Korea Seoul Trip – Shopping heaven

We are staying at ShinShin Hotel in Jung-Gu for 4 nights. ShinShin hotel is one of the top hotels in Seoul recommended by Tripadvisor. I am doing a luxury trip since I am travelling with my mum! The hotel is in very good location – Myeongdong shopping district is within 10 minutes walking distance and Namdaemun Market is only 5 minutes away.

Myeongdong shopping district is the heaven for women! It is a very popular shopping street in Seoul. There are countless cosmetic and skin care products here. Basically, you can find anything that you ever need to apply to your skin at this place. The atmosphere here is good – the road is wide and clean. It is really pleasant to browse around here. There are also many street foods so that you won’t feel hungry. I can spend forever here but since my mum is not interested in those products, I only spent about 2-3 hours. If I visit South Korea again, I will definitely visit this place again.

Many shops are selling the same thing. There are 3,4 ‘Nature Republic’ (the shop’s name) at the same street! There are also many different brands selling the same products. So, you should browse in many different shops and do a comparison before you decide to buy. There are endless choices here.

I bought more than 100 face masks! (I am giving away most of them as souvenirs because I do not have so many faces) There are many types of masks and some of them are very cheap. The one I bought only cost NZD$0.60 per mask! It would have cost a few times more if I bought in other countries, and I think the quality is good.

I bought a lot of cosmetic products too. I am not good at putting makeup but I really want to learn. I also bought some interesting things, such as foot masks (never realised that out foot need to apply masks!) and peeling liquid that can remove dead skin cells from the foot.

I heard from other people that Myeongdong shopping district is not the cheapest place to shop. However, it is a concentrated place with a lot of choices. Also, the price is not too expensive so it is a really great choice for travellers.

The only thing that I do not like here is that some of the staffs are too aggressive. For example, I browsed at a shop for quite a while and only bought two small bottles of hand cream (but at least I bought something), then I felt that the stuff was not happy as I can easily tell from her face. Also, when I walked on the street, a staff approached me and gave me a free sample of her shop’s product. She kept talking to me but I was busy using my phone so did not entertain her. Then she took the free sample back! I think it was a bit rude.

I eat porridge because I am still sick. Why am I always sick when travelling? >.<

Namdaemun market is a very different place as compared to Myeongdong shopping district. Namdaemun market is a very large and crowded market – it looks like night market but it is actually open from morning to night. There are a lot of variety in this market. I can see that there are a lot of stalls selling clothing, shoes, bags and many apparels. There are also a lot of street food and restaurants. The road here is quite narrow and I feel warmer here.

So many shoes here… I guess the shop owners here must be very busy!!

I quite enjoy walking at Namdaemun Market 🙂

You can even buy vegetables here!

My mother and I walked around the Myeongdong area on the next day. The street in Jung-Gu is much wider as compared to Jongno-Gu, and I did not rely much on GPS here.

I actually like both Jung-Gu (near Myeongdong) and Jongno-Gu, both of them are unique. Jung-Gu is a greater choice for shoppers or some people who want a more comfortable trip. Jongno-Gu is more suitable for people who are interested in culture and sightseeing. Anyway, Jung-Gu and Jongno-Gu are not that far away from each other.

We visited Lotte Mall which is one of the largest shopping malls in Seoul.

My mother did not allow me to have spicy food, so I had this rice with octopus and vegetables. Not too bad…

I look very blur >.<

The things at Lotte Mall are very expensive. We were in duty-free department stores but the things were still expensive as compared to the things I bought from Myeongdong shopping district (same products). Also, the shopping mall is SUPER crowded. There were a lot of Asian queuing to buy things here. I do not recommend shopping in the shopping malls (unless raining?)

As most of the people know, Korean female does not go out without putting a makeup. I noticed most of the Korean ladies are beautiful and I was a bit jealous. Well, everyone is different. This is their culture. For me, I think it is quite tired to put makeup and dress up every day. But I think it is always good to learn. 🙂