DISCOVERING SEOUL, ONE SUBWAY STOP AT A TIME Whenever I rode the subway and the train pulled into a new station, the same thought would creep up: What if I just got off here? What’s up there? I began visiting random subway stations across the capital, trying to look at my surroundings more deliberately, more closely, and from new perspectives. This project has taken me to traditional markets, ancient historical sites, industrial zones, and the city’s trendiest neighborhoods. It’s also given me a chance to meet some of the people who live in those places and who make Seoul the vibrant city it is: market vendors, artists, blacksmiths, and others. Like Korea and Koreans, Seoul is constantly changing, trying to figure out what it is and what it wants to be, and it’s this dynamism and unpredictability that, while making the city difficult to know, also make it so fascinating. As in the best romances, the mystery is never lost. The city is never figured out; the sense of discovery never disappears.