Dongdaemun Market

This weekend we headed to Dongdaemun Market.

Dongdaemun Market is a giant shopping district in Seoul. I consulted google, and a few blogs run by Americans living in Korea, and figured out which subway lines we needed to take and what stop to get off at. We have a subway stop virtually right outside our apartment buiding and we hopped the train and took it 9 stops to the Dongdaemun exit.

(strollers and subway cars dont really mix, but until the backpack carriers I ordered come in, its our safest option)

Jackson wanted to hold onto the subway car handles. He's such a big strong boy.

We got out at the Dongdaemun exit, and I expected to see an giagantic old timey market. Apparently, I didnt do my research very well, and Dongdaemun isnt an old timey market, but a giant shopping district filled with 26 malls and ten blocks of shopping choices. But we didnt know that, and so we walked ALL around looking for an old timey market.

There were lots of big malls, and outdoor food carts selling (in Jason's opinion) very tasty looking things.

On the right, is a hot dog, deep fried with french fries wrapped around it.

The Cheonggyecheon River runs thru the Dongdaemun district (and much of downtown Seoul). Jason stopped to pose on the little bridge over the river.

From there we walked along the river until we came to a maze of alleys and shops. We thought maybe the old timey market was hidden in the alleys, so we ventured in.

These alleys were mostly small resturants, all cooking fish outside.

So, we wandered thru the alleys, back over to the river, and back to a collection of big malls. The mall map claimed to have something called a "Kid Land" on the 6th floor (all malls here are high rise malls), and since Emma has been so good to sit patiently in her stroller and we wandered aimlessly, we thought we'd check out this Kid Land and let her play a bit.

Sadly, Kid Land was just the name of a floor of all children's apparel. There was a small room to drop your kids off while you shop (common idea here) and it had books and a few toys, so Emma and Jason played in there for a bit while Jax and I wandered aorund.

Several of the malls in this shopping district have these big stages in front of them blaring pop music for all to here. I assume people perform on these stages from time to time, but on this day there were no performers, just really loud music. Emma boogied down for a good ten minutes before we headed back to the subway.

Since we never found an old timey open air market, we assumed we never actually found Dongdaemun Market. When we got back home, I googled Dongdaemun and realized that Yes! indeed we had visited Dongdaemun!

Guess I can cross another Seoul experience off my list.