Neighborhood
[Local Guide] Mangrove Neighborhood Market Tour
Sungin-dong and Sinseol-dong, home to Mangrove's first and second coliving houses, are neighborhoods where the layers of Seoul's history have settled, one on top of another, over time.
Transit lines that reach every corner of Seoul, a handful of old historic sites still standing, restaurants that have kept the same recipe for decades, and above all, a cluster of Seoul's most iconic traditional markets. From a market where you can find absolutely anything to flea markets hiding vintage treasures, here's our tour of the markets around Mangrove.
Gyeongdong Market, Home to a Starbucks and a Culinary Class Wars Chef
20 minute walk from Mangrove Sinseol
First stop: Gyeongdong Market, stretching from Jegi-dong Station to Cheongnyangni Station and the largest traditional market in Seoul. It grew out of a 1960s marketplace where farmers and fishers from Gyeonggi and Gangwon sold their goods after arriving at Cheongnyangni train station, eventually becoming what you see today. The name literally means "the market east of Seoul." People often lump it together with Cheongnyangni Market next door.
Cheap, varied food is part of the draw, but the real magnet is the Starbucks Gyeongdong 1960 branch, built inside the old Gyeongdong Theater. You'll spot just as many travelers who came from across the city as neighbors picking up groceries.
Looking for a good meal? Head into the Gyeongdong Market New Building. Look closely between the rows of stalls and you'll spot the entrance, packed with side dish shops and home-style restaurants that won't break the bank. One spot, run by an owner who appeared on Culinary Class Wars, is mobbed every single time. The barley bibimbap and cabbage pancake places nearby are just as comforting. You really can't go wrong here.
Seoul Yangnyeongsi, the Market That Runs Korea's Herbal Medicine Trade
3 minute walk from Gyeongdong Market, 15 minute walk from Mangrove Sinseol
Cross just one street from Gyeongdong Market and a very distinctive smell greets you. That's Seoul Yangnyeongsi right next door, the market that handles 70 percent of all herbal medicine distributed in Korea. It started when herbal medicine merchants, once clustered around Jongno, gradually regrouped here near Gyeongdong Market. Fitting for a market built on herbal medicine, there's an Oriental Medicine Museum right in the middle, where you can also try a cup of medicinal tea.
Walking through, you'll spend a good chunk of time just staring at herbs and medicine pots you've never seen before. Beyond the specialized herbal shops, the streets in and around the market are lined with stalls selling grains and health foods like lemon extract. Pick up a few on your way home. Your parents will probably love them.
Hwanghak-dong Flea Market, Built Up From the Aftermath of War
23 minute walk from Mangrove Sinseol, 20 minute walk from Mangrove Sungin
Ever wonder why it's called a flea market? One theory says it's because the secondhand goods are old enough to have fleas. Another says it's because merchants used to hop around the country like fleas, hunting down items to sell. These days, hygiene's a lot better, so your odds of meeting an actual flea are slim. But Hwanghak-dong Flea Market still delivers on the promise: a genuine thrill of digging through rare, oddball finds.
Machine motors, commercial refrigerators, vintage furniture, old payphones: things you don't run into in everyday life line the streets here. The market got its start after the war, when refugees gathered to buy and sell scrap and slowly built a life around it. Shops used to pile junk so high at their entrances that the alleys turned pitch dark, dark enough that people nicknamed it "Goblin Market," joking that a goblin might jump out of one of those shadowy storefronts.
There's an antique shop that's spent 40 years collecting and repairing nothing but grandfather clocks, another that's been selling decades' worth of collected LPs. Every object here has passed through countless hands before landing back on a shelf, getting a new life each time.
Seoul Folk Flea Market, Like Stepping Into a Period Drama
10 minute walk from Mangrove Sinseol, 15 minute walk from Hwanghak-dong Flea Market
Seoul Folk Flea Market was originally part of Hwanghak-dong Flea Market, but after getting bounced around through 1980s urban redevelopment and the 2000s Cheonggyecheon restoration, it eventually settled where it stands now. It's smaller than Hwanghak-dong.
What it lacks in size, it makes up for with antiques that look straight off a film set. We couldn't fit half of the jaw-dropping finds into our camera frame.
Dongmyo Flea Market, Birthplace of "Dongmyo Fashion"
15 minute walk from Mangrove Sinseol, 10 minute walk from Mangrove Sungin
Our last stop is Dongmyo Flea Market, the elder statesman of Seoul's flea markets and a fixture on the city's tourist trail for years now. Where Hwanghak-dong leans toward furniture and refrigerators for shops and factories, Dongmyo is all about vintage clothing, accessories, and interior odds and ends. Locals have a half-joking, half-serious name for the vintage style you'll find here: "Dongmyo fashion."
The name Dongmyo comes from a historic shrine of the same name inside the market, built to honor Guan Yu, the general from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Rows of street stalls lined up under a Joseon-era wall, with shoppers haggling away, make for one of the more entertaining scenes in the city.
If you're heading to Dongmyo for a vintage hunt, don't go too late in the day. Most of the bigger shops start closing around 5pm. If you want to browse at an easy pace while snacking on misugaru or toast from a street stall, an early afternoon visit is your best bet.
Written by Juneha Park
Photo by Kooyon Kim, Seokhyeon Lee
