The Korea Herald

지나쌤

Mix of old and new best thing about Seoul, survey finds

By Korea Herald

Published : April 18, 2012 - 20:10

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Foreign survey respondents picked Seoul’s mlange of ancient and modern culture as the best thing about the city.

In the survey released Wednesday by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, foreigners chose the “cheap but quality” shopping as the second-best thing about the capital.

The 1,323 foreign respondents followed that by acknowledging the capital’s extensive subway system.

Seoul City’s survey was answered by 601 people from English-speaking countries, 604 Chinese-speakers and 118 Japanese. For two weeks the local government collected responses through its homepage, Facebook, Weibo, Yahoo Japan and other blogs and social networking sites.

The survey found that although shopping came second overall with 12.17 percent, it was first among those from Chinese-speaking countries. They also picked hallyu concerts as second.

Those from English-speaking countries chose the mix of modern and traditional cultures as Seoul’s biggest allure, with 12.19 percent overall, followed by the safety of the city.

Those from both Chinese and English-speaking countries chose the convenient and clean subway system as the third best thing about Seoul.

“I do find that the public transportation in Seoul is really convenient,” said one 24-year-old from Massachusetts. “I can get from point A to point B really quickly.”

While Japanese also chose the mix of old and new cultures, they also pegged Seoul as a city that never sleeps, and followed that with the cuisine.

According to Seoul City, there were those who chose the beautiful men and women of the capital as one of its strong points.

The survey was part of a project by the city to gather information in order to offer a better experience and keep the continued interest of foreigners.

“We plan to use the information gathered in the survey to develop content that introduces the areas that foreigners were most interested in,” said a Seoul City official.

“We will use the areas of interest as tourist items so that foreigners will feel the allure of Seoul.”

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)