Dongdaemun Market District
동대문 시장 일대
Today
Why go
The Dongdaemun market district is an area where several markets sit together. A comprehensive market selling fabric and garment materials, Pyeonghwa Market selling clothes, a used-book street and a stationery street are strung together around Dongdaemun Station. The name of the market comes from Dongdaemun, the nearby gate, which is Heunginjimun.
Entry & spending
Where you’ll spend
Streets & spots
History
The name Dongdaemun comes from Heunginjimun (興仁之門). It is the big gate in the east among the eight gates of the Seoul city wall. According to the Seoul Tourism Organization, Heunginjimun was completed in 1398, the 7th year of Joseon’s Taejo, and was repaired in 1869.
Pyeonghwa Market began in 1953, when the Korean War ended. According to the Korea Tourism Organization, it started when refugees who had come down from the North made clothes from military uniform cloth and sold them. The market is said to have been named Pyeonghwa, meaning peace, in the hope that there would never be war on this land again. It is also explained that this was the beginning of the many shops that make up today’s Dongdaemun Fashion Town.
Dongdaemun Dongdaemun Shopping Complex opened in December 1970. The Korea Tourism Organization introduces it as having started as the largest market of its kind in Asia and having held that position for a long time. The Seoul Tourism Organization writes that the Dongdaemun Shopping Complex is a long-standing fixture that has shared joys and sorrows with Dongdaemun Market for more than 40 years.
On the 1st floor of Pyeonghwa Market is a cluster of used bookshops. The first used bookshops in Seoul are said to have appeared in the 1960s and 70s, so this street too has stood beside Cheonggyecheon for decades.
The Dongdaemun Shopping Complex is a large specialist market selling fabric, garment materials, accessories and some wedding goods. The Seoul Tourism Organization introduces it as handling 80% of the fabric traded in the domestic market. After Cheonggyecheon was restored, more ordinary shoppers came, and accessory shops such as beads and crystal increased; on the 5th floor, handmade items such as beaded accessories, quilts and handmade dolls are gathered.
Pyeonghwa Market is a wholesale clothing mall with 2,070 shops on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors. Its hours are unusual: it opens at night so that retailers can put what they buy on their shelves the next day. The guide lists its hours as 22:00 to 18:00 the next day.
There is also a stationery and toy street nearby. About 120 shops are gathered there selling notebooks, crayons, pencils, bags, gifts for children and party supplies.
Getting there
- Subway
- Lines 1/4 Dongdaemun Station · Exit 9
- Subway
- Lines 1/4 Dongdaemun Station · Exit 8
- Address
- 서울특별시 종로구 종로 272 일대
Where next
Tips
The Dongdaemun Shopping Complex keeps different hours by type of business. Fabric and garment materials are 08:00–18:00, accessory materials 09:30–19:00, and wedding goods and home interior 08:00–19:00. The fabric and accessory shops are closed on Sundays, and the wedding goods and home interior shops are closed on the 2nd and 4th Sundays, with only these shops partly open on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sundays. On the 2nd and 4th Sundays the whole market is closed. It is also closed for the summer holiday, Chuseok, Lunar New Year and New Year’s Day. Exit 9 of Dongdaemun Station connects to the Dongdaemun Shopping Complex underground.
Pyeonghwa Market is closed from 18:00 on Saturday to 22:00 on Sunday, and also over the New Year and Lunar New Year holidays, the summer holiday and the Chuseok holiday, with dates that differ each year. The nearest exit is Exit 8 of Dongdaemun Station. The used bookshops differ from shop to shop but usually stay open until about 21:00.
For a meal, you can go to Dak Hanmari Alley. Its hours are given as 10:30 to 01:00 the next day, open all year round.
Show details
- Address
- 서울특별시 종로구 종로 272 일대
- Hours
- Fabric and garment materials 08:00–18:00 · closed SunAccessory materials 09:30–19:00 · closed SunWedding goods and home interior 08:00–19:00Stationery street 08:00–19:00