Dongdaemun
David
Posted on September 30th, 2007
As my plane back to the UK wasn’t until midnight on Monday I decided to have a final explore of some of the things I hadn’t yet seen which included both Dongdaemun and Namdaemun markets, centred around the historic city walls.
Dongdaemun means “Great East Gate” and was the major eastern gate in the wall that surrounded Seoul during the Joseon Dynasty. Today it’s marooned in the middle of a busy roundabout looking somewhat forlorn, no longer gatekeeper to a city which is grown way beyond its original boundaries. Surrounding the gate is Dongdaemun Market, consisting of over 26 shopping malls, mainly specialising in retail and wholesale fashion items. With over 30,000 shops you’re pretty spoilt for choice if you like that sort of thing!
I choose to steer away from the modern shopping malls and headed for the backstreets which looked a whole lot more interesting. Packed between narrow streets lay an array of curious vendors selling all manor of various goods. I particularly liked an alleyway which sold nothing but shoes of every type and size, stacked high against the walls. The place reminded somewhat of Silk Street in Beijing with many counterfeit brands!
If you’re curious to see what the more modern side look like at night check out this video. Next up, the final instalment from Korea (normal service to be restored shortly!).
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So DONG in Korean also means east like the DONGZHIMEN subway station in Beijing
. And that alley very much reminds me of TIANQIN and the Silk Streets. So did you buy any? Do these guys bargain like the ones at Silk Street? My biggest bargain there was I guess denims which started from 700 RMB and ended at 65 RMB 
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Interesting observation Adeel, I hadn't noticed so thanks for that
To be honest I didn't buy anything as I had no room in my bags to bring stuff back, that and the fact it would have been hard to find a matching pair of shoes here!