It’s well after midnight. Seoul is a sprawling and sweating 8000-square-mile sauna. Despite the energy-sapping combination of 35ºC heat and 95 per cent humidity, the Gangnam district is absolutely heaving. People pour in and out of brightly illuminated cafes, bars, photobooth shops and barbecue houses, their hands full of phones, cigarettes and mini fans. They swarm across Gangnam’s tight grid of roads and alleys with scant regard for the cars, scooters and e-bikes that deftly weave through and around them. The shimmering lights, the pulsing K-pop soundtrack, the aromas of grilled steak, perfume, beer and smoke, the gritty back-of-your-throat taste of hot urban concrete – welcome to the world’s most dynamic city.
I slip silently past Gangnam’s saturated late-night revellers, relaxing in the icy air pouring out of the Kia…
