My Seoul Story Shopping at Seoul Folk Market and surrounding areas

Colorful masks in display at the Seoul Folk Flear Market/ Courtesy of Chris Kobylinski

This is the seventh in the series of contributions about Seoul's charms as seen foreigners' points of view. _ ED.

By Chris Kobylinski

Chris Kobylinski

Seoul is a popular shopping destination for both international and domestic tourists. Every day people crowd Seoul’s renowned shopping districts in search of the latest and trendiest products. Most shoppers head to large, high-end department stores, sleek modern shopping malls and trendy boutiques in bustling neighborhoods, but one of the more unique shopping areas of Seoul is Seoul Folk Flea Market, which gives shoppers a glimpse of Seoul’s shopping history.

A trip to Seoul Folk Flea Market is a like a trip back in time. The nearby Dongdaemun Design Plaza may look like a spaceship, but Seoul Folk Flea Market is a time machine transporting shoppers to the recent past.

As soon you arrive at the market, you notice a lot of large items on display outside. If you ever wanted to buy a phone booth, this is the place you could do it. Shoppers find themselves surrounded by a variety of vintage items, from small souvenirs such as posters and bottles, to large pieces of furniture and even stone statues.

Like most of the items in the market, the market itself has an interesting and dynamic story. The market began as a flea market underneath Cheonggye Overpass in Hwanghak-dong. The Cheonggyecheon Stream restoration project forced out many of the marketers and some moved into Dongdaemun Stadium. The market moved once again when construction for the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) began and finally found a permanent home at its current location in 2008.

The market is two floors and both floors are a cornucopia of surprises. Most stalls are packed with items without any prices marked on them, so searching for hidden gems and bargaining are the keys to getting great things at great prices. After you finish looking around the first floor and head up to the second, you’ll notice a variety of objects on display, like record players and vintage mailboxes that offer a glimpse into the past.

The unique finds continue on the second floor, where the market has also attempted to preserve some of its own history, with a few restaurants that serve affordable Korean food and an area of replica shops and businesses from a previous era. Visitors can see a small barber shop and coffee shop, sit down to play a few vintage arcade games, or put on some vintage clothes for a quick photo. The Seoul Folk Flea Market offers more than vintage items: it gives you a vintage experience.

The market is located near Sinseol-dong Station and is open every day except for the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. Although the market can be enjoyed almost every day, the best time to visit is on weekends, especially Sundays, when the streets of the area around the market are filled with additional vendors hawking an eclectic array of items. You can spend all day wandering the streets from the market all the way to Dongmyo Station on lines 1 and 6, taking in the scenes and shopping for bargains. The streets near Dongmyo Station exit 3 contain many small shops and street vendors, which makes this area feel like an extension of the market, and harks back to the time when the market was located near Cheonggye Stream.

The Seoul Folk Flea Market can be reached easily by public transportation and is only a few hundred meters from exits 9 and 10 of Sinseol-dong Station at the junction of lines 1 and 2.

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Chris Kobylinski is an American currently living in Seoul.