-Gu / -Dong

This is currently the greatest artwork that is enticing both my eyes and mind, as I do the search for the great EXPAT abode. A few more days of looking at this, and I'll have my fresh set of Korean tongue twisters on que. I am anyway amazed at how I am learning so much about the city and the country with all these search. That blue strip in the drawing is the famous HAN River by the way.

Seoul, aside from being the capital city of South Korea, is also considered as a “special city” (Teukbyeolsi) that is divided into wards or districts called –gu’s. GU’s are pretty much similar to New York or London’s boroughs. These GU’s are then divided into neighborhoods or city districts called -dong's (not on map, though).

From our place of work in Yeongdeungpo-gu (ward) where Yeoido-dong (neighborhood) is located, rentable spaces usually abound in these areas (per online research):

1.) Yongsan-gu (Itaewon-dong)- in the form of apartments or flats and villas. Structure of both types may not differ significantly, though villas are usually not higher than five stories. The main difference in getting an apartment is the inclusion of management services (garbage, security) in one's stay at the place, which will reciprocally and collectively be paid for as additional management fees. Villas allow own management of bills and other utilities, and usually have no exclusive security. We can compare apartments with condominiums here, and villas with the typical townhouses.

2.) Dongdaemun-gu (Uljiro-dong)- in the form of CO-OP residences. These are serviced residences, managed much like hotels.

Part of the house rental plan is to temporarily stay in a CO-OP for about a month, while we look for our real place of stay for the next eleven months in an apartment. Luckly, we were told of the good news that there are rental housing schemes that do not charge a very big downpayment or key money (amounting to as much as $10,000). The advance deposit to be asked will just be a month's worth of rent, and we can pretty much shoulder that, given our $1000/month budget. Per our Korean colleague's advice, we might as well take the CO-OP residence building located in Ohmok-gyo, which is in Yeongdeungpo-gu. Yes, just very near our office. CO-OPs, as I just mentioned, work very much like hotels, so we definitely cannot afford to live the life in a hotel for a year. The search for the great abode definitely continues, I could just be so excited with the life to live in Kimchi-land.