Haeundae's Red Light District

That prostitution was made illegal in South Korea in 2005 is one of the biggest jokes and agreed falacies going in the country. That said, after six years of living in Korea, until recently I'd never seen anything like a red light district here. That changed a couple months ago when I was staying in a hotel in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul. I was out for a casual morning stroll, walked around to the backside of the brand new Shinsaegae Department Store, and saw what appeared to be some pink lights down the street.

More often than not, and very ironically so, windows with pink lights around the boarders are typically butchers, or stores selling meat. Whenever I see a butcher with pink light I inveitably, at least for a split second, think I'm coming upon a prostitute. This time was no exception, but as I walked closer I saw a woman sporting some cleavage, wearing white lace. I'm such a wimp, not to mention not all that attracted to your everyday hooker in Korea, I stopped on a dime, turned and walked away.

Funny that I'd come upon my second just a month or two later. I'd heard that a small red light district in Haeundae existed, but I couldn't imagine where. I've probably been to Haeundae some 100 odd times while living in Korea, and I know the area pretty well, especially the area down near the beach where all the hotels and motels are...where one would assume a red light district would be located.

But sure enough, right in the heart of the old hotel area was a little block of windows hidden (somewhat) carefully behind some high bushes. Granted, there aren't many high bushes in Haeundae, so maybe "carefully" isn't the right word. Again, I saw the pink lights and couldn't imagine I was seeing what I thought I was seeing, but sure enough, I saw a woman smoking a cigarette in some kind of silk neglige. She leaned out the window as a young man walked by. What a quintessential prostitution moment.

At right is a photo I snapped during the daytime:

There are warning signs next to the area telling kids that it's an adults only area. Ha. God forbid kids come across it. It's not as though each and every one doesn't live within 50 yards of a barbershop with two poles or a signing room where the owner will call some girls to come sing with you and fuck you if need be. But then, those places are for Koreans -- for fathers, sons and bosses. Not tourists. After all, prostitution was something that was left behind by Japanese colonizers and the U.S. Government.

I'm not going to try and describe where this place is, but here's a You Tube video that might give you a decent idea. The video is by a blogger living in Japan (he may have lived in Korea previously) and after some kind of boring stuff about love motels he takes you right down the street pictured above.

He also makes mention of the film Bad Guy by Kim Ki-duk, about a Korean woman forced into prostitution. It's probably in my Top 20 Korean films of all time.