20+ Photos That Prove South Korea Is Living in the Future

While in some of our parks, the best thing we can do is sit on a bench and listen to the birds sing, South Korea is always one step ahead — they have public park benches where you can wirelessly charge your phone. If you’re ever in South Korea, you can admire “ramen cup” hotel rooms, poop-themed cafes, or even fingerprint recognition door locks.

Here at Bright Side, we’ve put up our magnifying glasses and found some gems about life in South Korea that we’d love to share with you.

1. This movie theater has a slide inside.

2. Digital doors are really popular in South Korea.

3. You can visit this 2D Cafe that looks like it’s taken from the pages of a coloring book.

4. An intercity bus, complete with chargers, a table, and a footrest

5. “This Dunkin’ Donuts in Korea has a spot to pour your drink out before throwing it away.”

6. “New Seoul subway trains tell you how crowded each cell is by color.”

7. Bus stations can look like this!

8. Are you familiar with sock vending machines?

9. Or even better, flower vending machines?

10. “A free mouthwash dispenser in the mall restroom in Seoul, Korea”

11.

Some shops in South Korea have an umbrella box — when there’s rainy weather, you can insert your wet umbrella and it will get covered with a bag or just simply wiped from any excess water, preventing the floor from getting soaked.

12. “I’m staying in Korea right now and apparently there’s a TV channel dedicated to dogs...as in programming FOR dogs.”

13. Dreams do come true in Korea — now you can sleep in a ramen cup at the Unique Pension.

14. Movie tickets can look like this.

15. “Solar-powered benches here in Seoul, South Korea, complete with USB and wireless charging docks”

16. “Korean KTX trains play ’healing broadcasts’ where they just show newborn puppies rolling around for 5 minutes.”

17. “In South Korea, they camouflage cell towers to look like trees.”

18. “A bathroom in the Incheon airport has a clock embedded in the mirror.”

19. “This hotel in Korea has wide, pink parking spaces just for women.”

20. “This staircase at Seomun Market tries to depict how many calories you’ve burned and how many seconds you’ve added to your life.”

21. There’s a room filled with couches for anyone to take a nap in at the airport.

22. You can dine in a toilet-themed cafe.

23. “The building across from my hotel looks like a zipper.”

24. South Korea uses East Asian age

A surprising fact that really shows South Korea is living in the future is its age counting system. If a baby is born on December 31, they will be 1 day old on January 1 of the next year, according to our system. Meanwhile, in South Korea, if a baby is born on the last day of the year, they are considered 1 year old; on the first day of the New Year, January 1, they will turn 2 years old. For official government documents, legal procedures, and age limits on beginning school, the international system is used, which is the one we are all so familiar with.

What’s one thing from our list that you’d love to have in your city? What’s a special thing your country has that you haven’t seen anywhere else?