Shell-like sculpture by Claes Oldenburg at the start of newly developed Cheonggyecheon (stream) in Seoul.

White lanterns at the old Buddhist temple in central Seoul, South Korea.

Ceiling reflection of chairs in the expansive foyer of the new W Hotel in Seoul, South Korea. An inspired designer's dream realised.

The Nuritkum Tower in Mapo-gu, Seoul.

Detail of decorative painting on beams at the old Buddhist temple in central Seoul, South Korea.

Lanterns and shadows at the old Buddhist temple in Seoul.

Known as No 31 Gahoe-dong Hanok Village, this old street is a must-see in Seoul, not the least for the view from the top which looks back down past these old houses to the modern city.

The endless corridors of the Grand Hyatt in Seoul.

The jigsaw puzzle architecture of the Jongno Tower in Seoul, South Korea

Wall art beside Cheonggye Stream in central Seoul which illustrates the royal procession of King Jeongjo in 1795 with an entourage of 1,779 people and 779 horses. A long, documentary mural based on the commemorative scroll he commissioned.

Hands of a gayageum player in Seoul. The gayageum is a traditional Korean stringed instrument once played in the royal courts but now popularised through the fusion gugak movement which emerged in the 80s, traditional instruments alongside synthesisers.

View from an old suburb of Seoul to the modern city.

Dawn over the mountains and high-rise apartments of Seoul.

Seoul is full of interesting juxtapositions: the old and the new . . . and next to the Ahnkook Zen Centre is this, the Museum of Chicken Art. (The Owl Museum is nearby also, but that's another story)

In the Dunk "Be True" Gallery in Insa-dong, Seoul. Sponsored by Nike, of course.

Lanterns at the old Buddhist temple in central Seoul.

Street scene in Seoul, in the hip and fashionable part of town too.

The hand of master gayageum player Byungki Hwang who rescued the instrument and the traditional music of Korea from being lost after the war.

It cannot be denied, Hollywood is the international language. This in South Korea -- although I doubt Indie is big in the North.

A small part of the collection of toy soldiers in a "museum" in Insa-dong, Seoul. This place was a treasure chest of kitsch and classical, old movie posters, radios and stereos, collectables and the crass. I loved it.

Yet another street festival and parade in Seoul.

The W Hotel-Walkerhill in Seoul, South Korea. Breathtaking hi-tech decor inside too, including digital panels that responded to movement and created changing graphics on screens. One lift had overhead handles like in subways cars.

The changing of the guard outside the Dunkin' Donut in central Seoul, South Korea where sartorial tradition and contemporary commerce are happy bedfellows. (Actually guard changing at the Deoksugung Palace next door.)

Doesn't look much but it is one of the few remaining homes of the Japanese colonial period in Seoul. Small and inward-looking. And crumbling to pieces.

Art in the Dunk Gallery in Insa-dong, Seoul.

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