1st Trip-Dongdaemun & Jongsan

After 2 weeks of staying here, me and my hubby decided to start seeing the places. As it was our 1st time so we went along with some of his colleagues. At first it was totally confusing as the Suwon station was huge, not like in India. And here they are station + shopping places. As many shopping outlets are there including Chanel,Louis Vuitton etc so you can imagine how classy the stations must be. Then we went and booked our tickets. It was all automatic. There are machines installed for it. You just enter the destination and give the money, ticket and remaining change will come out. Then we took one Seoul Metro Map from the Tourist Information Centers(which are present in all stations) as it clearly has a layout of all stations,where you need to transfer train etc. You can see the map here too. It was very helpful in our later journies.

Then we used our tickets to enter into platforms(as it operated like ID card in office when swiped give access). There we came to know from his friends that there are 2 types of trains operating.First is the general one and the second is Rapid train where the speed is much more than normal and it doesn't stop in all the stations. Since it would be confusing to go in Rapid trains as our stations may be skipped we thought of sticking to normal trains. Today we were going to Dongdaemun Market which is one of the most biggest wholesale and retail markets in Korea. In total the market has 26 shopping malls situated over 10 blocks, 30,000 speciality shops, and 50,000 manufacturers. Most of the wholesale shops operate from 5 pm to 8 am. When we reached first we went to Hwanghak-dong flea market. Some of his friends were interested in antiques and other stuff which won't be available in any regular market. It was a row of shops selling 2nd hand,3rd hand goods mostly. And some antique shops too. But we were interested in just looking at people around and few stuffs in antiques stores. Rest items were regular, even 2nd hand clothes were sold on the streets.Most items sold were clothes,watches,fishing kit, jackets, old electronic stuff, shades, currencies of other countries. Then we decided to have lunch as it was nearly 3 pm. So we walked back towards the market. There we took some snaps on bridge over Cheong gye cheon. It was the Cheongyye stream below with walking area on both sides so that people can enjoy the calm scene. Finally we came to the market area. Had lunch at Burger king in Doota Mall( since we were scared to experiment so soon). Then again we exlpored the markets. It was just rows and rows of shops in the long buildings. Like in ground floor we found only shops selling hats, scarfs,jackets,leggings mostly. Then in 2nd floor was ladies clothings. Since we were late we left after exploring only ground floor shops. I had never seen in my life so much varieties of hats in a shop before. There were shops and shops of Hat and likewise. Then we went to Jongsan as it had the biggest electronics market. In the station itself was a big mall selling electronic goods called Ipark Mall. It was about 5 floors and all full with digital stuff. Like in 1st floor only cameras,2nd floor laptops,3rd USB related etc. Any gadget loving person will go mad here,I am sure of it. Then we went to another electronic market just 15 mins from the station. There 2nd hand stuff was kept too. And stuff were cheaper than anywhere. Where in Ipark you get 1 floor for any type of gadget,here it was buildings. For ex, 1 building only cameras,1 building laptops and so on. But we just explored a bit and returned as it was already 8pm and shops were getting closed.

When we returned home it was 9.30 pm and we were dead tired by all the walking we did. But the trip was really worthwhile. We got to see different people, their ways of living, dressing, and passion for gadgets!!