Shopping at Namdaemun Market
my personal favorites
Namdaemun, or 남대문 南大門, literally means “the Grand Southern Gate” and it looks like this.
During the 500-year Josun Dynasty, this gate served as THE main entrance into Hanyang (the old name of Seoul) that was fortified by a surrounding wall. You can still visit remnants of that city wall in parts of Seoul today. As the name suggests, there were other gates—to the east, west and the north—and four other “smaller” gates in-between.
As you can see, Namdaemun Market is smack dab in the middle of Seoul. Slightly to the east, you see (in blue print) Dongdaemun Market, which literally means “East Gate” Market, which of course is the location of the Grand East Gate. Slightly southeast from NDM Market where I underlined with red line is Leeum Museum of Art in Itaewon. The “Lee” of Leeum is Yi Gun-hee, the late Chairman and CEO of Samsung Group, a big art world patron in his day. And to the southwest is Hybe, the company that manages BTS, Le Sseraphim, TXT, Enhypen, and NewJeans. That Hybe building has become somewhat of a tourist attraction among many foreign visitors in the past couple of years.
Getting back to the topic, I had written that I always visit the NDM market every time I’m in Seoul in the last posting although it’s not the most pleasant place for shopping. But I will tell you why I go there every chance I get.
Food
One of my favorites, period, when I go to Seoul. This place used to be called Gangwon-jib (강원집, “House of Gangwon Province”) but I don’t know why they changed their name to Dakjinmi (닭진미). The new name means, “True Taste of Chicken.” All they serve is chicken soup, so I get it, but it’s just so…. cheesy.
There are essentially 2 menu items. Chicken inside the soup (dak-gom-tang, 닭곰탕), and chicken served separately (baek-ban, 백반) like the above picture. You get more chicken meat when served separately. Bar none, this is the BEST chicken soup there is. You get a dipping sauce, two types of kimchi, and raw garlic with gochujang. The soup kind, dak-gom-tang, as of December 2022, is 9,000 won (about $7), and the baek-ban costs 1,000 more (about 80 cents). They only use too-old-to-produce-eggs chicken which has a very distinct texture and yield a soup-broth with a lot more depth. Don’t expect AAA service, but when compared to a Big Mac deal at McDonalds costing more than $10 nowadays, this is an absolute bargain. And you do NOT leave tips here (no taxes either).
There are also many other restaurants that specialize in spicy braised beltfish (갈치조림) but that’s more of an acquired taste. Street vendors of various Korean snacks are aplenty as well.
Eye Glasses
This is Sam Hammington, an Australian comedian/actor living in Korea. He’s self-admittedly more Korean than Australian (or a Kiwi, for his father was from New Zealand, mother from Australia) now, obviously speaks fluent Korean and is a well-known TV personality in Korea. I’ll never forget the comment he made about eye-glasses at NDM market.
His mother was visiting from Australia a few years ago, and Sam (as he’s affectionately known as, duh) took her to NDM to get her new glasses. When she found out how much they were, she decided to get 3 pairs and apparently claimed, “I just saved enough money to buy another round-trip ticket to Korea!” Surely, it wasn’t entirely true but you get the point. And the Korean system is such that you don’t have to go get a prescription from an eye doctor before you visit the glasses shop. It’s all taken care of at the same spot, all costs included.
They use probably better equipment than whatever you’re used to at your local optometrist, trust me. Koreans are very sensitive about having to use the latest and the best equipment there is. My personal experiences have been (for all 3 of my daughters needing glasses) that you can actually get very high-quality frames and lenses for about 40% of the cost in the US, notwithstanding insurance coverage. My second daughter whose eyesight is -3.5 in both eyes got her light-weight flexible frame with all the specialized coatings and protections lenses at 65,000 won, about $50. It took one day, not two weeks.
Stationaries and School Supplies
When I first started going to NDM, it was because I wanted to buy some stuff for my pre-school daughters back then (now a sophomore at UCLA, a freshman at Berkeley and a high school junior). Korea and Japan make some of the cutest stationaries and school supplies and I had heard that NDM had some of the best deals.
After all these years, I still have some of the stuff that I had purchased 13 years ago, like the pencil sharpener you see here. It still works perfectly.
I forget how much these things were, only that I was taken aback by how much “stuff” they had and how cheap they were. I remember I had bought so much at that “Alpha” store (above picture) that I could not carry it back to my hotel room without buying a luggage for it… which I did at a few doors down at NDM for about $60. It’s my go-to luggage whenever I travel and still in really good shape. It’s fairly light and look at those wheels—intact, never gets stuck, and sturdy as heck. The pullout handle never gave me trouble either.
What Not To Buy Here
Clothes. You will see tons of clothing shops, especially children’s. They are of supreme quality but not inexpensive. Unless you’re a wholesale customer (and there are quite a few from Vladivostok, Russia, I’m told), buying a few pieces of clothing items here and there will set you back quite a bit.
However, throughout the market there are street vendors on carts that sell knockoffs for deep discounts.