을지로 (Euljiro)

을지로 (Euljiro) is the name of a major road that runs east–west through Seoul’s Jung-gu district — and also the name of the whole neighborhood along it: the print shops, lighting showrooms, and tool stores, plus the old bars tucked into the back alleys. On a map, Euljiro is nothing more than a single road running straight from Euljiro 1-ga to Euljiro 7-ga. But when a Korean says 을지로에서 보자 (Euljiro-eseo boja), they are not pointing at a road. They’re pointing at that spot at 6:30 in the evening, in an alley where a print shop’s shutter is half-lowered, where someone unfolds a plastic chair and sits down.

A place name is usually a word you memorize and then you’re done. But with Euljiro, even after you memorize it, you only half know it. That’s because inside this one name, Seoul’s oldest manufacturing alleys and its most crowded bars share the same address. By day, bosses in work clothes push handcarts loaded with printing paper; by night, people in their twenties line up in those same alleys. Euljiro is where those two scenes overlap.

Euljiro gets used at three different sizes. At its smallest, it’s the road itself — the two-way road that starts between Seoul City Hall and Myeongdong and continues toward Dongdaemun. That’s the Euljiro you say to a taxi driver. Next is Euljiro as a shopping district. Need lighting? Euljiro. Need business cards or flyers printed? Euljiro. Need tools or tiles? Also Euljiro. Instead of naming the product, Seoulites name a neighborhood and that’s the destination. Last is the Euljiro that refers to a mood. That’s what the phrase 을지로 감성 (Euljiro gamseong) means: a slightly dark, slightly unfashionable kind of cool, where nothing is dressed up to look new — the weathered signs and green iron doors are left exactly as they are, and drinks are served inside.

It’s pronounced exactly as it’s written, three syllables: [을지로]. There are three subway stations that take Euljiro and add a location to it: 을지로입구역 (Euljiro-ipgu-yeok), 을지로3가역 (Euljiro sam-ga-yeok), and 을지로4가역 (Euljiro sa-ga-yeok). Here, 가 (街) is a counter that chops a long street into segments, so as you go from 1-ga to 7-ga, you’re moving east.

Seeing It in Real Conversation

The scene: Friday evening, seven o’clock. They agreed to meet in front of a subway station exit, but Emily is nowhere in sight. Jun-kyung gives her a call.

Jun-kyung: 여보세요, 너 어디야? 나 출구 앞에 벌써 와 있는데. Hello? Where are you? I’m already at the exit.

Emily: 나 을지로입구역 5번 출구. 앞에 백화점 있어. I’m at exit 5 of Euljiro 1-ga Station. There’s a department store in front of me.

Jun-kyung: 아이고, 거기 아니야. 을지로3가! 두 정거장 더 와야 돼. Oh no, that’s not it. Euljiro 3-ga! You’ve got two more stops to go.

Emily: 진짜? 난 을지로가 그냥 한 군데인 줄 알았지. Seriously? I thought Euljiro was just one place.

Jun-kyung: 길이 엄청 길어. 1가부터 7가까지 있어. 노가리 골목은 3가야. It’s a really long street. It runs from 1-ga to 7-ga. The nogari alley is at 3-ga.

Emily: 알았어, 두 정거장이면 금방이지. 딱 5분만 기다려! Got it, two stops is nothing. Give me exactly five minutes!

This Sounds Off

Euljiro is a place name that doesn’t discriminate, so there’s no real way to be rude with it. What there is, though, are two misunderstandings that learners trip over almost without exception.

✗ 우리 이따 을지로역에서 만나자. (Let’s meet later at Euljiro Station.) ✓ 우리 이따 을지로3가역에서 만나자. (Let’s meet later at Euljiro 3-ga Station.) → There is no station called 을지로역 (Euljiro-yeok). Euljiro-ipgu, Euljiro 3-ga, and Euljiro 4-ga sit one stop apart from each other, so if you say only “Euljiro,” the other person has no way of knowing which station you mean. This is genuinely the most common reason plans fall apart here.

✗ (to a print shop owner who has worked here for 40 years) 사장님, 여기가 그 유명한 힙지로죠? (Sir, this is the famous Hipjiro, right?) ✓ (to a friend your own age) 야, 여기가 그 힙지로라는 데야. (Hey, this is that place they call Hipjiro.) → 힙지로 (Hipjiro) is a buzzword that glues 힙하다 (hip) onto 을지로 — a word made up by the people who come here to hang out. Using it in front of someone who works here every day can come across as calling another person’s workplace a tourist attraction. With older adults, plain 을지로 is the safe choice.

