7 Dongdaemun Shopping Tips and Tricks You Might Not Know

Are you bored of my Korea content yet? HAHA. I hope not because I still have lots to share with you guys!

Anyways, when you talk about Seoul, you’ll also link it to shopping at Dongdaemun (동대문) – usually clothes, Myeongdong (명동) – usually makeup and skincare, Hongdae – also Hongik University (홍대), Sinchon (신촌), Edae – also Ewha University (이대).

The list goes on, there are really a lot of shopping, for girls especially.

But today, I’ll be sharing my tips on shopping in Dongdaemun.

There are also actually tips you can use elsewhere too.

Specifically, I’ll be talking about Good Morning City, Hello apM and Migliore (pronounced mil-li-o-re) Shopping Malls for point 1-4.

If you google them, you’ll probably see the VisitKorea website explaining about it.

Details or directions to the places can be easily found on their website!

Before we get started, I’ll state that I am blogging about this from a tourist perspective.

And since I’ve been here 3 times (lol) with different groups of people each time I went to Korea, here are my tips!

You can see Lotte Fitin (good ol shopping mall), Good Morning City and Hello apM in view from this picture I took 2 years back.

1. They are both buildings with many levels of shopping. They sell both wholesale and also to normal customers.

Referring to Good Morning City & Hello apM.

That’s why you shouldn’t readily trust them when they say a certain product (that doesn’t seem to have a clear price tag) is say 30,000 won. They usually markup the price when they know you are foreigners or tourists.

You’ll realise when you start grimacing (I did lol when a pair of flats were 38,000 won) and walking away that they start telling you they’ll give it to you cheaply if you use cash.

The man gave even more discount when I started looking at the other shoes. They may seem pushy (I mean, THEY ARE very) and persistent about how nice and of good quality their products are but eventually, they are all trying to make a living.

From what I see, compared to the previous times I went, they don’t seem to have as much of a business nowadays.

If you want to bargain, don’t go too overboard as well haha.

If you want to try bargaining, read on.

2. When they start talking to you and you feel obliged to answer, but you’re not really interested.

Not really interested is the keyword.

Smile and move on. LOL. Pretend you don’t understand what they are speaking. If they speak English or Mandarin or whatever they think you can understand, just smile or talk to your friend.

(I don’t advise you to walk alone here haha, it can get a little scary.)

If you realise that they don’t sell things you’re interested in, just walk away. Once you start talking to them, it’s kind of hard to get out because of how much they try to interact with you.

Your eyes need to work fast. I don’t really like shopping here because of how stressful it gets sometimes.

But this is for the you who wants to give these places a try.

Also, because of how persuasive they are, when you eventually tell them that it’s okay after a 5 minutes walk around their shop, they might get mad because they wasted 5 minutes trying to persuade you.

I’m not trying to put them in a bad light but they are all personal experiences. I even got cursed at in Korean when I walked away. Lol. They thought I didn’t understand because I didn’t say a word.

3. When you find a shop that sells what you like or you’re just looking around to find something that you may like.

This is when you willingly walk into their shop on your own will.

8/10, nope make it 9/10 of the shop owners will walk towards you or give you some attention.

They usually start with asking you to look around and telling you their promotions.

Maybe 2 shirts for 10,000 won etc. 10,000 won is Man-Won (만원) in Korean.

20,000 won is Ee-Man-Won (이만원).

Btw, Man is the mun from ‘Mundane’ and Won is pronounced like the word ‘Worn‘.

If it’s 100, 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 won, they don’t add the 1 in front, so it’s Baek, Cheon, Man, and Ship Man won.

(See below)

Also, Ship Man won is pronounced as Shim Man won. This is a little confusing but it’s their way of making things easy to pronounce.

One small example is the Hallyu Wave. Hallyu is actually written as 한류 – Han Ryu, but they pronounce it as Hallyu because it flows better.

Keeping that in mind, I made an image for easy reference if you ever need it. Save it or screenshot it, it’s better to get acquainted with knowing money in Korea so you won’t get cheated because you can’t read it.

