The first time I walked down the random side streets of urban South Korea, my group realized that we needed a landmark in order to navigate back to our starting point. The sun had already set, and one landmark seemed to be the obvious choice. Nearby, we saw a church with a glowing, bright red cross on top. We assumed that we should be able to see that light from several blocks away, and therefore easily navigate backwards at the end of our evening.
It turns out, however, that churches are everywhere. And all of them have a glowing, bright red cross on top. Therefore, after walking several blocks and turning several corners, we looked around and saw multiple instances of what we had previously thought was the perfect landmark.
We were lost.
Over time I heard this exact same anecdote from multiple people, none of whom had been in my group that evening. It turns out that these glowing, bright red crosses are the imperfect landmark of choice for new arrivals. So if you travel to South Korea for the first time, my advice is to choose another landmark.
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