Seoul and the People
As one of the busiest and well known metropolitan cities in the world. Living in Seoul is not pretty easy while adapting to the modern technology, different language, different food/taste and different social life. In other parts, you can find the traditional life of Seoul which is still very solid.
If you are kind of people that love to walk and explore around, Seoul is one of the cities that walker-friendly. I love to walk around and get lost when the weather is good and not raining.
A small hint for travelers: when you want to find a place and travel using metro or rails in Seoul, please note as well the exit number from the metro station. It will help you a lot because most of the metro station is big and far away. It might help you easily reach the destination.
Basically, in most of the traditional market in Seoul, you can find everything that you want for the good quality and affordable price.
Here I explore Seoul through the traditional market.
1. Gwangjang Market
which we can reach it with Korea Rail Line 1 to Station name Jongno 3 (sam) ga or Jongno 5 (o) ga.
It is quite a big traditional market which has several gates (East and South). Here we can find the Hanbok traditional dress alley which you can buy it or just easy amaze on the variety of Hanbok.
Besides Hanbok textile, here they have a variety of bedding textile, clothes, and souvenirs of Korea.
In other alleys, we can find a different kind of food, fruits, and vegetables, seafood, juices, Korean side dishes, snacks, Korean street food, Korean noodle (cold and hot), bibimbap, etc.
2. Namdaemun Market
It can be reached by subway with line 4 to Hoehyeon station exit 5.
It is one the biggest traditional market compared to Gwanjang market.
Here you can find anything you want. Name what you want and you will get it.
Because of the size, you may easily get lost in the Namdaemun market. As you arrived at the market, you may find the information box to get a map or ask the lady in red uniform.
Hint: If you want to buy a lot of souvenirs, you have to go deep inside the building where they sell the souvenir cheaper than the one on the street.
The well-known dumpling stall in Namdaemun Market is the star. It has always a long queue to get your turn to buy and taste the dumplings.
After strolling around the Namdaemun market, I tried few of the street food snack such as the red bean paste bun and hotteok. It tastes good for the first trial.
Top three pictures: the japchae hotteok.
1. The Ahjumma prepared the Korean hotteok dough and filled it up with red bean paste or japchae (noodle and vegetables)
2. The Ahjumma fried and flipped the hotteok
3. The inner view of hotteok
Bottom two pictures:
1. The Ahjussi prepared the bun
2. The red bean paste steamed bun.
After the snack, I stroll around the alley where Ahjumma sells the bibimbap and noodle soup. In this alley, they mainly sell only bibimbap, noodle soup, cold buckwheat noodle, and glutinous rice bibimbap. They will keep attracting you to come to their stall to get the business.
We have ordered the hot noodle soup and bibimbap. They gave us a little bowl of kimchi and green vegetable kimchi to welcome us. If you are lucky, Ahjumma will give an extra little bowl of cold buckwheat noodle or even extra noodle soup if you ordered bibimbap. They can speak little English and Chinese. It is pretty interesting to have a little meal in this hectic alley.
As one of the busiest and well known metropolitan cities in the world. Living in Seoul is not pretty easy while adapting to the modern technology, different language, different food/taste and different social life. In other parts, you can find the traditional life of Seoul which is still very solid.
If you are kind of people that love to walk and explore around, Seoul is one of the cities that walker-friendly. I love to walk around and get lost when the weather is good and not raining.
A small hint for travelers: when you want to find a place and travel using metro or rails in Seoul, please note as well the exit number from the metro station. It will help you a lot because most of the metro station is big and far away. It might help you easily reach the destination.
Basically, in most of the traditional market in Seoul, you can find everything that you want for the good quality and affordable price.
Here I explore Seoul through the traditional market.
1. Gwangjang Market
which we can reach it with Korea Rail Line 1 to Station name Jongno 3 (sam) ga or Jongno 5 (o) ga.
It is quite a big traditional market which has several gates (East and South). Here we can find the Hanbok traditional dress alley which you can buy it or just easy amaze on the variety of Hanbok.
 |
| Food alley |
Besides Hanbok textile, here they have a variety of bedding textile, clothes, and souvenirs of Korea.
In other alleys, we can find a different kind of food, fruits, and vegetables, seafood, juices, Korean side dishes, snacks, Korean street food, Korean noodle (cold and hot), bibimbap, etc.
 |
| Colorful of snack and conservant food |
 |
| Variety of Korean side dishes |
 |
| Korean street food - vegetable pancake |
 |
| Stall selling - Gimbap, Noodle soup, pork trotter, blood sausage (Sondae) |
2. Namdaemun Market
It can be reached by subway with line 4 to Hoehyeon station exit 5.
It is one the biggest traditional market compared to Gwanjang market.
Here you can find anything you want. Name what you want and you will get it.
Because of the size, you may easily get lost in the Namdaemun market. As you arrived at the market, you may find the information box to get a map or ask the lady in red uniform.
Hint: If you want to buy a lot of souvenirs, you have to go deep inside the building where they sell the souvenir cheaper than the one on the street.
The well-known dumpling stall in Namdaemun Market is the star. It has always a long queue to get your turn to buy and taste the dumplings.
 |
| Variety of tasty dumplings (steamed or deep-fried) |
 |
Top three pictures: the japchae hotteok.
1. The Ahjumma prepared the Korean hotteok dough and filled it up with red bean paste or japchae (noodle and vegetables)
2. The Ahjumma fried and flipped the hotteok
3. The inner view of hotteok
Bottom two pictures:
1. The Ahjussi prepared the bun
2. The red bean paste steamed bun.
After the snack, I stroll around the alley where Ahjumma sells the bibimbap and noodle soup. In this alley, they mainly sell only bibimbap, noodle soup, cold buckwheat noodle, and glutinous rice bibimbap. They will keep attracting you to come to their stall to get the business.
 |
| Bibimbap contains white rice and barley, green vegetable/lettuce, bean sprouts, seaweed, sweet chili paste, sesame seeds |
 |
| Hot noodle soup contains thin handmade noodle, tofu, seaweed, springonions |
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| Most of the stalls in this alley has been broadcasted through SBS TV Channel |
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