By Yoo Yeon Gyeong

Seoul residents say the Hangang River is their favorite landmark in the capital, while expats choose Gwanghwamun Square.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government on May 9 announced this in releasing the results of the 2023 Seoul Survey, which it conducted last year from Sept. 1 to Oct. 15, with 35,881 members of households aged 15 or older participating.

City residents (multiple answers allowed) picked the Hangang as their preferred landmark with 5,000 votes (48.3%), followed by Gwanghwamun Square (36.1%), royal palaces (32.3%) and N (Namsan) Seoul Tower (17.2%). 

Also surveying 2,500 expats in Seoul living in the country for 91 days or longer, the study said 45.9% of them selected Gwanghwamun Square as their top landmark, followed by royal palaces (41.4%), Dongdaemun Design Plaza (25.6%) and the Hangang (23.1%).

On what makes the capital appealing, most respondents selected "convenient transportation" in terms of city accessibility. The top answer in urban convenience was "many places to shop and food" and that in city environment was "safety in doing activities in the city."

Park Jin-young, director general of the city government's digital policy bureau, said, "We will continue studying, analyzing and making basic resources in a multifaceted manner to reflect the actual life and thoughts of the public in the city's policies and projects."

dusrud21@korea.kr