Beautiful pictures @slowalker of a sleepy, traditional village. The streets and alleys are very clean and well-maintained.
It seems in countries or even cities and towns there is a cultural divide. This north-south divide is marked by the Han River. In our country we have an expression, "across the tracks" meaning a poorer area of town near the railroad tracks.
But the southern parts of the city in your story were poor not in riches but in culture. We have another expression taken from the French, "nouveau riche" - it refers to newly rich people who acquired wealth quickly but have no culture.
So you see, people are much the same everywhere.
BTW, your allusion to the song “Gang Nam Style” made me smile. Now I understand the meaning behind the words :)
A good post, @slowwalker!