South Korea is a very mountainous country. The urban areas of South Korea tend to be very flat with high-rise apartment buildings housing the population. The rural, flat areas of South Korea often house rice fields and narrow roads regularly meander through these flat, rural areas. Like other countries in the region, South Korea has cylindrical utility poles. It also has the yellow and black stripes on many of its poles. These stripes are diagonal- the same direction as Taiwan’s stripes. Japan also has yellow and black stripes however these are mainly vertical and only occasionally diagonal. South Korea contrasts Japan as they drive on the right in South Korea. Additionally, South Korea uses triangular warning signs with a red edge and yellow centres. These signs are rare around the world with the only other Asian country to use them being Vietnam. South Korea has a unique writing system that can be easily identified. Many of the characters feature large circles. This contrasts the very small circles seen on the end of most Thai characters. Green signs with white lettering provide highway information in South Korea. The expressway shields used by South Korea look similar to US Interstate shields. Expressway numbers are shown on the map in South Korea however you need to zoom in significantly to see them. South Korea has diagonal yellow and black stripes on many of its utility poles, much like Taiwan. It also similarly has cylindrical utility poles. Taiwanese stripes mainly stretch all the way to the ground whilst the stripes in South Korea shouldn’t reach the ground. South Korea and Vietnam are the only Asian countries to use warning signs featuring a triangle with a red border and yellow fill. South Korean roads generally have a yellow, continuous, centre line and white, continuous edge lines. Much of the flatter South Korean land is dedicated to growing rice. These narrow roads often weave through rural parts of South Korea. The urban parts of South Korea tend to be fairly busy. Cars drive on the right in South Korea which contrasts the country from Japan. These blue signs provide road names in South Korea. They can be useful for helping you determine that you are indeed in South Korea and for helping pinpoint. South Korean utility poles stand out as they mainly have what resembles a long, sharp, pointed spike extending upwards from the top of the main pole. Bollards are fairly rare in South Korea, nonetheless, this is their front. Their rear has a yellow disk rather than a white disk. Most South Korean residents live in apartments. Despite this, there is quite a range of house styles in the country. A common feature of South Korean houses involves having elaborate roofs. This includes having decorations, protrusions or stylised parts to the roof. In addition, the corners of the roofs often have pieces that arch upwards. The South Korean language can be recognised easily thanks to large circles that feature as part of many of its letters. One of the most distinctive features of the island of Jeju, which belongs to South Korea and lies off its south coast, is the rock walls. 

South Korea uses a variety of different licence plates.

Pre-2006 plates are short and green.
Post-2006 plates are white for private vehicles, and yellow for commercial vehicles. These can be long and short.

The Korean writing system (Hangul) is very unique and recognizable. One of its standout features is the presence of circles in many of its letters. This sets it apart from most other East Asian writing systems.

Utility poles almost always have these pole markings near the bottom, consisting of black and yellow diagonal stripes. 

These markings look similar to the ones found in Taiwan. There are however two main differences: 

In South Korea, the stripes do not reach all the way to the bottom, whereas in Taiwan they do.

In South Korea, the stripes are more yellow. In Taiwan, they have more of an orange tint.

Most poles have a tapered “spike” on top.

South Korea drives on the right.

Roads have yellow middle lines and white outer lines.

You can sometimes see red block markings on the road.

Triangular warning signs have a yellow background.

Note that circular prohibition signs, such as speed signs, have a white background. Yield signs also have a white background.

Street signs will be blue, arrow-shaped and commonly hanging from a metal bar mounted to utility poles.

Direction signs in South Korea have white text on a green background.

Pedestrian crossings are often yellow and white.

South Korean pedestrian crossing signs can be easily recognised from the distinct pentagonal shape combined with the blue background.

Korean buildings have very distinctive house numbers. They are blue and usually are shaped quite literally like a house. The full address of the building is written on them, in both Hangul and Latin script.

Some places have unique house numbers.

You will sometimes see these black and white wedge-shaped bollards. They have a round yellow reflector on the front, and a grey one on the back.

The South Korean landscape is predominantly mountainous. It is very rare to not see at least some hills or mountains in the distance. Even in the flat areas, you can almost always see elevation on the horizon.

Red brick is a very common building material in South Korea.

Many buildings have traditional tiled roofs like these. These often have decorative elements on the corners, and tend to have sides that curve slightly upwards. Blue roofs are quite common.

Bollard:

White bollard with a black stripe and a yellow dot.

Road Lines:

Yellow centreline with a white sideline.

Road Signs:

Green signs with white text and romanization (Latin transliteration of Hangul).

Korea uses yellow background for their warning signs.

The turn arrows are black on a yellow background.

Road numbering system:

South Korea has motorways, national roads and provincial roads.
Motorways are numbered with a 0 or 5 at the end depending if they are going east-west or north-south respectively. The numbers increase from south to north and from west to east. The numbers go from 10 to 65, except the highway number 1 which goes from Seoul to Busan.

National roads are 1- and 2-digit and the numbers are increasing in the same way as for the motorways, from south to north and from west to east. The 1-digit ones are a nice way to find out where you are as their numbers increase regularly from west to east coast (1, 3, 5, 7 (north-south going roads)) and from south coast to NK border (2, 4 ,6 (east-west going roads)). They have blue oval highway shields.

Provincial roads are 3- or 4-digit and their numbers follow a pattern according to the province they are in. They have orange rectangular highway shields.

Electricity poles:

South Korea has these black and yellow diagonal stripes on poles that are wider and less tall than the Taiwanese ones.

License plates:

White long plates on private vehicles.

Service vehicles use yellow plates, and buses have narrow plates too.
