Tourist Season: The Dark Side of Korean Tourist Sites

Tourist brochures rarely tell the whole story. In this Tourist Season replay, Joe and Shawn revisit one of the podcast's most popular travel episodes, uncovering the wars, massacres, murders, ghost stories, and redevelopment controversies hidden behind some of Korea's best-known tourist destinations.

Topics Discussed

• Tourist Season summer replay series
• Why famous destinations deserve deeper historical context
• Incheon and the Battle of Incheon during the Korean War
• The 2017 Incheon child murder case
• Jeju Island and the Bukchon Massacre
• The Jeju Uprising
• Bukchon Hanok Village and developer Jeong Se-gwon
• Ghost legends surrounding Bukchon
• Ikseon-dong before it became Seoul's trendiest neighborhood
• Operation Butterfly and Seoul's former red-light district
• Gentrification and commercialization of Ikseon-dong
• The anonymous donor of Jeonju's Tree of Hope
• The restoration of Cheonggyecheon and its impact on merchants
• Listener mail: Why do Korean hikers wear bells?

Timestamps

00:00 Tourist Season introduction

02:30 Horror movie watch parties and summer updates

10:15 Why every tourist site has a darker history

13:30 Incheon and the Korean War

24:00 The 2017 Incheon child murder

37:45 Jeju's Bukchon Massacre

50:00 Bukchon Hanok Village beyond the postcards

1:02:00 Ikseon-dong before the cafés

1:22:00 Jeonju's anonymous Christmas donor

1:33:30 Cheonggyecheon before restoration

1:50:00 Listener mail: Korean hiking bells

Mentioned During the Episode

• Incheon
• Wolmido
• Jeju Island
• Bukchon
• Bukchon Hanok Village
• Ikseon-dong
• Cheonggyecheon
• Jeonju
• Jeong Se-gwon
• Lee Myung-bak
• Operation Butterfly
• The Dark Side of Seoul Ghost Walk

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About The Dark Side of Seoul

The Dark Side of Seoul explores Korea's hidden history, true crime, folklore, ghost stories, urban legends, disasters, political scandals, and the strange corners of Korean culture that rarely make it into guidebooks. Hosted by long-time Korea residents Joe McPherson and Shawn Morrissey, the show blends historical research, cultural analysis, and firsthand experience to examine the people, events, beliefs, and mysteries that have shaped the Korean peninsula.

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