Example Sentences by Situation

1. When setting a meeting spot — say the exit number too, or you’ll get lost.

을지로3가역 12번 출구에서 일곱 시에 봐. (Euljiro sam-ga-yeok sibi-beon chulgu-eseo ilgop-si-e bwa.) — Euljiro 3-ga Station has a lot of exits and the alleys branch off in every direction, so even Koreans don’t make plans there using the station name alone.

2. When going shopping — you name the neighborhood instead of the store.

조명은 을지로 가면 다 있어요. (Jomyeong-eun Euljiro gamyeon da isseoyo.) — This is advice Koreans often give to someone renovating a home or opening a shop. It’s a way of talking about an entire district of shops as if it were one single store.

3. When talking about taste — the place name works almost like an adjective.

요즘은 을지로 감성이 좋더라. 새 건물보다 저런 데가 편해. (Yojeum-eun Euljiro gamseong-i jotdeora. Sae geonmul-boda jeoreon de-ga pyeonhae.) — Used when talking about interiors, photography, or café preferences. It’s a compliment for a style that doesn’t bother hiding what’s old.

Formal and Casual Speech, and Similar Expressions

The place name itself carries no honorific level. The politeness is carried by the predicate that follows it. With a friend it’s 을지로 가자 (Euljiro gaja); with someone older or a business contact it becomes 을지로에서 뵐까요 (Euljiro-eseo boelkkayo). You leave the name part alone and just swap out the end of the sentence.

Expression	Tone & intensity	Where it’s used
을지로 (Euljiro)	Neutral	Anywhere. With elders, in documents too
힙지로 (Hipjiro)	Light and excited, a trend word	With peers, on social media. Avoid in front of the shop owners
을지로3가 (Euljiro sam-ga)	Neutral, very specific	When making plans. No room for error
충무로 (Chungmuro)	Neutral	The side street just south of Euljiro. The street of printing and film

Cultural Background — A Street Named After a General

The name Euljiro comes from the Goguryeo general 을지문덕 (Euljimundeok). In 1946, right after liberation, Seoul replaced the Japanese-style street names imposed during the colonial period with the names of Korean historical figures. That’s when Chungmuro (from Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s posthumous title), Toegye-ro (from the scholar Yi Hwang’s pen name), and Wonhyo-ro (from the monk Wonhyo’s name) were all created together. Euljiro belongs to that same set. So before this street name ever meant a bar alley, it was a name newly written in the year the country was won back.

The name is old, but what made today’s Euljiro is the handiwork that came after. South of Cheonggyecheon, this area filled up densely with print shops, metalworking shops, and wholesalers of lighting, tiles, and tools. Paper is cut in one alley, signs are made in the next one over, and wiring is bought next to that — it’s a structure where a single small factory is scattered across an entire neighborhood. The sound of Euljiro by day is the sound of printing presses and cutting machines.

At night, the sound changes. In the back alleys of Euljiro 3-ga, there’s a cluster of old beer halls that grill 노가리 (nogari) — young dried pollack — and serve it with beer. By evening the shops are full, so the plastic tables spill out onto the alley floor. From the late 2010s, small unmarked bars and cafés started moving into the second and third floors of these old buildings, and the nickname Hipjiro stuck. That’s also why Korean dramas and variety shows so often film around here when they need a Seoul night alley. There’s a picture here that you can’t get on a newly built street.

There’s one more reason Euljiro is good for people learning Korean. In the shops of this neighborhood, you hear working language before you hear textbook standard Korean. Short sentences keep flying back and forth: 몇 개 드릴까요 (How many would you like?), 이거 언제 돼요 (When will this be ready?), 저기 안쪽으로 들어가세요 (Go on inside, over that way). There are few better classrooms for training your ear on the Korean that lives outside the textbook.

Today’s Quiz

A friend said to meet at the nogari alley. Which is the correct meeting spot?

① 을지로역 8번 출구 (Euljiro Station, exit 8) ② 을지로3가역 4번 출구 (Euljiro 3-ga Station, exit 4) ③ 을지로 앞 (in front of Euljiro)

Answer: ②

There is no such station as Euljiro Station, so ① is a place you could never actually meet at. And ③ points nowhere, because the street is about four kilometers long. When you make plans in Euljiro, telling the other person which -ga and which exit number is the Korean way of being considerate.