time now for our life an info segment where we focus on information that we do
hope will be useful for your everyday life and one of the favorite things for
foreign tourists to do here in South Korea is shopping and today we're going
to look at the different types of shopping areas and what you can shop for
in South Korea for that I am happy to say we have our Kim bo-gyung joining us
in the studio today so muggy on what do you have for us today hi mark well today
we're going to talk about the unique markets and shopping districts in South
Korea but before we get to that do you enjoy shopping our food or clothes any
kind of shopping I used to be really into clothes shopping when I was a
younger man all the brands and all that but these days I just go for the cheaper
options food not so much I generally because I work quite a lot I
leave that to my wife and but I do see a lot of people including foreigners who
live here on a long term basis as well as tourists wandering around the streets
checking out all the shops yes I also have seen a lot of them and me we may
not have realized because we're so used to it but it seems like Korea's shopping
culture is very unique for many others around the globe in fact according to a
survey held by the culture ministry and the Korea Tourism Organization on some
16 thousand tourists last year around ninety two point five percent said that
they came to Korea to shop while 71 point three percent said that they came
to taste a local food well that's not surprising really we've run many
different reports on how a lot of foreigners come here for the food and
the shopping you can pick up some bargains and also try food you aren't
gonna try anywhere else in the world that's cheap as well but there are a
great many places where we can visit no matter whether in Seoul or any other
part of Korea so what kind of places that we're going to start looking at
today well today we're going to take a look at some of the unique places where
people can shop starting off with Korea's traditional markets and one of
the most one of the most famous markets here in Korea is the tonging market look
near the terminal district though the market is relatively small compared to
other markets with the length of just 300 meters it sells a wide variety of
goods but what's special about this market is that it offers a unique
experience using brass coins called Yelp done as you can see on the video these
yup Jong are coins that are used until the 19th that were used until the 1900s
the final years of the Chosun dynasty unlike other markets where you can just
use cash tolling market allows customers to buy the option coins and create their
own customized lunch box by shopping for side dishes around the market and one
token costs 500 won which is 0.4 US dollars and an average lunch box will
cost you around ten tokens okay so what you do is you go and exchange your real
money for these tokens and pay for your food in the market you can walk down and
choose whatever you want and all the different vendors will put the different
food into your into your lunch box yes it's more like a buffet yeah it sounds
like it but how exactly did they come up with such a unique and wonderful idea
well the manager of the Jaap stone cafe actually told me about the reasoning
behind this let's take a listen we were thinking of how to make the most out of
the good infrastructure of the marketplace and decided to promote
market food then we thought of a special idea that has historical significance
and that could be recyclable and that's how we started using these brass coins
okay well good for the environment as well because the vendors can change them
back and then they can be used again the next day and it sounds cheap only around
50 cents for part of a meal and then around ten dollars for a full one
definitely a unique experience for foreign tourists if they come to Korea I
must say it's the first time I've ever heard about that place so I might have
to check it out but where are you able to meet any foreign tourists while you
were there presumably this place is in the guidebooks then yes I'm in fact I
met a lot but I met a lot of them and they told me that they had a very
wonderful time and it was a good opportunity for them to learn more about
the Korean culture hmm this is amazing we can find a lot of traditional now
aside from these traditional markets Korea is also known for its underground
shopping centers have you been to them work yeah I have been to a few I think
there's either one in Dong a moon and a moon yeah the both places have them
mostly but yeah there so many shops you can literally walk around one of them
for hours on end and get lost in them but very cheap clothes what about
yourself well I also do enjoy shopping in underground shopping centers I almost
go there every weekend and I like to drop by because of its accessible
location most of them are located near subways and making them really
convenient places for people to shop for a variety of goods at very reasonable
prices yeah it's quite amazing how much you can pick up a t-shirt or a pair of
shoes for at those particular places and yes most of them are if not close to the
subway station actually inside the subway stations so you don't even have
to go outside if you don't particularly want to so where else are we talking
about today in regards to these underground shopping malls well today
we're going to go to the one of the biggest underground shopping malls named
go to mall and it's actually located it's connected to subway lines 3 7 and 9
the mall is made up of more than 600 shops that are lined up on both sides of
two long parallel quarters and the stores are mostly some 20 square meters
in size and customers can find clothing fashion accessories interior products
and also flowers along the two corridors you know I have to say that I like the
fact that in those underground Mart it's defenders there don't really bother
you pester you like they might do in other countries they just let you freely
yeah look for it a lot of the time they just kind of look disinterested when you
walk in anyway so you don't have to worry about being followed around or
anything like that you don't get pressured right and many so residents
visit these shops and but also foreign I realized that there were a lot of
foreigners visiting these underground shopping centers as well let's take a
look today is my last day in Korea and I came here to shop the products are very
cute and good quality I know a place since long time and I'm coming regularly
because there is a huge choice you can find many things the price is good some
very enthusiastic Japanese tourists they're loving the shopping here in
South Korea yes it's very good you don't all the prices are displayed so you're
not gonna get ripped up or anything like that if you don't know exactly how much
the price is going to be I don't know whether you can really haggle so much
because the price maybe you can actually you can knock a couple of dollars off
but let's talk about night markets because this really is something that is
very unique at least I think anyway to South Korea if it's 3 a.m. and you're
desperate to buy pair of shorts or something
Korea has some places where you can go yes
one of the most famous night markets that's open these days is called the
palm the cabbie night market and it's actually being held from now until late
October and the market features a wide range of handmade goods and food trucks
in six different areas such as the pond pool Hangang Park Dongdaemun design
Plaza and chunga stream the market not only allows visitors to shop for goods
but also offers experience programs including art classes for children and
movie picnics some 190 food trucks and the
360 handicraft merchandisers participate in the night market but one thing to
note is that since it's an outdoor market weather conditions could affect
operations so those of you who are interested in visiting be sure to check
out the website first yeah because it's going to be monsoon season soon here in
Korea and you don't want to make a plan to go and visit the outdoor market if
it's pouring with rain yeah as always morgana thank you ever so much for
coming into the studio and sharing a really interesting story with us and we
hope to see you again next time thank you for having me