Seoul Offers Free Experiences & Wi-Fi Services for Backpackers

By Li Xinyi, compiled and reported

The Tourism Information Center (TIC) located on the B1 level of Cheonggyecheon-ro in Jung-gu, Seoul, operated by the Korea Tourism Organization, regularly hosts cultural experience events each year, allowing visitors to Korea to enjoy local traditional culture for free. This year’s new offerings include various hanbok experiences, where visitors can freely choose their favorite hanbok to wear and take photos; calligraphers dressed in traditional Korean attire writing visitors’ Korean names on Hanji paper on the spot; and during special events such as Lunar New Year and Chuseok, hosting traditional folk activities like yutnori (a board dice game), shuttlecock kicking, tuho (arrow throwing), top spinning, and elephant hair hat making.

In addition to free cultural experiences, the newly renovated service center offers more diverse services and surprises. Want to meet popular K-pop stars like Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, BIG BANG, and 2NE1 all in one place? Then the Hallyu Promotion Hall is the best place to go. It features life-size cutouts of K-pop idols, as well as handprints of popular K-drama characters, photo cards, and more. The K-Star Shop, a Hallyu merchandise store, also lets you take home special items related to your favorite K-stars as souvenirs.

Additionally, the Korean cuisine experience venue “Tales of Korean Food” offers free samples of dishes such as bibimbap, tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), and kimchi jeon (kimchi pancakes), and accepts individual and group reservations for Korean cooking experiences. The specialty exhibition area also allows you to bring home famous regional products from across Korea as gifts. The service center provides consultation services in four languages—Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean—as well as free Wi-Fi, free international calls, and a resource room where you can access the latest information on Korea’s tourism industry.