Space at a Premium

Seoul is a city of 12 million and there are people everywhere.  I can't speak for New York but I know that while San Diego has 5 million, the city limits of San Diego is rather large and spread out.  

In Seoul, buildings are built on top of one another with steep alleyways and tiny little store fronts with enough room for shelves, maybe a table and 2 people walking side by side.  Even the restaurant we had dinner in was on the second floor, on top of another restaurant and under a third.  Churches are built within other buildings.



One of the rare stand alone commercial building I have seen is a Costco and even it wasn't to American giant-size standards.