On January 22, 2020, I flew to Seoul from Shanghai, where I had been living for 8 years, to spend the Lunar New Year holiday in Korea. The next day, on the 23rd, I heard the news that Wuhan in China had been locked down. When I left Shanghai Pudong Airport on the 22nd, I heard a cold was going around and I was advised to wear a mask. The cold started in Wuhan. At first, I thought it was a just bad flu and didn’t think much of it. I had a 10-day round-trip ticket, but I postponed the return ticket date thinking that I could rest in Korea for about two weeks. However, it turned out that the flu was the Covid-19. It did not end in 2 weeks, a month, even a half a year. I was not able to figure out when I would return to Shanghai.

I was running a training center in Shanghai. I had to deal with many difficulties over the past few years, but I did not give up and finally my business was going to turn around. My Chinese business partner and I made good plans for 2020 and we were confident in our business in 2020 just before I went on a short break in Korea, so I never imagined that I would not be able to go back to Shanghai. As I stayed longer and longer in Korea, it became more difficult to deal with rent and labor costs of the training school in Shanghai, so eventually I had to close the center and started my life again in Korea, which I never ever imagined before.

I like walking and I had a lot of free time to do it at that time, so I walked for a few hours almost every day. While walking, the beautiful nature of Seoul like mountains, and historical sites such as the Seoul City Wall caught my eye, which I did not pay attention that much when I lived in Korea before. And I started a YouTube channel that talked about these attractions.

Since I was away from Korea for a long time, I lost contact with many of my friends, and it was difficult to meet people due to the Covid-19. I thought that I could interact with people through outdoor events, so I started a walking group where I could exercise, shoot videos, and interact with people all together. I created a walking group, called Seoul Walking Lovers, on a meeting platform called ‘meetup’, which I actively participated in when I was in Shanghai, and I started the first event where we would walk around Inwangsan mountainside trails on August 1, 2020. Do you know how many people showed up?

I was the only one who came to the event. Later, I changed the name of the group to Soulwalkers, and as I continued to host walking events, the number of attendees grew from one or two to more than ten. Some of them joined the group as event organizers. Since we have been organizing many events with lots of passion, Soulwalkers has been growing rapidly. Currently, Soulwalkers has more than 3,000 members. (I later stepped down from my role, passing the reins to another dedicated organizer and the group has been renamed “Seoul Trekkers”. I’m thrilled to see the group continue to thrive under their leadership.)

Then, I started SeoulShare by chance. In April 2022, the main organizer of a language exchange group on meetup left and the group needed a new organizer. I, who was a member of the group, became the main organizer of the group out of simple curiosity. I changed the name of the group to SEOUL MINGLE. Later I changed the name again as ‘SeoulShare’ and started hosting various events. Currently, SeoulShare has grown into a community hosting colorful events such as picnics, pub crawls, fireworks festival event and so on. From April 2022 to Nov 2023, more than 3,000 people have joined the community, and the numbers of RSVPs are more than 11,000 times, and more than 800 members are participating in the SeoulShare KakaoTalk chat group. For Han River Fireworks Festival in October 2022, more than 200 members signed up online, and more than 100 members joined the event. We also have several regular clubs. Our boardgames, running, HIIT workout, language exchange and walking clubs are hosting events every week.

As I run a community where people from all over the world interact with each other, we receive various feedbacks from the members. One member went on a month-long trip to Korea, but it was hard for him to meet people for the first two weeks, so he even thought about leaving Korea earlier. He happened to participate in our events and was able to make good friends from all over the world and find the joy of living in Korea. So, he even extended his stay to three months from one month. He went back to the US after 3 months, but he has recently come back to Korea, and of course he has been joining our events. One member wanted to spend her birthday with our community members, so we threw a birthday party for her. Not only she, but we also all had a great time at the birthday party. One member said she really wanted to visit Nami Island, but did not want to go there by herself, so we organized a trip to Nami Island. Many members joined and we had a really good time on Nami Island.

I have realized that SeoulShare is helping foreigners to live in Korea. Foreigners in Korea may be vulnerable. Of course, they love Korea, so they travel, work or study in Korea, but they must live apart from their family and friends back home. Depression may occur due to loneliness, but they come to our events, and they can interact with each other. It could help them relieve depression. Things that are easy for Koreans can be difficult for foreigners. It is very easy for Koreans to go to a pharmacy and buy medicine when they are sick, but foreigners may have difficulties with these trivial problems due to language problems, etc. When you have such difficulties, you can get help from members of the SeoulShare community.

Local Koreans are also getting help through SeoulShare. Even without going abroad, you can interact with people from all over the world and learn about the culture and history of other countries. Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world. In a situation where it is practically impossible to raise the rate in a short period of time, more foreigners will have to live and work in Korea in order to solve problems such as a shortage of labor. However, some Koreans still have views like discriminating against foreigners, such as the concept of a single ethnicity, and some Koreans lack understanding of foreigners and foreign cultures. Through SeoulShare, Koreans can enhance mutual understanding while interacting with foreigners. Through this, SeoulShare can help not only Koreans but also Korean society to become more inclusive and international.

Seeing people from all over the world interacting and helping each other through SeoulShare community, I was able to naturally come up with the mission of SeoulShare.

Our mission: SeoulShare brings people together to encourage mutual understanding of each other, and build a healthy and meaningful relationship with each other.

When I started a walking group two years ago simply because I like walking, I could not even imagine running a community with this mission two years later. However, as Steve Jobs said that a series of seemingly coincidental events become magically connected when you look back at them after time passes. In that sense, the path I have walked over the past does not seem to be mere coincidence.

I started taking leadership roles for various school clubs and students’ organizations since I was in high school. I planned a weeklong tree planting program held in deserts in China and went there with 60 members as the leader of the program. I also participated in the Seoul youth overseas exchange program as a coordinator and led middle school students to the US to help them learn social enterprises. While living in Shanghai for 8 years, I joined various events and hosted events as well. At first glance, SeoulShare was created simply by chance, but looking at all the things I’ve done in the past and looking at Seoulshare together with them, they’re all connected. In this sense, SeoulShare was not created by chance, but it was inevitable.