Red Light Districts

Since this is the first post I will start with some basic info on the three main Red Light Districts in Seoul. Later I will add info about these and other areas and some experiences. I am curently in Korea so all information is current and first hand.

Here are the basics:

588 - Georgrous girls that won't accept foreigers.
Some might be able to be convinced but who
wants to be with one you whose heart isn't in it.
Recipe for a boring quickie.
Price: 70,000 Won

Yongsan - Very similar to 588. Many gorgeous girls
who won't accept you if you are a foreigner. There
are however some that will. There are a few hot ones that will take you if you look around. I only go with ones that call me first. I'm not going to beg.
Price 70,000 Won


Miari: Definately the best of the three .
There are hundreds of cuties that will gladly
take foreigners. It's very refreshing after going to 588 to pass a window of a dozen girls or so and they are all waving at you to pick them.
Price: 70,000Won but most will negotiate price and time legnth.

Here are directions to the previously mentioned Red Light Districts. I added a 4th but have not been there yet. I have heard of foreigners being hasseled by Korean gangsters and the girls (like 588) maren't likeley to accept foreigners anyway. I have included the info but can't recommend it. There is also an area in Suwon I have not tried. I will post directions when I have them.

1. Miari - Gireum subway (line 4) station exit 10. Many shops with hundreds of girls. Most cater to foreigners.
2. 588 - Cheong Ryang Ri - facing front of Lotte Department store go down the alley to the right.
Most do not accept foreigners
3. Yongsan - Shiyongsan station - sorry I forget the nearest exit - is an alley behind main buildings on street. Most girls on main blocks will ignore foreigners but I found a few hotties in the back alleys who were happy to have me.
4. Songnam - Take the number 8 line to Sinheung station and then take exit 13 or 14 and once you exit the station, you go straight behind the buildings where there a narrow alley ways with pink fluorescent lights. I haven't been here yet so I am not sure how many cater to foreigners.

In every corner of Seoul, there is some kind of sex available. And I mean everywhere. So when I say 'red light disctrict', I talking specifically about those places that have rows of glass doors with women waiting behind that are bathed in red flourescent light.

In some places there are rows of juicy bars, or other places that have a high density of adult entertainment, but I don't call those 'red light' districts.

All of these places have some things in common, ladies dressed up in waiting behind glass is the most obvious point, but usually they are found near the major railroad stations. These girls are here for short time service (maximum is an hour, but I'm sure you can get longer for the right price). The prices go up and down according to location and the girl, but the average is around 60,000 won for 15 minutes. There's not much cuddling, or even kissing if you're buying short time. You'll probably get an additional BJ to warm you up and condom use is widespread.

The main drag of each district is where you'll find the prettiest girls. There was a crackdown last september (2004) and shut down a lot of places. Things were shut down completely for that whole month but now things are resurging and coming back to normal.

Off the main drag you'll find the less pretty girls, slightly chubby, slightly older, or there's some other problem with them. And then down the alleyways you'll find shady ajumas (old ladies) that will try to pull you in and offer something that is much cheaper, in the 30-50$ range.

Let's start with the best.

1. 588, Cheong-yang-i
I described this a bit in the other post but essentially, this is the place to get a hot girl for a short time. To get there just take the subway to the northeast part of seoul. It's the dark blue line, line number 1, korea national railroad, just south of Hoegi and a few stops east of dong-dae-mun.

When you exit the subway, go behind the Lotte Department store and you'll find about 6 streets worth of glass booths. These girls wear a lot of makeup and really sexy costumes. Short tanktops, tight dresses, and nearly all of them are wearing these shoes that have 10 inch heals or risers to make them look taller. Don't be surprised if when you get in a room, the Amazonian looking woman suddenly turns into a 5ft nymphette. Most of the girls are really skinny with long slender legs and really soft skin. They know how to take care of their bodies. But this is a business for them, so don't expect much warmth or affection during the deed.

The best time to go is after 10pm, and preferably after midnight, so take a taxi and tell the drive you want to go to 'oh-pahl-pahl' which is korean for 588. He'll know what to do. Taxis are cheap, depending how far you are in seoul, it shouldn't cost much more than 10$

2. Miari/Texas. Gireum station. Line number 4, light blue line, about 4 stops north of dong-dae-mun, north side of seoul.

