Youngdeungpo-station, Seoul

Youngdeungpo-Station

Everyday morning I take a fast train to Bupyeong from this station (Subway Line 1). The station building is impressive and is conjoined with the Lotte Department Store and also the Lotte Cinema. In the mornings when I reach there it’s the hustle and bustle of office-goers going up and down the escalators while the orchestrated traffic outside carry on to their destined destinations. I am the lone brown man amongst the locals slowly inching forward to my platform amongst the organized chaos.

In the station concourse, Lotteria is up and open dishing out junk food to the hungry while the original American Crispy Doughnut counter is preparing for the daily deluge. Its quite neat and clean all around and you do get to pick up your morning free tabloids from different vantage points. Most of the long distance trains stop here on their way in and out of Seoul other than the fast KTXs (Korean version of the Japanese Bullet Trains). There are also the homeless being charged by the police out of the area not before they had their good nights sleep. Beggars and homeless people are all preparing their respective beds when you come to this station late at night. Even Euljiro-1ga station is a similar haven for them.

On the outside the shops are all shutters down waiting for the clock to strike 9 or 10 as the case maybe for business to start. This place boasts of a few departmental stores like the Shinsaegae, Cosmos and Lotte mentioned earlier. The first one is the most expensive of them all, but sometimes you do get bargains on the footpath in front of the respective stores. This is also the place to buy vegetables since the largest wholesale vegetable market is just about 50 metres from the station where anything would be at least 30% cheaper than elsewhere.

When I return home in the evening the scenario has completely changed. People returning home, buyers, movie freaks – you would find all of them in this melee. Outside the neon lights are glaringly inviting to either eat or drink or try and exercise your libido and other carnal desires. The good and the bad, virtue and sin – all exist here in a neat mesh for you to pick.

On a holiday in the evening, it’s a nice place to just while away your time watching life in motion in front of you. Couples, hookers, hanger-ons, families old and young, small and large, flashy and the sober, all moving around crossing unknown entities on the way to their respective destinations.

Mundanely boring, funnily repetitive this place is after all a part of my daily life. Sphere: Related Content