Bukchon Hanok Village is a great destination for visitors to Seoul who are interested in seeing a village full of traditional Korean houses called ‘hanok’ that date back to the Joseon Dynasty. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about here. When you get off the Anguk metro station in Samcheongdong, you have to walk about 300m to get to the Bukchon Hanok Village through some narrow alleyways. And those alleys, I soon discovered, were delightful gems for shopaholics and caffeine addicts alike. The sheer number of interesting boutiques crammed into these few narrow alleys were just another indication of Seoul’s indisputable position as the shoppaholics’ haven. I mean, this area doesn’t even have a name or appear in any tour guides. Yet, I found such a vast range of options for clothing, shoes and accessories here in this nameless area. And I am not even going to talk about the galleries – including the World Jewellery Museum to which I regretfully didn’t have the time to go. The 300m to the Bukchon Hanok Village made me realize Seoul was a dangerous city for me to live in – I would be either bankrupt or depressed at needing to suppress my urges to shop all the time.
Categories: 2013