A bulletin board at a subway station in Seoul has thrown light on the hopes and aspirations of city residents, with passengers scribbling down their thoughts and dreams in between subway journeys from 2009.

The board at a rest area in Maebong Station on Line No. 3 featured a total of 993 messages in over two years. Of these, 355, or 35.8 percent, were related to job searches and university admission -- making it by far the biggest category.

Wishes of love and happiness came in second with 263 messages, or 26.5 percent, followed by 122 prayers for good health and diet (12.3 percent) and 90 posts wishing for self-improvement or striving to study harder (9.1 percent).

However, very few messages wished for riches, suggesting that Korean may work longer hours than almost anyone else in the world, but they aren't obsessed with financial wealth.

"The results probably reflect the stuttering economy and tough job market. But despite the grim economic situation, we only had 54 messages expressing the desire to make a lot of money and get rich," said Gong San-man, who is employed to help manage the station.

The messages were recently analyzed by the Seoul Metro, which is in charge of operating Seoul Subway Lines No. 1 to 4, as they were taken down and replaced by a tower resembling Cheomseongdae, an ancient observatory during the Shilla Dynasty (57 BC - 935 AD).