4. Asking for further discounts if you feel like the situation calls for it.

If you cannot speak Korean or enough to hold a conversation, using this sentence might help you in many situations.

깎아 주시면 안돼요? (Kkakka ju shi me-on ah-n do-ae yo?) / 깎아 주세요! (Kkakka ju se yo!)

Translates to “Is it not possible to give me a discount?” / “Give me a discount!”

The second one sounds a bit straightforward but rude so I usually use the first one. But if you’re a foreigner, they would get your point and know you don’t mean to be rude (I hope HAHA).

If you’ve asked that and still think it’s expensive, just add either of these words in front:

더 (Deo – pronounced more like Tor, especially if it’s the first word of the sentence, meaning ‘more’).

좀 더 (Jom is a short form for 조금 (jo-geum) which means ‘a little’ – so this two words together (Jom Tor) mean ‘a little more’ …)

In Korean, the first word usually sounds stronger.

If I have to explain, the word Gangnam (강남) is actually pronounced Kang-Nam rather than a soft G.

I’ve heard many people pronounce it as Gangnam, which they are not totally wrong because the character ㄱ in 강남 can be G or K.

Even though there is a ㅋ character in Hangeul (Korean alphabets) which is more like K, it means a different thing when put together with other characters.

Don’t ask me why things are that way, haha. I’m self-taught.

Kamsahamnida (감사합니다) is also pronounced with a usual sharper sound like K rather than Gamsahamnida.

So hard to put this in English in order for you guys to pronounce it accurately. But you can try getting Google translate to read it out for you!

You should be able to get the idea.

If all else fails, download Papago, it provides pretty accurate translation in which you can just show your phone to the person if you can’t read it out.

5. There are also other Shopping Malls that sell clothes, makeup, accessories such as…

Lotte Fitin, Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) and Doota Mall.

Lotte Fitin is the typical fashion shopping mall, so they sell things that cannot be bargained but if you’re in the area, why not!

(It’s in the picture I shared above)

Dongdaemun Design Plaza on the other hand, is a really cool place to even just take photos of.

Pictured here is just a portion of the DDP Building.

They sell things too but more on the creative side and have a beautiful cafe situated inside.

The toilets inside are also so clean and chic. Sometimes if you’re lucky, there may be a flea happening right outside, or a fashion show going on if you come during Fashion Week.

It’s quite big and a pity I didn’t take more pictures of it. 🙁

Left building is the Migliore Shopping Mall that I mentioned for point 1-4. The right building is Doota.

Doota (두산타워 – Doosan Tower, hence Doota) is another big fashion mall which provides tax-refund service right in the mall.

There are also promotions for makeup and skincare shops.

Clothing is also available along with the Line Friends Store if you’re interested in the cute characters.

This place was more on a higher-end side so I only shopped at the cosmetic shops in Doota.

6. See if you’re in time for the Seoul Bamdokkaebi Night Market (서울 밤도깨비 야시장) in DDP!

Screen grabbed from https://www.bamdokkaebi.org/?_l=en

This particular picture from the slideshow is probably from the Night Market at DDP, judging from the structure of the building behind.

I didn’t go to DDP’s but I went to the one at Yeouido (orange tab on the bottom left of the picture).

Which I will post about another time because I really enjoyed sitting in that area enjoying the breeze in the hot summer.

It has been posted here! : Seoul Bamdokkaebi Night Market (서울 밤도깨비 야시장) in Yeouido

There are other places and different timings, so do check it out before you go!

7. Have a Shake Shack in Doota while you’re in Dongdaemun

I don’t come from a country that grew up having Shake Shack so when I got the chance this time since I was in Korea, I went to get one!

Except I didn’t get it from this location. I got it on my last day in Incheon International Airport before I went back to Singapore haha.

Hmm, the price definitely doesn’t resonate with me and I wouldn’t really go back to try it again. But who knows, it could suit your taste so give it a try if you too didn’t have Shake Shack in your home country! 🙂

They have a few branches in Korea so do your research!

And that’s the 7 tips I have for you while you shop in Dongdaemun.

Hopefully I didn’t leave any exciting activities out so if you ever get to Korea, have a look at Dongdaemun!

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