Category: 서울시(Seoul)

Nagwon Musical Instrument Arcade has traditionally been Korea’s largest collection of music stores and is very close to Insa-dong. The second and third floors of the Nagwon building has a few hundred music stores clustered together. Wind instruments, string instruments, percussion, pianos, electric instruments, amps, speakers, karaoke machines, audio equipment, and other music equipment can be found there. Countless people are there to sell or repair instruments for beginners and experts alike.

Built in 1968, the Nagwon building is a uniquely constructed pillar based complex. On the first floor, there are hundreds of pillars with a four lane road going through them and a market below. Above the shopping area, there are apartments. On the fourth floor, there’s a theater that used to premiere films and was called the ‘Hollywood Theater’. Now, it has turned into the ‘Seoul Art Cinema’ and ‘dance musical private theater’ which play ‘Silver Theater’ films for senior citizens, independent films, and other specialty films.

Insadong-gil is “well known as a traditional street to both locals and foreigners” and represents the “culture of the past and the present”. It contains a mixture of historical and modern atmosphere and is a “unique area of Seoul that truly represents the cultural history of the nation.” The majority of the traditional buildings originally belonged to merchants and bureaucrats. Some larger residences, built for retired government officials during the Joseon period, can also be seen. Most of these older buildings are now used as restaurants or shops. Among the historically significant buildings located in the area are Unhyeongung mansion, Jogyesa – one of the most significant Korean Buddhist temples, and one of Korea’s oldest Presbyterian churches.

The area is well known for sightseeing, with approximately 100,000 visitors on Sundays reported in 2000. Insadong is also a visiting spot for foreign dignitaries such as Queen Elizabeth II and the princes of Spain and the Netherlands. It contains 40 percent of the nation’s antique shops and art galleries as well as 90 percent of the traditional stationery shops. Particularly noteworthy is Tongmungwan, the oldest bookstore in Seoul, and Kyung-in Art Gallery, the oldest tea house. There are daily calligraphy demonstrations and pansori dancing performances.

Ssamzigil, a shopping mall that concentrates in specialty stores of handcrafts, is also a prominent destination in Insadong. It opened in 2004.

Cheonggyecheon (Hangul: 청계천) is a 10.9-kilometre-long (6.8 mi), modern public recreation space in downtown Seoul, South Korea. The massive urban renewal project is on the site of a stream that flowed before the rapid post-war economic development caused it to be covered by transportation infrastructure. The $900 million project initially attracted much public criticism but, after opening in 2005, has become popular among residents and tourists.