A Night Around Dongdaemun

By Kathy Pham

              As we are all aware, South Korea is known for fashion! It’s the place where everyone dresses like they are walking the run way. With that said, don’t you ever feel like dressing up? Feel like having a photoshoot to update your social media such as Instagram? Well, here is an article about how you can do so, along with other activities!

First, I suggest shopping around Hongdae, as I find that the best places to find clothes for females and males are here. The prices are wonderful compared to Canada and the quality is amazing! A sweater that I would have gotten in Canada for $30 CAD was only 12,000 KRW (about $14 CAD). Also, if you’re into make-up, you can find a bunch of cosmetic places in Hongdae that sell vibrant and good quality products! The shopping can be done days before or the morning of! After you finish shopping, you can head home to dress up! Wear whatever you want, make yourself happy, and be confident!

Before heading to Dongdaemun Culture & History Park, take line 2 from Wangsimni to Euljiro 4(sa)-ga station, then walk for about 9 minutes to the famous Gwangjang Market. You can fill your stomachs here with Korean pancakes, spicy chicken feet, dumplings, live octopus, and many more!

At the market, I tried live octopus for the first time! I remember screaming every single bite, and making sure I chomped hard and quickly so the legs wouldn’t suction cup to my throat! It was quite fun to eat, since I could see it moving and it would suction itself to the plate so, it was hard to pick up. Overall, I thought the octopus tasted great, but that is because I love sushi and raw seafood! Along with the octopus, I had a seafood pajeon (pancake), spicy chicken feet, and dumplings! The spicy chicken feet were insanely spicy and I cried while eating them. It did taste really good though!

            After eating dinner at Gwangjang Market, you can take a walk to Dongdaemun Culture & History Park, which is about a 15-minute walk and you can walk along the Cheonggyecheon Stream. This will be a good way for you to digest some of the foods you ate at the market!

Once you arrive at Dongdaemun, head over to the Design Plaza where you can take aesthetically pleasing photos! Here, I had a photoshoot along with my roommate at the DDP LED Rose Garden! I can’t say I am much of a model, but I definitely felt like one that night! The pictures also turned out quite nicely as well!

Finally, to end off the night, you can walk for about 5-minutes to the Hyundai City Outlet (Dongdaemun Branch) where there is a CGV located on the 11^th floor! Here, you can go ahead and buy a ticket to watch a movie! Choose your movie, choose your seats, and choose how you would like to pay all at one kiosk machine! If you have time before your show, there is an arcade where you can sing karaoke, race, and play air hockey!

This is what I did on a Saturday, and it was quite fun! I thought I would share what I did so, that you can also do the same! It’s basically a full day planned out for you! But of course, you can do other things around this area as well!