Markets and Shopping - The Seoul Guide

Bangsan Baking Market

Bangsan Baking Market is a traditional wholesale market where you can find some of the best baking and cooking supplies used by chefs all across Seoul. Over 500 stores supply professional chefs and home cooks with various baking and cooking items at competitive wholesale prices. Other items sold here include packaging, shipping, printing, and manufacturing goods.

Changsin-dong Toy Wholesale Market

Cheongnyangni Fruits And Vegetables Wholesale Market

Chungmuro Pet Street

Chungmuro Pet Street is a group of pet stores with dogs and cats, animal hospitals, groomers, and veterinarian offices located east of Chungmuro Station. The collection of markets is located along Toegye-ro street just outside exit 1 of the subway station. The market was first established in the 1970s. Locals call the area "Aewangyeon Market" which means "Puppy Market."

Daehangno Philippine Market

Daehangno Philippine Market is a unique Sunday street market in Hyehwa-dong that sells groceries, food, snacks, and other products from the Philippines. If you are looking for hard to find products of the Philippines, then this is your one stop spot in all of Seoul. There is nothing else like it in the city.

Dapsimni Antique Market

Dongdaemun Market

The best time to visit is at night, especially on the weekends, when it is most crowded and alive. Learn to bargain. Usually you can haggle down the price of an item by 20%. Shopping here is 24/7 but many shops are closed on Mondays. Dongdaemun Market is a large commercial district consisting of over 20 shopping malls and traditional markets, 30,000 shops, 50,000 manufacturers.

Dongmyo Flea Market

With about 600 stalls, Dongmyo Flea Market is one of Seoul’s largest flea markets and a popular place to shop for vintage clothing, antiques, secondhand goods, and hidden treasures. Located around Dongmyo Shrine, the market is known for its affordable prices, retro atmosphere, and wide variety of interesting finds. If you are looking for unique or one-of-a-kind items, Dongmyo Flea Market is worth adding to your Seoul itinerary.

Garak Mall

Garak Mall, formerly Garak Market, is a large public wholesale market that sells a large selection of meats, fresh and cheap seafood, and fruits and vegetables. This large market, which opened in 1985, measures in at 543,451 square meters (5,849,657 square feet). Each type of product is separated into its own section. There are sections for seafood, meat, fruits, and vegetables.

Geumnam Market

Geumnam Market, located in Geumho-dong near Geumho Station, is a traditional market that dates back to 1949, before the Korean War. Urbanization and redevelopment have changed Geumho-dong for the better and the worse, but the market and surrounding areas remain unchanged. Today, the market maintains a hip, mid-90s vibe, untouched by time and development.

Gwangjang Market

Gwangjang Market, one of the oldest traditional markets in Seoul, is popular with foreign visitors looking to sample some of the best Korean street foods. If you are looking for an authentic Korean cultural experience, along with some of the best bindaetteok in the city, then look no further. The market, first established in 1905, is today the oldest remaining daily market in Korea.

Hongdae Free Market

The Hongdae Free Market is a fun and unique arts and crafts market where artists, performers, musicians, and visitors can interact face to face. Artists from all over Korea, and even from other countries, meet here each Saturday from March to November. These artists display and show visitors their own works of arts and crafts.

Hwagae-gil Shoes Street

Hwanghak-dong Flea Market

Hwanghak-dong Flea Market is just a short walk south of Dongmyo Flea Market, but it has a very different feel. While Dongmyo is known for secondhand clothing, Hwanghak-dong has more of a mix of antiques, collectibles, hardware, cameras, tools, and household items. The market is centered around the streets near Cheonggyecheon Stream and Seoul Central Market, within walking distance of both Sindang Station and Dongmyo Station.

Jungbu Dried Seafoods Market

Jungbu Dried Seafoods Market is one of the best shopping spots to find large assortments of dried seafood at prices 30% less than other places in Seoul. Dried seafood items sold here include laver (seaweed), anchovies, squid, pollack, and more. The size of the items vary from the very small to large, full fish.

Junggok Jeil Market

Lotte Mart at Seoul Station

This is the Lotte Mart at Seoul Station branch. This location sells groceries, daily goods, fashion items, office supplies, apparel, jewelry, and more.

Majang Meat Market

Namdaemun Market

Namdaemun Market, first opened in 1964, is the largest traditional market in Korea, with over 10,000 retailers, vendors, and wholesalers. The market, spread over many blocks, is a dense maze of stalls, vendors, and restaurants. Nowhere else in Korea can you find such a large collection of interesting and traditional Korean items for sale in one place.

Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market

Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market, also known as Noryangjin Fish Market, is a large and vibrant fish and seafood center located in the Noryangjin-dong neighborhood near 63 Square (63 Building) and Hangang River. The market is open 24 hours a day, but it is at its best early in the morning during the auctions.

Seocho Saturday Flea Market

Seocho Saturday Flea Market is permanently closed. The market operated for more than 20 years but closed after 2019 and did not reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking for something similar? • Seoul Folk Flea Market: A large indoor flea market with secondhand goods, antiques, clothing, and vintage items. • Dongmyo Flea Market: A popular outdoor flea market known for used clothing, shoes, accessories, and bargain shopping.

Seoul Central Market

Seoul Central Market, also known as Seoul Jungang Market, is a traditional market located east of Heunginjimun Gate (Dongdaemun) that specializes in dried fish and other seafood. The market dates back to 1957, shortly after the Korean War. With over 1,000 vendors, the market has become one of the largest dried seafood and seaweed markets in Korea.

Seoul Folk Flea Market

The Seoul Folk Flea Market is a vibrant indoor flea market where you can find traditional and modern Korean folk items including clothes, tools, and food. Almost anything you can think of is sold here including new, old, rare, and vintage items that you many never find anywhere else. Before being moved indoors into the current modern building, vendors and sellers gathered in the area around the Cheonggyecheon Stream to sell their items.

Seoul Yangnyeong Oriental Medicine Market

Seoul Yangnyeong Oriental Medicine Market is one of the largest and most unique herbal medicine and ginseng markets in Korea. It dates back to 1960, only a few years after the Korean War. Today, it supplies the country with almost all of its herbal medicine ingredients. The smells here are just amazing and because of this it has become a popular spot for both tourists, who are interested and curious in oriental medicine that they have never seen or smelled before, and for locals who come here to buy exotic herbs, strange looking barks and roots, and of course, the ever so popular fresh ginseng.

Starfield COEX Mall

The Starfield COEX Mall is a large underground shopping center located south of the Han river in the World Trade Center Seoul complex in the Samseong-dong neighborhood. At over 85,000 square meters (914,000 square feet) it is the largest underground shopping center in Asia. Over 100,000 people, many of these foreign travelers, visit everyday to shop in one of the 250 stores and dine in one of the over 800 restaurants.

Techno Mart

Techno Mart is an eight floor shopping mall and marketplace with over 2,000 electronic stores selling every type of electronics, appliances, and gadgets. If you are in Seoul and you need electronics at reasonable prices, then this in your place. You can find computers, televisions, mobile phones, cameras and lenses, sound systems, computer parts, DVDs, CDs, home appliances, and more.

Times Square

Tongin Market

Tongin Market is a traditional market located west of Gyeongbokgung Palace and Seochon Village. The compact market features about 80 different shops along a 200 meter covered alleyway. In addition to restaurants and banchan shops, the market also features Korean street food stalls along with vendors selling a range of fresh produce such as vegetables, fruits, fish, and meat.

Yangjae Flower Market

Yangjae Flower Market is your one stop shop if you are looking for anything to do with gardening including plants, flowers, trees, orchids, herbs, and soil. The market opened in June 1991 and at first only sold cut flowers. When the market opened in Seocho-gu, only an auction building existed. Since then, the market has expanded to become the largest flower market in South Korea.

Yeongcheon Market

Yeongcheon Market is a small traditional market in Seodaemun-gu, located between Seodaemun Station and Dongnimmun Station. Established in the 1960s, this covered single-alley market has about 130 stores selling street food, produce, fruit, meat, seafood, toys, shoes, and more. Even though it is compact, Yeongcheon Market offers a wide range of products at affordable prices.

Yeongdeungpo Market

Yongsan Electronics Market

Yongsan Electronics Market is a collection of over 5,000 electronics and office equipment markets and stores spread across 20 buildings. If it has to do with technology, then odds you will find it here at one of the nearly thousands of independent stores in the area. Korea is not well known for having cheap gadgets.

Yongsan Flea Market

Yongsan Flea Market is permanently closed. Looking for something similar? • Dongmyo Flea Market: A popular flea market for secondhand goods, vintage clothing, accessories, and unusual finds. • Hwanghak-dong Flea Market: A secondhand market area known for used goods, antiques, tools, and everyday items. • Seoul Folk Flea Market: An indoor flea market with vintage items, collectibles, souvenirs, and old Korean goods.