This place used to be the bomb! but now it sucks. After the crackdown the cops were lingering around trying to drive down business. I think someone bribed them to put on the pressure because of some kind of real-estate scam going on.

First I'll describe how it used to be, because maybe it'll come back to that level again.

In the good old days this was an incredibly huge red light district. It was this dense mass of closely cuddled buildings , a whole city block's worth, that had entrances covered by rubber flaps. It was like entering a carnival tent, except it covered nearly a half a square mile with thousands of girls sitting behind glass doors wearing prom dresses and wedding gowns and they would all perk up and call out to you as you walked by the endless rows to make your pick.

After you go in, you look over the girls and tell the mama-san which one you like and then head up to a room. The girl will change into something a little sexier and bring in a plate of food and drinks. Depending on what kind of service you paid for, it could just be a little fruit and a coke, or it might be a whole spread with beer and liquor. This was the kind of place you went to with a group of buddies.

But as I recall this wasn't a very foreigner friendly area. You have the option of paying for a bit of karaeoke too which can be a pretty good time before your group splits up and get's the groove on.

I think Miari took the brunt of the crackdown. With the nearby construction you can see why things are not so great there right now. But I've heard that you can still find alot of places that offer the service, it's just not out in open display anymore.

3. Yongsan/Sin-yongsan. Yongsan is another place that was hurt by the crackdown. But it's pretty much back to normal now, if not at full capacity. Just take the Dark blue line to Yongsan station, or the light blue line to shin-yong-san station. It's right in the middle of Seoul. You'll find the red light street right between the two stations. In front of the big new 'space 9/e-mart' mall. (opposite side from the old electronics market)

This is basically a scaled down version of cheongyangi, and the girls aren't quite as pretty. But there's a few lookers.

4. Yeoung-deung-po. take the subway to yeoung-deung-po-shi-chung (market) not -gu-chung. (it doesn't really matter as they are close to each other) It's a junction between line number 5 (purple) and line number 1 (dark blue) on the west side of seoul.

go out the front (north) door of the department store that is connected to the station and cross the street. Go left once you cross (or use the underpass shopping mall) and look carefully between the buildings on your right as you travel west. You don't have to go very far and you'll see that distinct red light from the alleyway. Go there and you'll find the main drag of young girls. The girls are kind of average here, but not bad. Prices are the same, but you might be able to negotiate a little lower. Don't worry about the cops, they're just there to make sure no U.S. military personel go in or to break up any disputes.

There are more places scattered here and there, but these are the ones I've been to. Someone else can tell you more about places like Shi-heung, or Sa-dang, and a dozen other local places that I don't know about, but those are the big 4 as far as I'm concerned. Actually anwhere along line number 1 there are bound to be some girls available.

Thanks for your extensive postings. I have been Miari twice. I agree that the place is huge and it was lots of fun to do extensive window shopping for prom dates. But those dam prom dresses are not a good thing as they effectively can hide many body imperfections. Unfortunately I am definately not Asian looking, but my running partner speaks good Korean. Many places would shoo me away if I tried to approach.

The short time service I got was not so bad, and the girls made me feel like I was a hung like King Kong. I think they even had special minature novelty condoms to help me boost my ego. Actually I was given explicitly offered whether I wanted to use a condom or not. Oh and both of the girls I did were unshaven, wild, and wooly below.

Fun stuff but not for cheap bastards like myself. I think my two shot one-hour sessions cost $120-$140 US.

Warmole,
Thanks a lot for that. I know there has been a lot of rhetoric about closing down the red light areas in 2007. What do you make of that? Sounds like things are coming back to life per your report.

I guess it depends on who's in power. Right now there's this female police chief or something who's putting pressure on Miari and the U.S. government is drawing a fundamentalist line against the soldiers taking part in such entertainment. But no-one knows how much longer the U.S. military is going to be here anyway. I would suspect if they pull out then the red light districts will flourish again, much like Angeles city. So I guess it's just a matter of politics, and I have no gauge on how that wind is blowing.

Regardless, there's so many options available, and so much demand that there's no way that it can be all stamped out. It's just too ingrained in the culture here. At most, the red light districts might have to go 'underground' and not be quite so visually advertising their wares.