M Pass (Metropolitan Pass ) Coming Soon

Good news for visitors to South Korea. From December onwards, you can buy new multiple-ride transit passes and enjoy greater savings as you plan day trips between Seoul and some other cities in the country.

Ask for the M-Pass but before that, plan carefully as you have to decide between purchasing the one-day pass ( which costs 10,000 won and lets you take up to 20 subway trips ) or opt for the 2-day, 3-day or 7-day pass instead.

According to the Korean Herald and Yonhap News, " The passes currently are only for travel on subway lines and a railway linking Incheon International Airport to Seoul, but will later be expanded to include all regular buses in the capital area. Discounts on admissions to royal palaces and other tourist destinations will also be given to foreigners with passes."

Never really bothered about checking out passes for transportation around Seoul before but now that I've done a bit of surfing, the options seem to be increasing and at the same time, a tad migraine-inducing if you're like me and hate making consumer comparisons.

Seoul City Plus Passes - Choices Within Choices

How, for instance, does the M-Pass differ from the Seoul City Pass OR  the T-Money card OR  the Seoul City Plus Pass?  Points of comparison include coverage ( can it be used on local buses and subways outside Seoul? ), mode of recharging and refunds and  additional discounts for tourist attractions.

I'll leave you to do the math.

 The assumption seems to be that most tourists prefer to make Seoul their base but what about those who are not particularly keen on spending so much time in the capital?

Personally, I'd prefer to have a travel pass that gets me on any provincial, local and inter-city bus so that I can travel out  from Incheon International Airport, avoid the traffic snarls of Seoul and head directly for the hills. It's early days yet so it would be interesting to see which cities or towns outside Seoul will be involved in this scheme.

sources:
http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20111020000820
http://visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=261307
http://asiaenglish.visitkorea.or.kr/ena/TR/TR_EN_5_4.jsp

QR Codes At Seoul Bus Stops

It wasn't too long ago that I learnt a new word ( OK - it's not the first time I've admitted I'm a techie dinosaur) and now I read that the Seoul Metropolitan Government has introduced QR Codes at  its bus stops in Seoul City. Very  impressive.

Real-time information for bus routes now available at the fingertips of Smartphone owners in Seoul

Quick Response Codes, i.e. two-dimensional matrix barcodes, were developed by a subsidiary of Toyota called Denso-Wave way back in 1994. QR codes, now commonplace in Japan, are quickly becoming part of the arsenal of marketing managers who want their clients' business cards,  advertisements and billboards to talk directly to their customers' mobile phones.

QR code on the right side of the conventional bar code - snapped at a  Japanese supermarket

So with the QR Code reader application in your mobile phone, all you need to do is to snap a photo of the QR code at a bus-stop in Gangnam, for instance, and all the relevant information pertaining to the bus services that ply that route will be instantly available on your smartphone. No  more painstaking keying in or noting down the bus schedules.

That's good news for Smartphone owners who are living or working in or simply visiting Seoul.  The application is available in Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese ( both in the simplified versions for those from the PRC and the traditional script for the Taiwanese).

Remind me to buy a smartphone before I make my next visit to Seoul.

sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=257573
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/FU/FU_EN_15.jsp?cid
http://searchengineland.com/what-is-a-qr-code-and-why-do-you-need-one-27588