Dongdaemun, 24 Hours Shopping of Seoul

Date of Visited: 09th September 2011

After bidding goodbye to our lovely Korean friend, Kyung Hee in Myeong-Dong, then we're heading to next pitstop for shopping time again. Talking about shopping in Seoul, it is one of the popular activities which most travellers/tourists like to indulge in as it has more to offer from shopping mall, centres to markets and even streets which you barely to miss them out.

Since we have T-card with us, hence we fully utilised it by taking subway to the next destination.

One of my best travelmate who travel together to Japan in 2010, Nicole.

 

My best travelmates in crime. We used to travel a lots of places during studied in UK.

 

My friend "forced" me to take this pos, pretending I was very strong. 

 

More spacious and clean inside subway train.

Dongdaemun, is our second destination on the second day. Dongdaemun is claimed to be the largest market in South Korea that supplies stocks to thousands of retail fashion shops around the whole of Korea. You can find greatest bargain in almost more than 30,000 stores in the Dongdaemun area with many different kind of products such as clothing, accessories, bags, shoes, textile, fabrics, footwear, and sporting goods.

Literally, Dongdaemun means "Great East Gate" but for sure this word not only means that in Korean but in Chinese too. It was so named because it was the major eastern gate in the wall that surrounded Seoul.



Dongdaemun area was built nearby an old fortress wall gate and it can be easily noticed this once come out from the subway station.

Typical street of Dongdaemun

 

Ginseng can be found anywhere in South Korea. Cheap or not? Don't ask me cause I'm not interested with it.

What makes this market outstanding than others is because most of the shops around this area open from 9:00 pm until 5:00 am or even 6:00 am on the next day. So if you can't enough to shopping during the daytime, you can continue shopping at here until you're drop. Experience this nightime excitement which not often seen in many other places in the world.

 

We spotted one whole row of food street vendors that sell many of local cuisines, hence we decided to try.

My friends and I did tried one of Korean popular authentic street snacks, stir fried rice cakes (as photo below), added with some crispy fried seafood snacks (as photo above). Although it was quite a spicy, but it taste delicious and we did almost have two bowls for it.

We strolled around Dongdaemun for one or two hours but we found out nothing that we fond of. Maybe because this district market would be more happening at night than the daytime, thereafter we moved to the next place before it's getting dawn.



How to get to Dongdaemun:
Subway Line 1 or 4, Dongdaemun Station

[Credit To: Wikipedia, ExploringKorea.com, VisitKorea.or.kr]