9 Most Beautiful Subway Stations in Seoul — Where Locals Get Off Just to Look Around

Seoul’s subway moves over 7 million people a day. Most of them keep their heads down, glued to their phones. But at a handful of stations, people stop mid-staircase. They look up. They take a step back toward the wall and raise their cameras.

There are maybe ten stations like this in Seoul. They don’t appear on tourist maps. Instead, they’re the ones Seoul locals mention when they’re making plans — “You know, that pretty station.”

Stations Where Light Falls — Noksapyeong, Jonggak

Why Does Everyone Look Up at Noksapyeong Station?

Because the ceiling is open. Specifically, a 21m-diameter glass dome sits embedded in the middle of a ground-level plaza, and beneath it a cylindrical void drops 35 meters straight down. The escalator slices diagonally across that empty shaft. As you descend, your perspective keeps shifting — the dome above you, the walls around you, the floor below, all changing their relationship with every meter.

In 2019, the Seoul city government renovated this atrium. Japanese architects Yuri Naruse and Jun Inokuma draped the entire wall in a thin metal-mesh curtain. The piece is titled Dance of Light. Sunlight passing through the dome strikes the metal and scatters, and the wall changes color as the hours pass. Photos taken in the morning and in the afternoon don’t look like the same place.

The sweet spot is 3 to 4 p.m. on a clear day. The light comes in at an angle and brings out the texture of the curtain. On a cloudy day, honestly, it’s just a gray wall.

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Wait — Citrus Trees Growing in an Underground Walkway?

The Sun Garden fills an 850-square-meter stretch of the northern underground walkway at Jonggak Station, leading to the B2 level of Jongno Tower. It opened in December 2018.

The key here isn’t artificial lighting — it’s actual sunlight. Light collected above ground is compressed through special lenses and funneled underground. On sunless days, LED takes over automatically. Thirty-seven plant species grow under this light, including yuzu, kumquat, and lemon trees. It’s not every day you brush past citrus leaves in a subway transfer corridor.

This area is outside the fare gates. You don’t need a ticket to walk in, and in winter it’s warm enough that people show up early for appointments just to sit here.

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Stations Layered With Time — Gyeongbokgung, Anguk, Seoul Station

Can a Subway Station Be a Cultural Heritage Site?

Gyeongbokgung Station was designated a Seoul Future Heritage site in 2018. That’s unusual for a subway station, and there’s a reason. This is the only station ever designed by the architect Kim Swoo-geun, one of the most significant figures in modern Korean architecture. When the station opened in 1985, he drew inspiration from the neoclassical stone hall at Deoksugung Palace, finishing the columns and walls in granite. He essentially brought the palace’s materials underground with him.

In the 2000s, a Metro Art Museum was installed in the concourse, covering up the original space. In February 2024, Seoul Metro began dismantling it, and by September the station had been restored to its 1985 appearance. The new benches are modeled after the royal throne at Gyeongbokgung Palace.

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Why Are the Stairs at Anguk Station Blue?

Ahead of the 100th anniversary of the March 1st Independence Movement in 2018, the Seoul city government redesigned the entire station around the theme of Korean independence. One hundred blue steps are engraved with a timeline running from 1919 to 2019. Each step is one year. Read as you climb, and a century passes beneath your feet.

On B2, a wall bears the full text of Korea’s constitutional preamble. On the B4 platform, the faces of independence activists line the walls. When you remember that Anguk Station sits right below Bukchon and Insadong — neighborhoods steeped in centuries of history — it all fits.

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What’s That Red Brick Building Next to Seoul Station?

Right next to the glass-and-steel building where KTX trains pull in today stands a red brick structure topped with a bronze-toned dome — the old Seoul Station, built in 1925. It was designed by the Japanese architect Tsukamoto Yasushi in a Renaissance-inspired eclectic style, defined by bilateral symmetry and delicate spires.

From 2009, a two-year restoration brought it back to its 1925 condition, and in 2011 it reopened as an exhibition space called Culture Station Seoul 284. Step inside and you’ll find the original waiting room’s stained-glass ceiling still intact. Free exhibitions rotate through regularly.

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Stations That Hold Records — Beotigogae, Yeouinaru

“Beautiful” doesn’t always mean decorative. Some stations overwhelm you with sheer scale.

How Long Is the Escalator at Beotigogae Station?

The escalator running from B2 to B3 at Beotigogae on Line 6 is 44 meters long with a 22-meter vertical rise. When people say you can’t see the end, it’s barely an exaggeration. Right next to it, an inclined elevator — the first of its kind installed in Korea, back in 2004 — rides the same slope. The station itself has almost no decoration, but the sheer scale of that vertical drop is the attraction.

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What Makes Yeouinaru Station Special?

Line 5 was the first Seoul subway line to pass beneath the Han River. To cross from Mapo to Yeouido, engineers had to tunnel through bedrock deeper than the riverbed itself. The result: Yeouinaru Station’s platform sits at 27.55 meters below sea level — the lowest station in the entire country.

In May 2024, a Runner Station opened in an unused corner of the station — lockers and showers for people who run along the nearby Han River parks. The idea is you wash up deep underground, then head up and hit the riverside path. Seoul is expanding the concept to more stations under the name “Fun Station.”

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Stations Where the Real View Is Outside — Jayang, Eungbong

What Exactly Is the Jabeolle?

Walk about 130 meters from Exit 2 of Jayang Station on Line 7 (formerly Ttukseom Resort Station) and you’ll see it: a long glass building stretched out low like a caterpillar. Its official name is the Ttukseom Observatory Cultural Complex, but everyone calls it the Jabeolle — meaning “inchworm” in Korean. It opened in 2010, designed by Professor Kwon Moon-sung of Sungkyunkwan University.

From the third-floor lounge, the Han River spreads out through floor-to-ceiling glass. It’s free. A 2023 renovation turned the ground floor into a Han River history exhibition hall and the second floor into an ecology library with about 3,000 books. Go around sunset and you can watch the apartment lights across the river blink on one by one.

One heads-up: the station name changed from Ttukseom Resort Station to Jayang Station in February 2024. Older maps and blog posts still list it under the old name.

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When Should You Go to Eungbong Station?

Late March to early April — a window of about two weeks. Walk roughly eight minutes uphill from Exit 1 of Eungbong Station on the Gyeongui-Jungang Line, and the entire eastern slope of Eungbongsan is blanketed in forsythia. Trains roll past below the hill, with the Han River and Seongsu Bridge stretching out behind them. A surprising number of Seoul’s iconic spring photos come from this exact spot.

Any other season, it’s just an ordinary above-ground station. Honestly, if it’s not April, there’s no real reason to come.

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🚇 At a Glance — All Nine Stations Compared (as of August 2026)