After spending Saturday daytime doing very little I headed into Seoul in the evening to meet Emily and do a bit of shopping.

Caroline (the other girl living in my area) is a shopaholic and had told me about this amazing shop that was open until 5am and had a whole floor or accessories, a floor of bags, a floor of shoes etc… I decided this was the perfect place to go and look for a bag to use for work.

The shop is in an area called Dongdaemun. Dongdaemun is a famous shopping district in Seoul with lots of massive shopping malls and a massive outdoor market. We spent hours walking around trying not to spend too much money and got so carried away we almost missed the last bus home.

However despite walking around for hours after researching Dongdaemunon the internet it has become clear we hardly saw any of it. Defiantly worth a return visit me thinks.

I found this information on a website, click here for more from the site:

Korea’s largest wholesale and retail shopping district has 26 shopping malls, 30,000 specialty shops, and 50,000 manufacturers. Within the ten blocks of the market area, you can find silks, clothes, shoes, sporting goods, plumbing and electrical supplies, electronics, office supplies, toys and just about everything else imaginable.

Traditionally, wholesalers operated from 1:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and retailers were open from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Buyers came from all over Korea to take advantage of the cheap wholesale prices during the wee hours of the morning, creating an unusual nightlife in the area. Now, the area stays open from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., allowing shoopers to do their thing almost any time the mood strikes them. (Most stores close on Mondays and holidays.)

Near the market were these stunning water fountains in the Cheonggye stream (pictures below). There is a lot of history behind the stream.

I found this information on Wikipedia:

During the presidency of Syngman Rhee, Cheonggye was covered over with concrete for roads and, in 1968, an elevated highway was built over it. In July 2003, Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak initiated a project to uncover and restore the stream. It was a major undertaking as not only did the highway have to be removed, but years of neglect and development had left the stream nearly totally dry and 120,000 tons of water had to be pumped in daily. The stream was opened to the public in September of 2005 and lauded as a major success in urban renewal and beautification.

It took ages to get someone to take this photo. Originally we asked an older Korean woman to take it but after 20 minutes of smiling inanely at the camera she still couldn’t figure out how to push the button! Eventually we found a young girl to take it.

And after all that is it me, or do we look like we are superimposed on the background of the photograph.

Thats it for me on Dongdaemunon. Gots loads of other stuff to blog about!

* Posted by j150vsc on 08/10/2006.