Wednesday, January 31, 2007

The Subway

Now I must seem like a small town girl because the subway here is amazing and I always talk about how much I love the subway. True, I'm from Portland, which apparently is huge on public transportation (you can read more about that here), but I drove a car in Portland, and Portland's wonderful mass transit has been built from a wide puzzle of buses, one light rail line (that has recently evolved a little more), and a streetcar that is fairly recent as well. So, to me, the subway seems pretty awesome.

Here's a little background about the Seoul subway, and easy hints.

The Seoul subway system is made up, essentially, of 10 lines that connect all of Seoul and the outerlying suburbs to the South and West. This includes the international airport of Incheon, which is approximately an hour west of central Seoul by car. Many of the lines intersect and you can transfer at many stops.

So here are some things that are commonly involved in riding the subway.

Navigating the Subway System
1) Each subway station (or stop) has multiple exits that are on either side of the main vehicle road, and even on the same side of the road, may spit you out walking in a certain direction. You can enter at any of these exits.

2) Inside each subway station, and near each exit is a map of many things. You can usually find a map of the station (a layout of emergency exits, exits to the street, and how to get to the actually train).

3) The first level, usually known as B1, can have a variety of things, or nothing at all, it all depends on the station. Common sights are small stores and bakeries. One station closest to us only has maybe 4 stores, while the other one located in the other direction from our apartment has quite a few more, it being a transfer stop and a popular destination.

4) Buy your ticket. You can go up to the window and tell them your destination stop, and they will give you a ticket. However, speaking Korean very roughly as a foreigner, the best idea is to have a T-money card. You can continually put money on this card either by giving the card to the teller and giving them money, or buy putting it into a little sensor machine and feeding money to the machine (which I just learned about in the last month).

5) Turnstiles. You either feed the turnstile your ticket or slide your card (even in your wallet or purse) over the sensor on the top. I keep my T-Money card in my wallet and just scan my wallet and it works. Some stations have actual turnstiles, while most others you walk through, but if you don't scan or stick in a ticket, it senses that and it throws up barriers. I've also learned you can't walk too fast through it (throwing your card up there and moving at the same time) or it throws up those barriers and you're likely to fall over them.

6) make your way down to the subway platform (usually another story or two down) and wait for your train at the designated spots. Koreans are VERY uniform about how they enter and exit the train. You wait to board on the sides of the doors while those on board file off.

7) Once you reach your destination you either put your ticket in (and it keeps it), or you scan your card again (walking through turnstiles) and it adjusts for the amount you might owe. It originally deducts 800 won (80 cents), but if your destination is farther away, it might adjust another 100 or 200 won.

Riding the Train
1) Now I know some might have visions of overly crowded subway trains that are packed and people are smushed up together and all of that. The trains here are really not like that, save for a couple of situations we've had. It might be like that on a morning commute on a certain line, or the evening commute, but we usually try to avoid these times.

2)Open seats on the subway are like gold, and there's a certain sort of ritual to go about getting one. First, of course, is the idea that if you're first on the train you can find the empty spots of those who just left. But, of course, those who were already standing on the train might have taken those spots. My best course of action is to stand about a row of sitting ducks and hope one of those people leave the train soon. Then you just swoop down. No worries- there are designated spots on each train for the elderly, and most kind people give priority to the elderly when there are no seats left. It is also the fairly common rule that as long as you don't have to sit next to someone, you don't. If you are all squished on a bench, and the end seat becomes open, the person closest will ALWAYS scoot over to the coveted end seat.

3) My ipod and my books have given me enough to keep my mind busy on the train. I listen to my ipod constantly while I am on the subway, and I also take books with me. I've also been know to watch a few episodes of the Office from my ipod, while on the subway, but I've found this is probably not a good idea because I end up snickering and i probably annoy those around me.

4) There are usually people who are asking for money or trying to sell things on the trains. I have heard this is illegal, but people do it anyway. Stephanie and I enjoy watching these people try to sell things. Potholders, hooks on the wall that hold lots of weight, flashlight pens, belts, etc. Anything. They are always very nicely dressed (image means a lot in Korea), bow to the crowd on the train and start off with a nice "anyeong haseyo". They are fun to watch.

Whew. that's a lot of information. It's hard to believe that I've processed all of that (and more!) since being here.

For more on the subway system, look here. The line map at the top can be clicked on and opened. When you open it you can click on one subway stop, and then another subway stop, and it will show you how long it will take. The time doesn't account for transfers, or waiting for the next train, but really is helpful.

Now that's all you ever (or never) wanted to know about the Seoul subway system. You can wow your friends at the water cooler!

posted by Meghan @ 8:00 PM