AREX: ‘Dongmyo shrine flea market’, Seoul’s new rising hot place

New flea market in Seoul, Korea, is catching popularity.

It’s the Dongmyo flea market where is located in intersecting subway line 1 and line 6. This market is called the old products market or the used-goods shops because old and used goods are mostly being sold.

It’s easy to go to this market with lots of buying and seeing if you take Korail Airport railroad at Incheon airport or Kimpo airport and then go to Gongdeok station, transferring to subway line 6 or going to Seoul station and transferring to subway line 1. The transfer passageway going straight to subway line 1 or line 4 at Seoul station of Korail airport railroad on March, 2015 will be opened and then you can go that market more conveniently.

Dongmyo is the shrine dedicating an ancestral tablet of GuanYu of records of the three kingdoms and parks are formed around this shrine. This became the market that sells all sorts of things such as old style clothes(clothes unsold or out of style ), old confectioneries, old watch, old LP and so on. You can feel as if you are stepping back into the past on a time machine, because this market has lots of old goods like sewing machine made in 1920, old coins, manual cameras, black and white TV, old rotary dial telephone, and etc. while old signs are hanging.

There comes a broad range of prices from 500 Won, 1,000 Won to millions Won. Clothes stalls being piled up high on the road are always overflowing with people.

Whoever choose it first should catch it first at this market. So peculiar scenes that old men, aunts, female college students and foreigners tangle with clothes, choosing again those like competing each other lead to laugh naturally.

Clothes at this flea market have various sources from selected goods worth selling again among old things piling up at trading company’s warehouse for export to stocks of shopping mall and recycled clothes in good condition among collected clothes from clothing bin in the neighborhood.

Old clothes are not the only selling item. If you are looking well, you can often choose new one with brand still remained on the price tag.

This unique scenes get foreigners to visit here to see and buy rare goods. It feels terrific to sightsee alone and experience Korea’s old atmospheres in every corner of this alley.

You can pay only by cash and are not able to exchange or refund at this market. You are not able to try on clothes due to street characteristic and so should purchase clothes after you check your exact body size and examine carefully whether or not something is wrong with it. This market usually opens after lunch time and close at sunset.

This unique scenes get foreigners to visit here to see and buy rare goods. It feels terrific to sightsee alone and experience Korea’s old atmospheres in every corner of this alley.

Just look around Dongmyo shrine park after the flea market shopping and sightseeing. Come out of exit 3 of Dongmyo station, keep walking to the right along the wall of dongmyo shrine and you can see the main gate of the park.

Dongmyo stands for Dongkwanwangmyo- the shrine for GuanYu in the east- and is the shrine built to enshrine the statue of GuanYu of records of the three kingdoms and perform rites for him at the request of Myung dynasty helped Chosun dynasty during the Imjin War (1592~1598), the Japan's invasion of Korea. The main building of this shrine is stuck back and forth with two buildings and this structure is usually found in temples of shrines in China. GuanYu statue is behind closed doors and so you should be content with peering through cracks of latticed doors.

There are many cheap and delicious restaurants around Dongmyo. You can eat korean style pancake at 1,000 won, toasted bread at 1,500 won, myeolchi guksu(noodles with vegetables in dried anchovy broth) at 3,000 won and bindaetteok(mung-bean pancake) at 6,000 won.