1. I saw this photo on display and I knew I needed to get to that roof. That row of buildings pictured is Seun Sangga, a 1km-long, 50m-wide megastructure built in Seoul in the 1960s. There's a lot of dark history to that place, and I've been contacted by various people overseas about my pictures of it. But I don't have this shot. I figured it must've been shot from on top of the Acacia Hotel and I headed over to find it.


2. So I drove over to look for that view, passing this mage on the way.


3. I saw another easier low roof on the way, so I gave this a try. You can see the rundown neighbourhood surrounding it, which as become the subject of gentrification issues and currently has a lot of yougn artists moving in.


4. This was my closest attempt. There are now too many taller buildings in the way.


5. Oh well, I got a nice view of this market.


6. A few months later, I was heading to a library, when I passed by the Acacia Hotel, the exact same hotel I'd figured was the source of the panorama. Except there was a fence around the base of this hotel, and I suspected it was abandoned. If I'd followed through on my earlier trip, rather than giving up, I'd've found an abandoned hotel.


7. I went back after a night shift at work, and found it wide open. This sign was right inside the fence on my way in.


8. It went all the way around the building, no attempt to actually barricade anyone.


9. I found this side door held closed by a firehose on the other side tied around the handle.


10. You can see the hose in this picture.


11. Looks like they were taking out the doors.


12. I went up a few floors but decided to come back later with a friend, maybe during the daytime.


13. My friend ditched me so I went back alone the next weekend. The way in was still wide open.


14. They'd created a death door.


15. Fewer doors stacked up inside.


16. And the cafe was now more trashed.


17. Both seen together.


18. Looking up.


19. There were still lights on in that phone. I want to go back and look in the lost and found box.


20. All the hallways on all the floors were like this. I wonder how much of a good thing I missed out on.


21. I moved a portable construction light down one floor to light this.


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23.


24.


25. Well that's nice.


26. And that looks more terrifying than I expected.


27. On the roof I found possibly the only part of the hotel that still looked normal.


28. Time to go to the very top.


29. Okay, not the very very top.


30. There's a recently closed US military site down there.


31. Time for another panorama to ruin the frame size.


32. From here, all I had to do was go down and leave.

Sounds like a fun time, your initial panorama offers a good juxtaposition of the change in buildings over time. You can still sort of see the original buildings. Really neat tower in 29. What is the mountain on the right side of the frame in 31? Can you hike up there? I'd be interested in seeing the city from afar. I guess that's not urban exploration. Cool photos.

Posted by plight Sounds like a fun time, your initial panorama offers a good juxtaposition of the change in buildings over time. You can still sort of see the original buildings. Really neat tower in 29. What is the mountain on the right side of the frame in 31? Can you hike up there? I'd be interested in seeing the city from afar. I guess that's not urban exploration. Cool photos.

If you're talking about that cliff on the right, I don't know the mountain name but the area is called Sungin Park. I know I've been up there, but I don't know much about it because it's easy to get lost in all the winding roads and paths. The hill to the immediate left is much better-known and has a lot more history. Both of them were mined by Japanese colonists for construction materials.

Every mountain visible has tons of hiking paths and hiking is a popular pastime. We've had some debate on whether aspects of urban mountain climbing can count as urban exploration, and there are all sorts of hidden sites on them. But I've known a fair number of promising potential explorers who lost interest and just started doing mountains instead, so I think they're separate things.

This panorama has a view of downtown from one of the mountains, although I can't see the hotel in it. The mountain it's taken from is about 66% of the way to the right in picture 1, with what looks like a cat face made of rocks.