Korea Living

One of the best parts of visiting Korea in winter is walking into a room with a warm floor. Korea’s traditional floor-heating culture is called ondol , but modern homes usually use hot water circulating through pipes beneath the floor. For visitors, the warm floor is comfortable—but the Korean boiler controller on the wall can be confusing. The buttons may be written only in Korean, and the same controller may operate both the floor heating and shower water. This local guide explains the most common Korean boiler controls and what to do when your hotel, guesthouse or rental apartment feels too cold or too hot. To learn more about traditional Korean accommodation and sleeping on an ondol floor, read: 👉 All About Guesthouse in South Korea Foreign traveler experiencing a warm ondol floor in a Korean guesthouse What Is Modern Korean Ondol Heating? Traditional ondol used heat and smoke from a kitchen fire to warm stones beneath the floor. Modern Korean homes normally use a boiler...

Packing light makes traveling around South Korea much easier. This is especially true if you plan to move between Seoul, Busan, Gyeongju, Jeju, and other destinations instead of staying in one hotel. Eventually, however, you will need to wash your clothes. Hotel laundry services are convenient, but they may charge by the individual item. A Korean self-service laundromat allows you to wash and dry an entire travel load at a much more reasonable price. The machines may look intimidating when the instructions are mostly in Korean, but the basic process is simple: Choose a washer, check whether detergent is included, pay, wash your clothes, move them to a dryer, and pay again. This guide explains the full process so you do not have to stand in front of a Korean washing machine wondering which button to press. Modern self-service coin laundry in South Korea What Is a Korean Coin Laundry? A Korean self-service laundromat may be called: 코인빨래방 – coin laundromat 셀프빨래방 – self-service...

Imagine being invited to a Korean friend's new apartment. You want to bring a thoughtful housewarming gift. Maybe flowers? A bottle of wine? A nice candle? Then you arrive and see another guest walking through the door carrying... a giant pack of toilet paper. If you're new to Korea, you might wonder: Did they forget to buy a proper gift? No. They may actually have brought one of the most traditional Korean housewarming gifts. In Korea, toilet paper and laundry detergent have long been popular gifts for a jipdeuri (집들이) , or housewarming gathering. They're practical, inexpensive, and—more surprisingly—carry wishes for good fortune in the new home. And once you understand the meaning behind them, a huge pack of toilet paper suddenly doesn't seem like such a strange present. Guest bringing toilet paper as a Korean housewarming gift What Is Jipdeuri (집들이)? Jipdeuri is the Korean word commonly used for a housewarming gathering. When someone moves i...

Walk into a Korean home wearing your shoes and you'll probably notice something immediately. Everyone else has taken theirs off. For Koreans, this is so automatic that we rarely even think about it. You enter the front door, take off your shoes in the entrance area, and only then step onto the main floor of the home. But if you grew up somewhere where wearing shoes indoors is normal, you might wonder: Why is taking off your shoes such a big deal in Korea? The simple answer is cleanliness. But the more interesting answer goes much further back—to the way Koreans have traditionally heated their homes, sat, eaten, relaxed, and slept. And at the center of that story is one of the most distinctive features of a Korean home: Ondol (온돌), Korea's traditional underfloor heating system. Korean apartment entrance where shoes are removed before entering the home It Starts with Ondol: Korea's Heated Floor Forms of underfloor heating have existed on the Korean Peninsu...

Moving to a new home in South Korea is not just a logistical task—it is a full-blown cultural event shaped by modern urban architecture, folk beliefs, and a few delicious traditions. While homeownership remains a key life goal in Korea, official government data shows that the national homeownership rate hovers around 56% to 58% , leaving over 40% of the population living in rental housing. These rentals primarily consist of Wolse (monthly rent with a high deposit) and Korea's famous Jeonse (a unique key-money system where tenants deposit 50% to 80% of the property value interest-free) . Because lease terms are typically two years, moving is a frequent experience for millions of residents. (If you are an expat looking to navigate the complex world of Korean deposits and lease agreements, check out our comprehensive guide on How to Rent a House in South Korea as a Foreigner) .  Whether you are watching giant yellow ladder trucks shoot furniture into 20th-floor apartment ba...