Seoul, Korea - Shopping details~

What's up? hahah. I gave up doing my 16D15N trip to Seoul in the day-by-day format hence I am gonna just gonna summarize the whole thing into different activities. ^-^

Theme for this post will be the shopping areas in Seoul, my favourite place and down to my least favourite. You will realise that Dongdamun (extremely overpriced as I've heard) and Namdaemun are out of the list because I did not visit those 2 places.

So I woke up on the 23rd Dec (2nd day of my trip) and got ready to meet my Unnie at the Express Bus Terminal subway station. Basically, unnie stays in Incheon and she took the bus down to Seoul to meet me and brought me around for my first shopping trip in Seoul. 

Shopping Stop #1: Gangnam Underground Shopping Mall

How to get there: Take subway line 3, 7 or 9 to the Express Bus Terminal, exit 8.

My other Korean friend told me that the Underground Shopping Mall recently opened back and it was previously closed for a couple of years which probably explains why it's mainly visited by the locals and not many tourists. Less tourists = Less English or Mandarin speaking staffs so don't expect to be another Dongdaemum or Myeongdong. If you have any Korean friends, ask them to bring you there for easy communication and probably get some discounts! 

The whole underground mall is so huge, you can spend some time walking around and looking at stuff. I am the sort who walks around the whole place first before I start buying anything, so I spent like half a day there. haha! If you head to Seoul during Winter like me, the puffy down jacket I was wearing is not gonna be enough for you to keep warm in Seoul. That jacket belongs to my sister-in-law and I borrowed from her, she got it in Singapore for a couple of hundred dollars and it's useless in Seoul. haha. So my unnie told me to get another jacket for winter which cost me less than SGD 100.... 

I look retarded. LOL!

Walk around some more and the prices of the stuff there cost between 5,000 won to 100,000 over won. I actually went to Gangnam Underground Shopping Mall thrice in during my trip! hahha. No I am not joking plus every time I go, I end up buying things. I have absolutely no idea why shopping is so hard to resist when you're there.

The mall is located underground (like obviously), the upper levels are actually the Shinsaegae Departmental Store. I didn't walk around the store so if you would like to take a look, by all means travel upwards. ^-^

[I found a blog with more pictures and other info on the Underground mall, please visit http://discoveringkorea.com/2009/07/10/gangnam-underground-shopping-arcade/] 

Shopping Stop #2: Ewha Womans' University/Sinchon Subway Station
How to get there: Subway Line 2, get off at either Ewha Womans Uni Station or Sinchon Station.

I got off at Sinchon Station and started walking around. Some items sold here can also be found at Myeongdong but this place has more designs! You will love this place. Mass spam of pictures of the items I bought here~ As you look through the pictures, make a guess at how much each item might have cost me.

Got 2 of these, 1 for a friend. ^-^

So.... How much do you think the items cost me? hehehhe. Each item above only cost me 10,000 won each which is approximately SGD 12 each. The prices here are actually the same as those you can find at Myeongdong or the Gangnam Underground Shopping Mall but like I've mentioned, there are more designs here at Sinchon area so visit this place first! ^-^  Oh and if you're wondering why I got so many tops and bags, they are not all for myself, most of them are for friends.

Shopping Stop #3: MyeongDong

How to get there: Take subway line 4 get off at MyeongDong station, exit 6.

No pictures for this place because I didn't have much chances to take my camera out and snap pictures. hahhaha. This is the heaven for tourists, you need Mandarin/English/Japanese speaking staffs, you go to MyeongDong and you will have no worries. I basically got myself a lot of cosmetics here from Natural Republic (I will probably do a separate post on this brand and the products after using them more here in Singapore). Discounts and cosmetics shop every where, at every corner! No joke, you'll never find your way if you try to use any cosmetic shop as your guide so please don't do that. 

I've gone to MyeongDong thrice during my trip as well and I love it there! If you are into KPOP, you get SPAO, EverySing Shop, Kstory and some CDs shops here. I went into all of those shops and they were amazing, I'm no longer a crazy fan or I never really was a crazy fan, so I don't go in to those shops and scream or whatsoever. I just look at them and decide if I want to get anything. haha! Which remind me, I do have some pictures! 

From kstory

Super Junior's Heechul merchandises

Bought this from Zara from Kstory! hahah

Kstory from what I've heard, is open by Super Junior's Heechul's sister and they sell other kpop stars items other than SJ. They just have a special Heechul corner in the shop and Heechul merchandises as seen in the pictures above.

When I went back to MyeongDong again for the 2nd time, I walked really long and went around to every corner to look at the stuff they have. I made the right choice for sure because I managed to get myself and a friend tops for 8,000 won each (Approximately SGD 9.30) and I managed to grab some tops for my blogshop which I will be setting up with my friend, Min Min. heh. Pause here, Min min is the one I got the knitted top for and this 8,000 won top as well. hahha. She's paying me for some while I got some stuff for her as well. So support us when our blogshop is set up? =DD

End this post with Haechi, the Seoul's Mascot! heheh. That's basically my top 3 favourite place to shop in Seoul, will do up another post for the others which I did not shop at actually, I just roam around. haha.