Ihwa Mural Village and Naksan Park

Climb east from the theaters of Daehak-ro and you reach a different Seoul: a steep hillside of small houses, stairways and lanes rising toward Naksan, the low mountain that formed the eastern guardian of the old capital. Ihwa-dong was a modest residential neighborhood until 2006, when a public art program known as the Naksan Project brought artists in to paint murals and install artworks along its alleys and stairways. The colorful results drew photographers, then dramas and variety shows filmed here, and by the 2010s Ihwa had become one of the most visited hillsides in the city. Not every resident welcomed the crowds, and in 2016 some of the most famous pieces, including a painted flower stairway, were painted over in protest at noise and intrusion. Many murals and installations remain, and new ones have appeared, but the village today is best approached as what it is: a lived-in neighborhood with art in it, rewarding to wander quietly. At the top, Naksan Park opens out along the ramparts of the Seoul City Wall, the fortification built at the founding of the capital in the 1390s that once ran around the old city's ring of mountains. Here the restored stone wall follows the ridge, and walking beside it you look west across the roofs of Jongno to the palace hills and Bugaksan, and south to N Seoul Tower. As the sun sets the wall is floodlit and the city lights come on, and the view from Naksan is one of the finest free panoramas in Seoul. The park was created in 2002 to recover the mountain's green space after decades of quarrying and development.

A good route starts at Hyehwa Station on Line 4 and walks up through the Marronnier Park area of Daehak-ro, Seoul's theater district, then climbs through the lanes of Ihwa-dong to Naksan Park. From the park you can follow the city wall trail along the outside or the inside of the ramparts down toward Dongdaemun and the Heunginjimun gate, a gentle descent of about an hour that ends near the DDP and the night markets. Reverse it if you prefer to climb from Dongdaemun. The whole loop takes two to three hours at an easy pace and is free.

Be respectful in the village. People live in these houses, and signs ask visitors to keep their voices down, not to photograph into homes and not to linger on doorsteps; go in small groups, keep music off and avoid early mornings and late evenings in the residential lanes. The stairs are steep in places and can be slippery after rain, so wear decent shoes. There are a few cafes and small shops in the village, some with rooftop terraces, and plenty of restaurants back down in Daehak-ro.

Timing matters for the view. Arrive at Naksan Park in the late afternoon, wander the wall as the light goes golden, and stay for dusk, when the floodlit wall and the city lights make for spectacular photographs. Spring blossom and autumn color along the wall are lovely too. The neighborhood pairs naturally with Changgyeonggung, a short walk west, and with a Daehak-ro theater performance, many of them nonverbal or musical shows that work without Korean.