Gwangjang Market to Jongmyo: A Jongno Photo Walk and the Korean on Its Signs

Jongno 3-ga to 5-ga: The Market End of Jongno

Walk east along Jongno from the Bosingak bell pavilion and the office towers soon give way to markets. The stretch between Jongno 3-ga (종로3가) and Jongno 5-ga (종로5가) is where Seoul shops for fabric, medicine, seeds and gold, and eats cheap market food. It's also full of useful Korean, because nearly every shop tells you what it sells in big letters.

The street signposts here are well labeled, and they're a good way to find your way. This one shows three markets, each with its distance in meters:

For more on how these road names and numbers work, see reading Korean street signs, and for asking the way, directions phrases in Korean.

See also: Reading Korean street signs

광장시장 (Gwangjang Market)

Gwangjang Market dates from the early 1900s — Jongno-gu gives 1904 — and the district calls it Korea's first permanent market (상설 시장, sangseol sijang), meaning it was open every day rather than on market days only. It's known for fabric, hanbok and bedding shops, and for food: Seoul's tourism site highlights 빈대떡 (bindaetteok, mung bean pancakes) and 마약김밥 (mayak gimbap, small bite-size gimbap).

종로신진시장 and Jongno's Pharmacies

A few steps from the signpost is Jongno Shinjin Market, which Seoul's city news site says was founded in 1952 and is known for its 닭한마리 (dakhanmari, whole chicken soup) alley. Around it, one thing stands out: pharmacies. Jongno has a lot of them, often several in a row, with the same character repeated on every sign.

More phrases for describing symptoms are in hospital and pharmacy Korean.

종묘상: Seed Shops Near the Shrine

Near Jongmyo you'll find something unexpected in the middle of Seoul: seed shops (종묘상, jongmyosang) and pesticide shops. This area has been a main market for a long time. Here's a small trap for readers: the 종묘 in 종묘상 is not the shrine. The dictionary lists two separate words — 종묘 (宗廟), the royal ancestral shrine, and 종묘 (種苗), "seeds and seedlings." Add 상 (商, "merchant") and you get a seed dealer.

종묘 (Jongmyo Shrine): Check the Day Before You Go

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Jongmyo is the shrine where the spirit tablets of Joseon's kings and queens are kept. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, and its royal ancestral rite and music (종묘제례, Jongmyo Jerye) were recognized by UNESCO in 2001. To keep the site quiet, most days you can't just wander in:

Opening hours change with the season: 9:00–18:00 from February to May and in September and October, until 18:30 from June to August, and until 17:30 from November to January. Ticket sales stop an hour before closing. Admission is 1,000 won; foreign visitors aged 18 and under or 65 and over enter free, and so does anyone wearing hanbok — traditional or modern everyday hanbok both count, as long as it's a full outfit: a hanbok top (저고리, jeogori) with a hanbok skirt or trousers. A hanbok jacket over jeans, or hanbok trousers with a T-shirt, doesn't count. The same rule applies at the four palaces and the royal tombs.

세운상가 (Sewoon Sangga)

Across Jongno from Jongmyo stands Sewoon Sangga. Seoul's city news site describes it as Korea's first mixed-use residential and commercial building, built in 1967 and designed by architect Kim Swoo-geun, and for decades it was the place to buy and fix electronics. The city started a regeneration project called 다시·세운 (dasi seun) in 2014, and today it uses the name Makercity Sewoon.

귀금속: Jongno's Jewelry Street

Jongno is famous for its jewelry shops. Jongno-gu calls the area a complete jewelry complex where pieces are designed, made and sold, and says it grew from the 1930s. The signs are a short course in shop Korean:

환전: Do You Need to Change Money?

You'll see exchange booths (환전소, hwanjeonso) near Gwangjang Market and exchange machines like this one. Honestly, you don't strictly need them: in Korea you can do almost everything with a credit card and no cash. Market stalls and street vendors may prefer cash, but very few of them don't take cards. If you want mobile data too, the U+ shops you'll pass belong to one of Korea's three major carriers — see getting a Korean SIM card.

Back-Alley Transport: Cargo Bikes and 리어카

Step off the main road into Jongno's back alleys and you'll see how goods actually move around the markets.

The hand cart is usually called 리어카 (rieoka). The Standard Korean Language Dictionary lists it as coming from English "rear car" and defines it as a small two-wheeled cart pulled by a person or hitched behind a bicycle.

공항버스: The Airport Bus Stop

Airport buses sometimes share a stop with city buses, but they often have separate stops like this one, so look for the 공항버스 sign. Route 6002 runs between Cheongnyangni, Jongno, Hapjeong and Incheon Airport. Its operator lists the airport-bound Jongno stops as 종로6가, 종로3가, 종로2가 and 종로1가, and we remember this stop being on the way in from the airport; check the route page for which direction stops here. The adult fare is 17,000 won. For city buses, see how to ride a bus in Seoul.

A Short Route

• Start at Jongno 5-ga Station (종로5가역) and find the signpost pointing to 광장시장 and 신진시장.
• Walk through Shinjin Market and count the 약 signs on Jongno.
• Cross to Gwangjang Market for lunch.
• Walk west past the seed shops to Jongmyo — not on a Tuesday.
• Finish at Sewoon Sangga and the jewelry shops toward Jongno 3-ga.

Dongdaemun, the old East Gate, is the next stop east along Jongno — see our Dongdaemun walk.

Related Knowledge

• Reading Korean street signs
• Hospital and pharmacy Korean phrases
• How to ride a bus in Seoul
• Asking for directions in Korean