Day Trip to Suwon

Entrance up to the gate

If you enjoy older architecture, walking, and exploring, I highly recommend visiting Suwon. It has many gates and city walls, all within walking distance of each other. In addition, it is about an hour away from Seoul. So, it makes for the perfect day trip if you want to get away from the craziness of Seoul. Even though it is known that Seoul is crazy and filled to the brim with people, it's only truly understood when seen in person.

I recommend visiting Suwon at the start of your semester, most likely before you get your FRC. But, it is still towards the middle, like a nice break from people. It is a lot of walking as the gates are all connected, so you can walk from one to another, exploring them all. It is still a bit of a distance, but it's pretty beautiful and you get to peer and look inside them, unlike in Seoul.

View from the pavilion.

Take the bus to Suwon, as it can save you so much time by taking you directly to the gates, just an hour from Seoul. My friends went to Suwon using the subway and ended up taking about an hour and an half, with half an hour spent walking from the station to the gates. The gates are already a lot of walking, so don't make it harder on yourself.