Written by: Sandra Stenske
Have you ever visited Seodaemun District in Seoul and befriended a ghost?
Neither had I until this fascinating and entertaining city tour! But now I would like to tell you how you can share this experience with me.
If you are a fan of exploring cities and discovering hidden places I have great news for you.
There is an app called Questo which is an interactive game that offers different tours in major cities around the world. Among them are cities like Buenos Aires, Toronto, Paris, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Sydney and Tokyo.
The games/ city tours usually cost between 5 and 10 € per device.
There are also some free games. Among them is “The Ghost of Donuimun” game in Seoul.
So what are you waiting for? Download Questo and start exploring Seoul (and other cities) in a new way!
By the way, if you are creative, you can create your own games and upload them on the app to show people around your city!
The first thing you do is download the app onto your phone or tablet and register for an account. Then the app will show you games which are close to you. You have to download the game you want to play. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to go!
So, here is my experience with Quest and the ‘Ghost of Seoul’ game:
*SPOILER ALERT* I will talk about the places we visited and the quests we had to fulfil. If you want to try it yourself, you can skip this part and go straight to the summary. 🙂
You can see the app and the game in those pictures. The app itself is straightforward, and as you can see on the second screenshot, the game started very interestingly.
When you start the game, it will show the address of the starting point, and you can open a map to see the location. For example, this game started at the Donuimun Museum Village. It’s between the Gangbuk Samsung Hospital and the Seoul Museum of History.
The first quest was to find different objects in the amber wall.
“A gorilla, a bunch of crayons, Batteries, Superman, Scissors, a house, a golden bell, a rubber duck, and a seashell. Which of these cannot be found in the amber wall?”
It took us almost 10 minutes to find all the objects to find the correct answer, but it was fun seeing all the different things in the amber wall.
After finding the correct answer, you will see the next part of the Ghost Story and some bite-sized history, where facts are mentioned about where you are or why you are visiting this place.
The next quest led us to the Donuium History Museum. We had to go inside and find a specific statue to answer this question. To find the figure, we went through the whole museum and enjoyed learning about the history of this old village and seeing all the photos in the museum. It took us around 20 minutes to solve this quest, and afterward, we got one more part of the ghost story and some facts about this place.
Now it was time to move to the next place. The next quest awaited us in front of the Hall of Life History. It was easy to solve, but it was a creative way to show us the way through the village.
The next quest also took us through the village. Again, we followed the directions and ended up in front of a house wall on which many laughing and playing children were painted.
Now the ghost story led us out of the old village. A short path led us to the next historical place to explore.
We were at Heunghwamun Gate. To solve the following question, we had to read the text on an information board where the answer was hidden.
We found the solution while learning about Gyeonghuigung Palace and the Japanese colonial period. Two birds with one stone!
Afterward, we went to Gyeonghuigung Palace, where we solved two more questions. The first question was easy to solve by looking at the inscription. For the solution to the second question, you had to count some objects, and in general, I found the second question a bit more creative and exciting.
Further, the ghost in the story led us to the Seoul Museum of History. The museum looks unspectacular from the outside, although you can see some displayed parts of palace buildings outside the museum. But do not be deceived! This museum offers more than you expect!
The quests we had to complete in the museum were very creative and required thought. These quests in the museum were my favourite quests in the game. We looked at the enormous paintings on the wall and almost forgot about the quests. Then we puzzled over how to solve the question but came up with the right solution after a few minutes!
The last two questions were easy to answer, but the message that came out of them is essential to the story.
Especially the place where we found the answer to the last question, the City Model Image Hall, is impressive. A miniature model of the entire city of Seoul. We were even able to find the houses in which we live.
We spent a long time at this place and were fascinated by the beautiful sight.
A snapshot of the city of Seoul.
The game with our new ghost friend took us to some great places in Seoul. The whole game took about seventy minutes, and all the sites were easy to reach on foot.
The ghost took us through time, and we saw how Seoul has changed over time and how the city will continue to change in the future.
The tour is logically structured, and the little ghost makes the whole thing a little more exciting and highlights that Seoul is no longer the city where the ghost lived in his lifetime.
We visited the old village, learned about its history, saw the beautiful palace, and discovered Seoul in the present.
We had a lot of fun solving the ten quests and following the ghost storyline.
We found it especially interesting that the old buildings and places are right next to the modern high-rise buildings, so you can experience both simultaneously.
A unique charm that you can experience in Seoul.
In addition, I think this tour and the story about the ghost were very thought-provoking. I thought a lot about how Seoul has developed in recent decades to today’s metropolis and how Seoul could probably develop further in the future.
“Seoul, now and in the making….” The ghost home has changed, it is constantly changing, and it will keep changing. But we will remember the past!
So if you have some time, download the app and explore these places yourself! I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun, even if you explore other cities with Questo!
