Shopping in Seoul

While my mom and aunt were visiting, we did a lot of shopping.  In fact, they got almost all of their Christmas shopping done while here!  We spent a couple days in Seoul and hit a few of the major shopping areas: Insadong, Dongdaemun, and Namdaemun.

Insadong is a shopping district near central Seoul and consists of a 1/2 mile long main street with countless alleys branching off of it.  This is a great place to find things such as traditional touristy souvenirs, unique artwork, and beautiful pottery.  It is closed to traffic on weekends, providing space for street vendors, parades, and entertainers.  Touring Gyeongbokgung Palace and then shopping in Insadong makes for a great Seoul day trip since they are near to each other.

One street over from Insadong is a street nicknamed "monk alley" due to the large number of stores selling buddhist monk clothing, shoes, accessories, and religious items.  There is also a large temple called the Jogyesa Temple.  It is a beautiful temple with 3 large seated gold buddhas inside.  It's worth a look if you're in the area.

Dongdaemun is... excess.  For example, if you are looking for a pair of shoes, there are 10,000 pairs to choose from.  If you want a scarf, you could spend all day looking through all that are available.  This market is mostly indoors in large, multistory buildings like the one picture below.  This huge marketplace is pretty well organized according to item.  You just need to find the building and floor that has what you're looking for.

Namdaemun is one of my favorite shopping districts because it is a large, primarily outdoor, traditional marketplace.  It's a great place to bargain for deals, try some street vendor snacks, take in the atmosphere, and for general people-watching.

Related Posts:

Visitors

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Changing of the Guard

Folk Village Revisited

Beijing, China

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"Shopping is a woman thing. It's a contact sport like football.

Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger

of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase."

~Erma Bombeck

Christmas Market

Some friends I recently went on a shopping trip to seoul in search of Christmas ornaments and decorations.  One of our shopping destinations was the Express Bus Terminal.  This is not only a bus terminal and subway station, it's also a great place for shopping all year round!  You can buy everything from plants, to clothing, to furniture from over 1,000 vendors at great bargains.  To learn more, click here for an article and video featured on discoveringkorea.com.

This time of year, a Christmas market appears in the Express Bus Terminal.  If you arrive by subway, go out of exit 8.  There are plenty of Christmas things there (still underground in the station) and there is also an entire floor, floor 3, devoted to Christmas and flowers in the bus terminal building (near exit 8 if you go above ground).  I'm not sure I've ever seen so many Christmas decorations in one place before.  It was so festive and beautiful to see.  We all left with a little something to decorate our apartments :)

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"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,

and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."

~Norman Vincent Peale

The 4 and 9 Market

The Songbook Market is a typical quiet Korean market on most days.  However on days that end in a 4 or 9 (4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29), the market bursts at its seams with shoppers and vendors.  The "4 and 9 Market" is where the locals generally shop for things.  I walked around the market for over an hour and didn't see any other foreigners.  Marketplaces like this really remind me that I am in a completely foreign country and yet at the same time, makes me realize how accustomed I've become to it.

The vendors in this market sell a wide variety of things such as fresh fruit and vegetables, prepared food, grains, seafood, meat, eggs, clothing, lingerie, shoes, purses, bedding, toys, and jewelry.  Some of the vendors had tables to display their items while others simply found an open spot on the ground.  The produce sold here is usually incredibly fresh and reasonably priced.  Bargaining is acceptable in the market and you will hear people everywhere haggling over the prices.  Walking through a market like this is a great way to observe the "real" Korea.

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"May you live as long as you want

and never want as long as you live."

~an Irish blessing

Yangjae Flower Market

Last week I went with a group of friends to the Yangjae Flower Market or "Flower City" near Seoul.  This flower market is the largest in the Seoul area.  The market opens at early at 4:00am.  The flower selling ends at 1:00pm but venders selling other things stay open later.  The earlier you go, the better the selection of fresh-cut flowers.  There are numerous buildings that include greenhouses and nurseries, retail stores, and an auction room.  You can buy live potted plants, flowers, trees, shrubs, bonsai trees, cacti, and herbs.  You can also buy large pots, soil, seeds, and gardening tools.

We spent most of our time in the two-story building on the property.  The bottom floor was full of thousands of fresh cut flowers but the top floor was packed with dried flowers, silk flowers, vases, baskets, ribbons, wrapping paper, fabric tissue paper, and decorative accessories.  This is a gift-wrapper's and wreath-maker's paradise!  I stocked up on spools of ribbon and gift wrapping supplies before moving out of Korea.

It's worth the trip even if you simply walk around, look at all the colors, and inhale the divinely sweet fragrance filling the air.  However, you most likely won't leave empty handed when you realize the flowers (even the roses) are only a few dollars per bunch!

Directions to the Flower Market at the end of this post.  To see a map of the location, copy/paste these coordinates ( 37.466185,127.040201 ) into Google Maps.

How to get there driving:  The flower market is just off of Expressway 1.  The exit is the one south of the Yangjae exit.  The best way to recognize it is that there are only three tall buildings off of that exit and they are next to the flower market: the Kia headquarters, the Hyundae headquarters, and the AT Center.

How to get there by subway:  There is a new subway line (DX Line) that will take you very close to the Flower Market.  Take the new red DX Line and get off at the Yangjae Citizen's Forest station.  Leave the station at Exit 4 and walk straight (about 0.2 miles / 0.3 kilometers) until you see the AT Flower City arch sign pictured below on your right.

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"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap
but by the seeds that you plant."
~Robert Louis Stevenson