On my last trip to Seoul, I was doing some historic research in Bukcheon (North Village). This section of the city is near the Hyundai Group headquarters. Since this part of the city was once home to many government officials and elites during the late Choson dynasty, a number of traditional Korean home exist.
Anyway, after a morning walking tour studying homes in Bukcheon, I planned to trek over to Insadong for lunch. Enroute I came upon Nakwon shopping area.
Here is a great article on this shopping area. It also provides some insights in urban living.
Right in the epicenter of Seoul, there is the Nakwon shopping center, whose first floor is a four-lane road full of people and cars coming and going everyday. The second and third floors are the well known for anything from a Stradivarius to a synth and drums. But an excursion into the lower depths of this rambling warren of a building reveals a living, breathing traditional market born some 40 years ago.
In the midst of its 1960s economic boom, the city of Seoul made plans to erect an "ultramodern" 15-story building at the site with sublevels and floors 2-5 going to the land's owners, floors 6-15 apartments to be turned over to a construction company, and the ground floor open to the street. In the near 3,300 sq.m subterranean market, there are around 130 shops, from the Orient butcher shop to shops called Piggy and Reunification, all retaining their original names.
The busiest time of day at the market is mid-evening, when the drinking spots and Guksu (noodle) restaurants in the center of the shops start to fill up. Each have about five or six four-person tables loaded up with a couple bottles of rice wine, a $5.00 side dish of pork alongside a similarly priced fried pancake-like snack -- the entire feast should only cost a group of three or four some $20.
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