Discover South Korea in a New Way with Odii: Your Personal Audio Tour Guide
A new way to explore South Korea!
Have you ever wished you could hear detailed stories about tourist attractions during your travels in Korea? Or perhaps you've wanted to take a trip, even a short one, when traveling far isn't an option?
Introducing 'Odii,' your personal tour guide in the palm of your hand, designed to solve these very concerns!
Odii, provided by the Korea Tourism Organization, is a free audio tour service that shares the history and cultural stories of South Korea's top tourist destinations under the slogan "Traveling Through Sound." The name Odii, a combination of 'audio' and 'where' in Korean, offers narratives about a wide variety of locations.
Odii introduces approximately 5,000 tourist spots across the country, providing over 17,000 story contents.
It supports four languages—Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese—to share the stories of South Korea's representative tourist destinations with both domestic and international visitors.
The service is available as both an app (Android, iOS) and a web service, enabling users to access tour information and search for attractions in various environments.
You can create playlists of tourist spot stories and listen to them. The playback screen, centered around the script, allows you to adjust the font size and listen to the stories while reading along.
Odii suggests new travel experiences through stories on various themes.
Key themes include 'Real-Time Popular Stories,' 'Regional Travel,' 'Themed Travel,' 'Elementary School Textbook Travel,' and 'Walking Course Travel.'
Real-Time Popular Stories: Discover popular stories among Odii users and learn about newly spotlighted tourist attractions.
Regional Travel: Select a region, such as Seoul, Busan, or Jeju, to listen to stories about tourist spots in that area.
Themed Travel: Enjoy stories about travel destinations based on various themes like 'K-Culture Travel,' 'Barrier-Free Tourism,' and 'Hidden Alleyway Tours.'
Elementary School Textbook Travel: Introduces travel destinations based on themes from elementary school textbooks, such as history, science, culture, and figures.
Walking Course Travel: Offers themed courses, each lasting about an hour, providing stories about tourist spots along the way.
Using GPS-based location data, Odii introduces and recommends nearby tourist attractions. When it's hard to travel far, use Odii to find nearby places to explore!
Travel in everyday life with Odii
Odii's 'Walking Course Travel' theme provides audio guides to easily accessible attractions for leisurely strolls.
Currently, 'Walking Course Travel' audio guides are available in eight regions nationwide, including Seoul, Incheon, and Daejeon.
In Seoul, the 'Jongno Modern Trail' introduces historical landmarks from the modern era. To commemorate the 80th anniversary of liberation, I walked the Jongno Modern Trail Course 2, themed 'The Path of Independence and Treachery,' with Odii.
Jongno Modern Trail Course 2, 'The Path of Independence and Treachery,' is a course of approximately 4.4 km, covering over 10 locations.
It starts at the Yun Dong-ju Literature Museum and Poet's Hill, passes through Choso Book Cafe and Suseongdong Valley, and reaches Dilkusha, the starting point of Course 3. Each location features an Odii audio guide, allowing you to deeply appreciate the historical significance along with your journey.
When you launch the Odii application and arrive at the starting point, the Yun Dong-ju Literature Museum, an arrival notification screen appears, and the audio guide begins playing.
Located near Changui Gate, the Yun Dong-ju Literature Museum was created using the Cheongun Water Pumping Station and water tank. Inspired by the image of the well in Yun Dong-ju's poem 'Self-Portrait,' the water pumping station was reborn as a literature museum.
While listening to the audio guide, I climbed Poet's Hill, located just above the literature museum, where I learned about its history.
It is said that Poet's Hill is where Yun Dong-ju used to stroll and contemplate while studying in Seoul, writing poems such as 'Foreword' and 'Starry Night.' Also, when erecting the monument engraved with his representative work, 'Foreword,' soil was brought from Yongjeong, North Gando, where the poet's tomb is located.
Listening to the life of Yun Dong-ju and his representative works, I arrived at the next stop, Choso Book Cafe, where an arrival notification and audio guide about the cafe began.
Choso Book Cafe was used as a guard post for the protection of the Blue House for about 50 years after the January 21st Incident. Since 2020, it has been transformed into a space where people can read books and have tea.
The path to Suseongdong Valley was difficult to find due to many forks in the road, but I was able to use Odii's location-based service to check my current location and find my way without getting lost.
Odii, which holds the story of the city
Odii shared the story of the origin of the name 'Suseongdong' and the stories related to Prince Anpyeong and the landscape painter Jeong Seon. In particular, it introduced the Okin Apartment Complex, which had obscured the beautiful scenery of Inwang Mountain due to reckless development, and even the traces left after its demolition. It allowed me to personally explore historical sites that I might have otherwise overlooked and reflect on their meaning.
The next stops were the site of Yun Dong-ju's boarding house and the Park No-soo Art Museum, not far from Suseongdong Valley.
The Hanok house of novelist Kim Song, where Yun Dong-ju stayed while attending Yonhi College, has disappeared and cannot be seen now, but I was able to indirectly imagine that time through the story Odii told.
※ This is currently a private residence, so please observe it from the outside only.
A short walk from the site of Yun Dong-ju's boarding house is the Jongno-gu Park No-soo Art Museum, which opened in 2013. Here, I heard the story of how the museum became an art museum after the artist Park No-soo lived here for over 40 years and donated his house and works, as well as the pro-Japanese acts of Yun Deok-yeong, who built the house, and the story related to Okin-dong.
Odii supported the audio guide with its script, allowing me to check the tourist commentary in more detail.
To go to the House of Yi Sang, you have to pass through Tongin Market. Odii told me the story about Tongin Market and the Sejong the Great Birthplace monument on Jahamun-ro. Sejong Village near Jahamun-ro is named in memory of Sejong the Great being born here.
The House of Yi Sang is based on the birthplace of Yi Sang, a poet and novelist who was active in the 1930s, and displays his writings and materials. I felt sorry for his life, who wrote innovative and radical writings under the name Modern.
Hwanghakjeong Pavilion was built in Gyeonghuigung Palace in 1898 by the order of King Gojong to encourage Gugung (Korean traditional archery). However, after the conclusion of the Eulsa Treaty, Japan moved Hwanghakjeong Pavilion to the vicinity of Sajikdan, where the gods of land and grain were worshiped in the Joseon Dynasty, saying that it would build a monopoly office on the site of Gyeonghuigung Palace.
Jongno Modern Trail Course 2, 'The Path of Independence and Treachery,' ends its journey at Dilkusha, the starting point of Jongno Modern Trail Course 3.
Dilkusha, which means 'happy heart' in Persian, is the home of Albert W. Taylor and his wife Mary L. Taylor, who worked as correspondents for the United Press and covered King Gojong's state funeral, the March 1st Movement, and the Jeam-ri Massacre.
If you are curious about the story behind this place, take a walk along Jongno Modern Trail Course 3 'A Stranger's Ginkgo Tree Road' with Odii!
Special 80th Anniversary of Liberation with Odii!
From August 11th to August 25th, the '80th Anniversary of Liberation Story Play Event' will be held on Odii. Listen to the stories of liberation travel destinations near us and reflect on the meaning of liberation with Odii!
No comments yet.
