Ewha Womans University

Angela and I recently spent a Sunday afternoon exploring Ewha Womans University near Sinchon, Seoul. Korea's capital is home to dozens of prestigious higher education establishments, but Ewha is one of the most well known, and is considered one of the top universities in the country. Founded by American Methodist missionary Mary F Scranton in 1886, it is the world's largest female educational institute, and currently ranked 40th best university in Asia. While the use of "womans" in its title may sound like a grammatical error, the founders in fact wanted to pay tribute to each woman in the community as an individual, rather than lumping them together under a term like "women." Having said that, I still think there should be an apostrophe in there somewhere.

The area around Ewha has become a popular shopping and eating district, especially for young women.

Of course it still has its share of old men.

An enchanting hairdresser's. I actually got my hair cut that same day in Ewha, but not at this establishment.

A pretty square close to the metro station.

Some busy market stalls selling clothes and jewellery.

We ate tasty sandwiches for lunch.

When first entering the main campus, you get a great view of the the different gardens and halls of the university.

The campus' main complex is located in an artificial chasm lined with geometric shapes and numbered doors.

Inside the main complex.

In one of the campus shops we spotted cans of low-fat water. One of those "only in Korea" moments.

On the upper floors of the main complex it was completely silent, being a Sunday and all.

Heading back outside into the chasm.

This is a statue of American missionary, Mary F Scranton, founder of the university.

Wandering the pretty gardens of the campus.

Back in the shopping district surrounding the campus, we spotted a giant shoe.

Later we headed to nearby Hongdae and saw this cool one-man band playing Tom Waits-esque carnival songs.

If you're interesting in visiting Ewha Womans University yourself, you can easily get there by heading for the metro station of that name on Line 2.