Namdaemun Market

Here is one of the gates into the Namdaemun Market (남대문 시장). This market is near City Hall in Seoul. I went to this market 17 years ago with my mother and brother. It was interesting going back. I don't have a lot of memories of the first visit, but the place did seem familiar to me.

This is the kind of market where products are piled on top of products or displayed on crammed wall spaces. I saw a lot of junk, but I'm sure there are some great deals waiting to be discovered. I only spent 45 minutes or so exploring the area, so not enough time to take it all in.

There are a series of building that are connect by these walkways. Each building has 4 floors of shopping. Most of what I saw inside was household dishwares and stuff like that. One floor housed a florist shop that smelled wonderful. It was inside the buildings that I used a little of the Korean language to ask where the bathroom was located.

From one of the walkways, I took this photo of a military surplus style clothing vendor. When I get some time to go back, I'll take a closer look at what they are selling.

Here, I've pointed the camera in the other direction. This is one of the intersections of the market. You can see someone has utilized the space right in the middle for selling products.

I noticed that some shops where closing around 4pm and others were just setting up for the evening shoppers. Another thing I'd like to do is spend some time at this market after dark. I think I'll wait until I've learned a little bit more Korean before I do that.